Located on the Isle of Palms, the current beach house was completed in 1995, replacing an earlier building that was destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Robert R. McCormick was an executive with the Chicago Herald Tribune newspaper, a personal friend of Gen. Charles Pelot Summerall, and a Citadel benefactor. The Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation provided the funds to furnish the new beach house.
The Citadel