One of the first homes ever built on this SC island drops in sales price to $3.9M. Take a look

The sales price on one of the oldest homes on Pawleys island has dropped to $3.9 million after being on the market for about a year and a half.

It’s the LaBruce Lemon House at 546 Myrtle Ave., built before the Civil War by rice planter John LaBruce and owned by generations of three families. The original asking price was $4.25 million when it was listed in March 2022.

The property includes about an acre of high ground along the Atlantic Ocean and 1.4 acres of salt marsh along Pawleys Creek. It is on the National Register of Historic Places as one of 11 original buildings on the 3-mile-long barrier island south of Myrtle Beach.

The LaBruce family built the house to escape summers — and mosquitoes — at their plantation at Murrells Inlet known then as Oak Hill. The Pawleys Island house is dated to 1848 or 1858 depending on who is being cited.

But it is known to have been located on 10 acres in what is now the Historic District and to include five cabins for enslaved people who came with the family from the plantation. Two cabins remain and one is used as a guest house.

The house also had a separate kitchen as most homes of that era did. It has since been connected to the main house with a breezeway.

In 1901, the LaBruce family sold it to Hyman and Rose Kaminski, who owned a hardware store in Georgetown. They owned the Pawleys house until 1952 when Clinton Calhoun Lemon Sr. and his wife Kathryn bought it.

Lemon of Barnwell was president of five trucking companies, his obituary says, calling the company the largest, most diversified trucking operation in South Carolina. He was also president of Gulf Coast Paving Company, Inc.

Three or four generations of Lemons have used the beach house, said historian Lee Brockington, who has written extensively about Pawleys and the surrounding area.

It has also been on the rental market, and, in fact, the sales terms include a provision it must continue as such for 90 days after issuance of the deed.

The essence of old Pawleys — that look that brought the island the moniker “arrogantly shabby” — remains despite additions, repairs and renovations.

It’s now 2,832-square-feet with six bedrooms, including the guest house, six baths with a deep wrap-around porch seeded with built-in benches, wicker and rocking chairs.

It is located between dunes and hidden behind live oaks and myrtle trees.

A wing was added to include a bedroom, bath and two half baths. It looks like the typical beach house with plenty of beds, tables and couches. A spirited card game of Spit could break out at any time.

There is a long walkway to the beach and another with a covered deck to the creek. A creek dock was built by the LaBruce family, again by the Kaminkis and still again by the Lemons, all in the same place.

The Pawleys Island Historic District was established in 1972 and the town incorporated in 1985 in an effort to keep commercial interests at bay. Even the renowned Original Hammock Shop maker of the Pawleys Island hammock is located across the causeway on the mainland.

“Although less secluded and more upscale than it was only a decade ago, Pawleys still retains quaintness and a relaxed pace which makes it a unique island along the US east coast,” the town says on its website.

“The ambiance is laid back,” it says.

They have kept the speed limit at 25 mph to accommodate walkers and cyclists. Shrimping and crabbing from creek docks remains a popular pastime, especially at dinnertime.

Here’s what the town says about night life: “dining out, long conversations on screened porches, shopping in a mainland boutique or strolling the beach.”