"G” is for Greenville

“G” is for Greenville (Greenville County; 2020 population 70,899). The sixth largest city in South Carolina, Greenville traces its origins to 1797 when plans for the courthouse town for Greenville County were laid out. In 1831, the legislature granted the village a municipal charter. Growth was slow until after the Civil War when Greenville became a leading cotton market and a center for the growing textile industry. By 1920 the city was its way to becoming the self-proclaimed “textile Capital of the World.” In the 1950s local business leaders spearheaded the successful effort to diversify the area’s economy. During the last quarter of the twentieth century, public-private partnerships redeveloped downtown. That redevelopment has continued apace, and in the twentieth-first century, Greenville has become a nationally renowned tourist destination—celebrated for its cultural and restaurant scenes.