Bay Harbor Restaurant
Located on U. S. Hi-way 17, 14 miles So. of Myrtle Beach,
S. C. at Murrells Inlet, S. C. Specializing in Famous
Seafood platters, Steaks, Chicken, Chops, Home Made
Clam Chowder, Casseroles and Newburg. The Best in
Country Ham. Mr. & Mrs. Jimmie Eason, Owners &
Operators. Open 5:30 A.M. - Close 11:00 P.M.
Pub. by Plyler-Brandon Sales Co., Myrtle Beach, S. C.
Ektachrome by Cecil Brandon
Made by Dexter, West Nyack, N. Y.
31822-B
Bay Harbor Restaurant was constructed in 1953 by Jimmy and Dot Eason north of the Bay Harbor Motel.
Bay Harbor Restaurant was operated by the Eason family and later by Wayne Ammons until it was destroyed by fire around 1985.
(Courtesy of the Strickland family.)
Taken from the March 2012 Murrelss Inlet Messenger:
The Bay Harbor Motel was constructed around 1945 by Jimmy Eason on the west side of Hwy. 17 Bus., just north of Macklen Avenue (across from Dead Dog Saloon).
Jimmy was one of Alton Eason’s children and operated a grocery store and gas station next to the Crash Boat Station during World War II.
He built the three-story building across the street from the store he rented from Walter Macklen, and it had a grocery story and grill on the ground level, living quarters on the second floor, and rooms for rent on the third floor.
The rental rooms were accessed by a set of stairs that led to a sun porch across the front of the building on the second floor and a set of stairs from the sun porch to the third floor.
Dick Eason, one of Jimmy’s sons, remembers having one of the first television sets in the inlet on the sun porch, which became a gathering place for the neighborhood to see the events of the day on TV.
The ground floor included Jimmy Eason’s Food Store, the Bay Harbor Grill (which was moved into a free-standing restaurant he built next door in 1953), and a fish market in the rear.
Mac and Teeny Oliver operated the Bay Harbor Grill for a short period before opening up Oliver’s Lodge as a restaurant. Hoss Johnson’s mother, Jesse, worked at the Bay Harbor Grill during the 1950’s. After the Grill was moved next door, the open space was converted to a bait and tackle shop operated by Sam Barwick.
Sam started in the bait and tackle business in a building behind the Bay Harbor before he moved into the main building. He eventually relocated his bait and tackle shop to the lot where Drunken Jack’s is now standing (Snug Harbor Marina).
There was also a free standing oyster roast at the rear of the Bay Harbor Motel, which was managed by Alvia “Pops” Goodman, Dot Eason’s father and a fixture around Bay Harbor. Back during those times, oysters were cooked on a sheet of metal covered by a wet croaker sack over an open fire, and the steamed oysters were served on long tables where the patrons would stand and eat until they were full.
The motel rooms were frequented by traveling fishermen and also hosted numerous fishing boat mates and captains, including Ike White, Mike Marchant, and Bill Moeller back in the early 1960’s.
The Bay Harbor Motel was located in the center of the Murrells Inlet fishing action, across the street from Alex’s Bait and Tackle (later Alex’s Marina), where fishermen could rent a fishing boat, fish from the pier, or hire a charter boat to fish in the creek or the ocean.
Steve Strickland
Murrells Inlet History Project
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