Local ‘Verse & Attractions

As the largest city in the Upstate, Greenville offers many activities and attractions. Greenville’s theatres and event venues regularly host major concerts and touring theater companies. Four independent theaters present several plays a year.

Notable event venues

Landmarks

Falls Park on the Reedy.

The Waterfalls in downtown Greenville.

  • Falls Park on the Reedy, a large regional park in the West End with gardens and several waterfalls, with access to the Swamp Rabbit Trail. Dedicated in 2004, the $15.0 million park is home to the Liberty Bridge, a pedestrian suspension bridge overlooking the Reedy River. The park’s development sparked a $75 million public-private development, Riverplace, directly across Main Street. Falls Park has been called the birthplace of Greenville, but in the mid-20th century the area was in severe decline, and the Camperdown Bridge had been built across the Falls, obstructing view. In the mid-1980s, the City adopted a master plan for the park, leading to the removal of the Camperdown Bridge and making wayfor extensive renovations, to include 20 acres (81,000 m2) of gardens and the Liberty Bridge.While bridges with similar structural concepts have beenbuilt in Europe, the Liberty Bridge is unique in its geometry.
  • Greenville County Museum of Art specializing in American art, frequently with a Southern perspective that dates back to the 18th century. It is noted for its collections of work by Andrew Wyeth and Jasper Johns, as well as a contemporary collection that features such notables as Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keeffe, and others.
  • Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery is located on the campus of Bob Jones University.
  • Roper Mountain Science Center is home to a historic 23″ refractor telescope, eighth largest of its kind in the United States.[23]

Festivals

  • Euphoria Greenville is an annual three-day culinary event held in the Wyche Pavilion at Larkin’s on the River, Art in the Park, and the Peace Center for the Performing Arts.[24]
  • Fall for Greenville is a three-day music and food street festival held each fall.[25]
  • Artisphere is a three-day art festival held each spring.[26]
  • The Comics & Toys MonsterCon is a three-day comic book and science fiction convention held each summer.[27]
  • Indie Craft Parade is a festival of handmade art held each September.[28]
  • The Upstate Shakespeare Festival performs Shakespeare and other classic plays each summer in Falls Park.[29]
  • The Greek Festival a three day festival put on by the Greek Orthodox Church in downtown Greenville to celebrate Greek culture.

Downtown renewal

Greenville has one of the last Frank Lloyd Wright homes ever built, constructed in 1954.[30]

At one time the retail center of the region, Greenville’s downtown district began to languish in the 1960s as shopping centers lured the retailers and customers to the suburbs. In response, the City started a downtown renewal project.

City leaders initially focused on improving the streetscape along a portion of Main Street in the Central Business District. This included narrowing the street from four lanes to two lanes; installing angled parking spaces, trees, flowers and light fixtures; and creating parks and plazas throughout the central core of downtown. Initial planning began in the 1970s and under Mayor Max Heller, an Austrian immigrant who wanted to implement some of the urban features he had seen in Europe. The downtown streetscape renovation was designed by Landscape Architect Lawrence Halprin.

In the 1980s, Greenville turned to laying the foundation for their downtown vision and providing an example of business potential to encourage business relocation to downtown (examples include the Greenville Commons/Hyatt Regency hotel). The city worked with consultants to develop and implement a downtown master plan and facilitated public-private investment partnerships which resulted in the city’s first luxury convention hotel on Main Street.

Through the 1990s Greenville continued to strengthen its public/private partnerships to create strong anchors throughout downtown. The city redeveloped a languishing industrial area adjacent to the West End Historic District into a thriving performing arts complex that incorporated historically significant buildings. It then stabilized the stagnant historic district with the transformation of an abandoned cotton warehouse into the West End Market, a mixed-use project of shops, restaurants, and offices, which in turn encouraged adaptive reuse of several other historic buildings throughout downtown. The city’s initiative to invest in its blighted urban center at a time when such revitalization was unpopular, not only successfully encouraged private investment, but also eventually garnered recognition from municipalities across the United States.

