Every winter during the 1930s, Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington, prominent figures on the New York artistic scene, packed their dogs, monkeys and a macaw into their custom designed RV, a long aluminum travel trailer pulled by a vintage car, and, like so many snowbirds to come, made the journey south in search of warmer weather. The retreat they built for themselves just south of Myrtle Beach, SC, was uniquely suited to their needs and tastes, and unlike any other. Today, that home, Atalaya, is a National Historic Landmark and the centerpiece of Huntington Beach State Park, the most visited park in the South Carolina system.
“The Huntingtons were some of the earliest RVers,” James Revis, senior ranger at the state park, told The Buzz. “They came down every winter for over a decade, and played an important part in saving conservation and art here during the Great Depression.”
The Huntingtons were the power couple of their time. Anna Hyatt was already a well-known sculptor, specializing in equestrian statues, when the two met. Her “Joan of Arc” was installed in New York City’s Riverside Park in 1915. Archer Huntington, heir to the Southern Pacific Railroad fortune, was a prominent philanthropist and student of Spanish culture, who founded New York’s Hispanic Society of America and penned a three-volume translation of the epic Spanish poem “El Cid.”
It was El Cid that brought the couple together. Anna received a commission to create the equestrian statue of the Spanish hero which stands in the courtyard of the Hispanic Society today, on W. 155th Street in Washington Heights. By the time the statue was finished, Anna and Archer had married. She was 47 and he was 53.
Soon after, Anna developed tuberculosis and in 1929 the couple decided to seek a warmer climate for the winter months. They bought four abandoned rice plantations, once the homes of prominent South Carolina families, on Waccamaw Neck just south of the budding resort of Myrtle Beach and set out to create their own paradise among the marshes and live oak forests.
The house Archer built for his bride was entirely his own creation, built without written plans, and constructed by local workmen. The design resembles the Moorish buildings Huntington saw during his youthful wanderings in Spain. A 40-foot tower, repurposed by Archer as a water reservoir and bat roost, gave the house its name... Atalaya, Spanish for “watchtower.”
Atalaya faced a deserted white sand beach. At the time, the ocean came farther inland, just 15 yards from the patio.
“They could hear the waves from their windows,” Ranger Revis relates. “Anna wrote that she woke up every morning to sound of the waves and the singing of birds.”
The fortress-like walls enclosed a square garden teeming with peacocks and other exotic birds. Monkeys swarmed up the tower, and a pack of 20 deerhounds had the run of the property. Anna, who worked only from live models and preferred animals as subjects for her sculpture, was studying bears during her time at Atalaya and kept several in specially designed pens. Old Stevie, an emaciated horse Anna bought as a model for Don Quixote's steed, Rocinante, lived in the stables, when he wasn’t posing in the special sling the artist devised to hold him up while she sketched.
The Huntington’s vision didn’t stop at Atalaya’s walls. They transformed the surrounding land into a nature sanctuary, with numerous fresh and saltwater ponds to draw birds. Today Huntington Beach has the largest list of sighted bird species in the state, according to Ranger Revis. “And you can always find an alligator here,” he said.
Anna’s particular contribution to the site was a garden where her sculpture and other pieces from the couple’s large collection could be framed by natural beauty. In 1931, work was begun on a butterfly shaped garden reached by a promenade down an alley of 300-year-old live oaks, survivors from the plantation days. Brookgreen was the country’s first public sculpture garden and, today, is the nation’s largest, ever expanding into the more than 9,000 acres of marsh and woodland endowed by the Huntingtons.
Several of Anna’s sculptures are on display in the gardens, including her lyric “Diana of the Chase,” two “old horse” statues and a couple of alligators. The garden’s entrance, opposite the gates to Huntington State Park on the other side of US 17, is highlighted by Anna’s magnificent “Fighting Stallions” cast in aluminum.
“Our mission, given to us by the Huntingtons, is to collect, exhibit and preserve American sculpture and the plants and animals of the Southeast,” said Robin Salmon, curator of sculpture at Brookgreen. “We’re also telling the story of the property, of rice cultivation and the Gullah people, descended from the enslaved population who worked the plantations. During the Depression, the Huntington's were the biggest employers in the county and did a lot to help preserve the culture.”
Atalaya still stands. Its deserted cloisters and majestic palm court evoking a haunted quality. The house is empty, vine-like wrought iron grills designed by Anna the only art that remains. Guided tours offered by the Friends of Huntington Beach, included in Atalaya’s $2 admission, or self-guided audio tours, available for $4 at the entrance, put flesh on the old house’s bones.
Across US 17 lies the wonders of Brookgreen, where the magnificent gardens are now joined by a zoo of native animals, boat tours through the old rice fields, and trails to plantation graveyards. All admission tickets to Brookgreen are valid for 7 consecutive days.
A visit to Atalaya and Brookgreen offers a unique glimpse into the artistic vision of one devoted couple. Brought together by their mutual love of art and nature, Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington helped shape the South Carolina Lowcountry seen today and through Brookgreen and the state park, visitors can step back into their world.