History

The Citadel's Colonel Robert R. McCormick Beach House opened it's doors for the first time on November 30, 1958.

The facility is named after the late Colonel McCormick, former publisher of the Chicago Tribune, whose abiding interest in The Citadel was manifested in wonderfully generous and tangible forms. This interest was a direct outgrowth of the warm relationship, started in World War I, between Colonel McCormick and the late general Charles P. Summerall, president of The Citadel from 1931-1953, when they both served with the famous First Division. It is due mainly to Colonel McCormick's admiration for General Summerall that five all-expense scholarships then worth $550 each a year, were established at The Citadel by The Society of the First Division, A.E.F., when General Summerall assumed the Presidency.

In 1941 Colonel McCormick deeded to The Citadel the beautiful Aiken, S.C. estate, called Whitehall, with the stipulation that it be General Summerall's home for life. General Summerall did live there from 1953 until his death in May 1955. Whitehall was then sold in 1957, providing the major portion of the funds that made possible the Colonel Robert R. McCormick Beach Club of The Citadel.

The original beach house was a beautiful two-story house that overlooked the Atlantic, and was built behind the sand dunes on a tract of approximately five acres. On September 22, 1989, the devastating hurricane Hugo swept through the east coast and left only pieces of the beloved structure. It was three years before another beach club was opened, but today we have a structure with the same amenities that the original beach house had but in a much more modern facility.