On today’s podcast, we are stepping back in time to the 1930s, when the Sea View Inn—one of two remaining inns on Pawley’s Island—was first built. Hurricane Hazel destroyed the building, which sits on the beach, in the 1950s, but it was rebuilt to its original footprint in 1956. That structure remains standing today, and its interior is a reflection of what life was like at the inn nearly 70 years ago.

Visitors at the Sea View Inn feel like they’ve stepped back in time. There is no AC in the main building; guests are encouraged to open their windows to the sea breeze on warm nights. Guests are offered a glass of sweet or unsweet tea when they walk in the door. Local chefs prepare traditional Southern cooking each night, and staff ring a bell to inform guests when dinner is being served. The inn has a no-cell-phone policy and, while it does have WiFi, it only really works in one spot. But guests aren’t coming to the Sea View Inn for business or luxury; they’re coming to escape the outside world and sit in peace on the beautiful, white-sand beach where the hotel has stood since 1937.

Sassy Henry and her husband, Brian, took over ownership of the inn in 2002. On this very special episode of Southern Hospitality for Beginners, Sassy tells me about her family’s decision to drop everything and take over the inn more than two decades ago, whether Southern hospitality still exists today, and why it’s so important for the Sea View Inn to maintain its longstanding Southern roots.