Melrose Resort is a beautiful resort on the Atlantic Ocean, part of that wonderful island known as Daufuskie, the island without a bridge next to Hilton Head. There are people who live full time at Melrose in beautiful homes, and others who visit their privately-owned cottages only seasonally. However, the photos here show a deserted resort, with buildings in or at the verge of decay.The Melrose Resort, the hotel, the golf course, the restaurant, Beach Club, and some of the cottages have a challenged financial history. When hurricane Matthew struck in early October of 2016, Melrose Resort was apparently already in financial difficulty; some employees had not been paid recently and operations seemed to be winding down. Daufuskie Island was under mandatory evacuation--most people left, but a few known as the Daufuskie One Hundred stayed. When all of the approximately four hundred full time Daufuskie residents returned, Melrose Resort remained deserted. It would stay that way through another bankruptcy; there had been a previous one in 2008, and 2017 saw a change of ownership to the largest creditor.

I had photographed parts of the Resort, particularly the deserted hotel, a couple of times before Matthew, and had enjoyed lunch at the Beach Club's great little oceanside restaurant. Just a few weeks after Matthew, I again visited the Resort and started what would be numerous visits and the accumulation of images that I am sharing here along with a few observations. When you mix our warm climate, salt air and unoccupied structures, it does not take long before serious problems occur.Some photographers like me are attracted to deserted buildings, the remains of a past life. My original subtitle for this photographic study was The Deserted Ocean Resort, but that really did not fit. People still live there and love their surroundings. Beyond that, properties are changing hands, and plans are gradually being made to fix up and move forward. Hopefully what is shown here is a low point that will be looked upon at a future date simply as proof of a renewal from where the Resort came and not where it is going.

John Van HornMarch 2018.