Briarcliffe Acres, SC

Briarcliffe Acres is a tiny Horry County town between Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach, with U.S. 17 forming its northern edge and the Atlantic Ocean at the other side. The 2020 census counted 479 residents. Its origin is different from the usual beach-town story: Kenneth C. Ellsworth bought about 600 acres in 1946 with a vision for a residential and retirement community, not a strip of hotels. The first homes went up in the late 1940s and 1950s, and residents organized the Briarcliffe Acres Association before the town incorporated in 1973.

That beginning still shows in the town’s layout. More than 175 homes sit on spacious, tree-covered lots reached by a few streets from Highway 17 toward the beach, while common areas and beachfront remain part of the community’s shared story. Today, Briarcliffe Acres handles the ordinary work of a municipality—council meetings, stormwater planning, tree rules, beach regulations, and golf-cart ordinances—while Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach supply the surrounding resort economy. The town is small enough to have its own municipal rhythm, but its address puts it directly inside the Grand Strand’s traffic, development, and beach culture. Briarcliffe Acres is a residential beach town with an unusually deliberate origin story.