Huntington Beach State Park and Atalyla
Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 8:38 pmFinally found an internet connection that would let me send some more pictures to PB. I had tries to stay at Huntington Beach State Park before but found it FULL. It is located south of Myrtle Beach and is small than the state park there. I did have some air card connection...enough to check e-mails SLOWLY and I got bounced off frequently. The park is beautiful and the sites are lovely. The beach is deserted. I spoke with a couple from Raleigh that said they come down all the time. They said that even when the campground is full the beach is never crowded....
The beaches pretty much looked like this all the time. Occasionally Herschel met someone on the beach but not very often.
The dogs came off their leads and the rest is history......well Izzy didn't get off......
I walked over to the historic Atalyla (which is Spanish for Watchtower) It is very unique. It was built to provide a winter home for Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington. She was an artist particularly interested in sculptures. She also thought it was important to work from live models.......She keep a few bears and horses and monkeys....you never know when you need those. She was also known for raising Scottish Deerhounds...... The home is built in a Spanish Style and was designed by Archer. Interesting things I notices were the ramps that he built (back in the depression) that made it easier for staff to bring in the coal and the wood for all the fireplaces. Every room had one including her bathroom, of course.....
The front gates...
And after you cross the open ground near the stables and the garage area you look into the courtyard and the center passageway that crosses it and lead directly to the front foyer of the house.
Looking back at the front gate. The Huntington's had built a straight road from their front door across to the Brookgreen Gardens and to their boat dock on the coastal waterway.....
The right side of the courtyard.
Anna's outside studio..
And her inside studio with sky light.....What money can build.... It was built during the depression and employed many local people and helped keep them busy...It was sort of a private stimulus program..... Archer was known to have the workers tear down walls he didn't like and rebuild them......it did keep them employed.
A view from inside one of the windows looking into the courtyard. It stated that Anna had designed the metal work around the windows along with shutters to protect from hurricanes.
You couldn't walk up there but if you could the view of the ocean would have been fantastic. I imagine that it was a popular spot....
I like the part that besides providing for a water pressure to the home, Archer also figured out that the tower would attract bats and help with insects....
A view from one of the courtyard across the center walkway...
Archer had also built a fresh water lagoon on the property because he thought it would attract more wildlife and birds.
Birds...these are for Bethers....but don't ask me what they were. They were sitting very still.
Walking around the grounds I could imagine life in those rooms cared for by a host of servants. I figured that it would take one person full time to keep the fireplaced tended. They had a room for the laundryman, cook, head house keeper and multiple rooms for the rest of the support cast. The back of the building, where the family dined and took visitors, looks out to the beach........
The next day (as in Wednesday) I went across the road to the Brookgreen Sculpture Gardens.....so if you like sculpture you might enjoy the pictures...or then again you might be bored. The grounds are beautiful.
The beaches pretty much looked like this all the time. Occasionally Herschel met someone on the beach but not very often.
The dogs came off their leads and the rest is history......well Izzy didn't get off......
I walked over to the historic Atalyla (which is Spanish for Watchtower) It is very unique. It was built to provide a winter home for Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington. She was an artist particularly interested in sculptures. She also thought it was important to work from live models.......She keep a few bears and horses and monkeys....you never know when you need those. She was also known for raising Scottish Deerhounds...... The home is built in a Spanish Style and was designed by Archer. Interesting things I notices were the ramps that he built (back in the depression) that made it easier for staff to bring in the coal and the wood for all the fireplaces. Every room had one including her bathroom, of course.....
The front gates...
And after you cross the open ground near the stables and the garage area you look into the courtyard and the center passageway that crosses it and lead directly to the front foyer of the house.
Looking back at the front gate. The Huntington's had built a straight road from their front door across to the Brookgreen Gardens and to their boat dock on the coastal waterway.....
The right side of the courtyard.
Anna's outside studio..
And her inside studio with sky light.....What money can build.... It was built during the depression and employed many local people and helped keep them busy...It was sort of a private stimulus program..... Archer was known to have the workers tear down walls he didn't like and rebuild them......it did keep them employed.
A view from inside one of the windows looking into the courtyard. It stated that Anna had designed the metal work around the windows along with shutters to protect from hurricanes.
You couldn't walk up there but if you could the view of the ocean would have been fantastic. I imagine that it was a popular spot....
I like the part that besides providing for a water pressure to the home, Archer also figured out that the tower would attract bats and help with insects....
A view from one of the courtyard across the center walkway...
Archer had also built a fresh water lagoon on the property because he thought it would attract more wildlife and birds.
Birds...these are for Bethers....but don't ask me what they were. They were sitting very still.
Walking around the grounds I could imagine life in those rooms cared for by a host of servants. I figured that it would take one person full time to keep the fireplaced tended. They had a room for the laundryman, cook, head house keeper and multiple rooms for the rest of the support cast. The back of the building, where the family dined and took visitors, looks out to the beach........
The next day (as in Wednesday) I went across the road to the Brookgreen Sculpture Gardens.....so if you like sculpture you might enjoy the pictures...or then again you might be bored. The grounds are beautiful.
!!