Although the majority of Greenville-area residents live outside of the central urban core, the last decade has brought a significant increase in downtown living and working as new luxury condos, apartments and lofts go up and more businesses are moving their offices to the now thriving downtown.[citation needed]

The National Trust for Historic Preservation awarded Greenville with the Great American Main Street Award in 2003 and 2009. Since then it has been featured in numerous publications, including Southern Living Magazine and the U.S. Airways Magazine (March 2010).

Downtown Greenville has attracted a wide variety of national and regional chain stores and restaurants, ranging from Brooks Brothers, Anthropologie, Mast General Store and Staples to local retailers such as Rush Wilson Ltd.

 

The arts

Greenville has been named one of the “Top 100 Arts Small Towns in the United States.” [41] The Bon Secours Wellness Arena, formally the Bi-Lo Center, brings national tours of many popular bands to downtown, and the Peace Center for the Performing Arts provides a venue for orchestras and plays. A planned multi-million dollar renovation to the center’s main concert hall lobby and riverside amphitheatre began in the Spring of 2011.

Visual art

A number of local artists operate studios and galleries in the city, especially the Village of West Greenville near downtown. The Metropolitan Arts Council and Upstate Visual Arts provide a number of public events that focus on the visual arts, including the First Fridays Art Walk, Greenville Open Studios, and the West Greenville Arts Festival. Greenville also provides some notable fine arts museums:

Music

Greenville’s music scene features live performances by local Jazz, Country, and Rock bands.

Lynyrd Skynyrd played their last concert with all original members in Greenville, on October 19, 1977.[43][44]

The city is home to the Greenville Symphony Orchestra, Greenville County Youth Orchestra, Carolina Youth Symphony, and the Carolina Pops Orchestra. The Boston Symphony Orchestra regularly performs at the Bi-Lo Center. Greenville Light Opera Works (GLOW) is a professional operetta company in residence at Centre Stage Theatre in Greenville where they produce a summer festival season of Musical Theatre, Operetta and Comic Opera.

The Palmetto Statesmen Barbershop Chorus and Quartets perform barbershop harmony and a cappella singing at various locations throughout the Upstate.[45] The Palmetto Statesmen Chorus is a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society.

Greenville is also the home of the Greenville Chorale, a 160-voice choral group.

Home of the upstate hiphop record label HDI Records

Comedy

There are eight comedy venues in Greenville featuring stand up comedy, sketch comedy, ventriloquists, as well as experimental and non-traditional comedy.[46]

Dance and Theatre

The Carolina Ballet Theatre is a professional dance company which regularly presents programs at the Peace Center and elsewhere. CBT presents four performances annually as the resident professional dance company of the Peace Center with their largest as the holiday classic, “The Nutcracker, Once Upon A Time in Greenville.” This production is modelled after the major companies who have set their holiday class in their hometown. Centre Stage, Greenville Little Theater, South Carolina Children’s Theater and the Warehouse Theatre are the major playhouses in the area. These theaters offer a variety of performances including well-known works, such as Death of a Salesman and Grease, and plays written by local playwrights. During the Spring and Summer, the local Shakespearean company performs Shakespeare in the Park at the Falls Park Amphitheater.

Social Dancing

Greenville is also home to a thriving social dance scene. Regular social dances include:

Upstate Swing has been putting on a weekly Tuesday swing dance since 1998 drawing hundreds of people every week to a beginner lesson followed by a three hour social dance.[47]

The Greenville Lindy Hoppers meet weekly on Thursdays for beginner and intermediate Lindy Hop lessons followed by a social dance. They also host The Greenville Lindy Exchange the last weekend of June every year which draws hundreds of swing dancers from across the southeast to the Upstate.[48]

Greenville Blues hosts blues dances in the Greenville area.

The Carolina Shag Club meets weekly to promote Carolina Shag dancing in the Upstate area.[49]

The Harvest Moon Folk Society meets weekly to host a Contra dance at the River Falls Lodge and hosts Contra events in the downtown Greenville area.[50]