By Overview
- Price: $$$
Local Opinion
Verdict: a private but somewhat isolated community of mostly locals across the creek from the south end of Pawleys Island
When I was a rebellious teenager, my friends and I used to drive down Waterford Road, turn around, rev up the car and accelerate as fast as we could get before we got to the turn. Even with this huge runway, our beater cars rarely could get up to any serious speed!
The road into Waterford Heights was our road of choice because it is the quietest, longest, straightest road in Pawleys Island. Though the neighborhood is a stones throw from the south end of Pawleys Island, it feels much more private.
The neighborhood is at the end of the road, but on the way end you may see deer, turkey, or other wildlife. The entrance to Waterford Heights is largely surrounded by a nature preserve owned by the Waterford Partnership, with the rest of it butting up to Pawleys Plantation. This buffer adds to the private feeling of the neighborhood.
All that privacy comes at a (small) cost: you won’t be walking or really biking anywhere. While not as far from everything as Debordieu, you do have to hike out any time you want to go anywhere. I timed it the other day, and driving Waterford Road takes about three and a half minutes. Not that bad if you’re used to a city commute!
There aren’t a whole lot of homes back here, but the homes that do exist all reflect a unique character of the place. Many of the homes were built by locals many years ago, and those locals haven’t found much reason to move. Some of the homes on Waterford Road, Old Tram Way, and Mourning Dove Drive are waterfront along the dead-end salt creek that flows from Pawleys Creek. This creek gets pretty dry at low tide, but at high tide the creek carries enough water to get a small boat in and out. Like all salt creeks, it poses the risk of flooding during storm surge events like hurricanes.
It’s also worth noting that Mourning Dove and Old Tram are both dirt roads. When I was growing up here, there were a lot of dirt roads, but now there are fewer and fewer, probably because folks don’t like them.
Here’s a time-lapse of me driving from the community back to the highway. The drive took me about three minutes and thirty seconds going the speed limit.