The Historic Town of Atlantic Beach bordering the Atlantic Ocean and sandwiched by the city of North Myrtle Beach has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The addition of the town’s historic district onto the national register was announced in January by the National Park Service, describing the area as “generally bounded by Wiley Drive, 29th Avenue South, 32nd Avenue South and the Atlantic Ocean.”

The town says 72 properties within Atlantic Beach have retained their structure and character for over 50 years, contributing to the history of Atlantic Beach.

A Grand Strand community organized as a safe haven for Blacks during the Jim Crow era is one of America’s newest landmarks.

Atlantic Beach was established as an isolated and separate development from other local beach communities. Prohibited from visiting other areas beaches, African-Americans established Atlantic Beach as a refuge from the burdens of Jim Crow-era segregation, free from constant reminders of a marginalized daily existence,” the town’s 84-page application says.

Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Atlantic Beach would become a destination for top Black musicians, who frequented its clubs and restaurants: Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, Al Green, Little Richard, Tina Turner, Marvin Gaye and James Brown among them.“The Atlantic Beach Historic District is one of only a few remaining historic Black resort towns in the United States,” its application states. “Furthermore, Atlantic Beach is the only historically Black beach resort town to remain governed and owned by a majority Black community in the present day.”