Greenville South Carolina History & Facts

Greenville is a city in and the seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. With a population of 70,720 as of the 2020 Census, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. Greenville is located approximately halfway between Atlanta, Georgia and Charlotte, North Carolina along Interstate 85. Its metropolitan area also includes Interstates 185 and 385. Greenville is the anchor city of the Upstate, a combined statistical area with a population of 1,487,610 as of the 2020 Census. Greenville was the fourth fastest-growing city in the United States between 2015 and 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Greenville is the center of the Upstate region of South Carolina. Numerous large companies are located within the city, such as Michelin, Prisma Health, Bon Secours, and Duke Energy. Greenville County Schools is another large employer and is the largest school district in South Carolina. Having seen rapid development over the past two decades, Greenville has also received many accolades and awards. Some of these include "The South’s Most 'Tasteful' Small Towns" from Forbes in 2020, "15 of the Most Underrated Travel Destinations of the Year, So Far" from Insider in 2019, "Best Places to Live" from Money in 2019, and "Best Place to Live in the USA #22" from U.S. News & World Report in 2019. The city continues to expand rapidly into the 2020s as is evident from rapid population, economic, and developmental growth.

The land of present-day Greenville was once the hunting ground of the Cherokee, which was forbidden to colonists. A wealthy settler from Virginia named Richard Pearis arrived in South Carolina around 1754 and established relations with the Cherokee. Pearis had a child with a Cherokee woman and received about 100,000 acres (40,000 ha) from the Cherokee around 1770. Pearis established a plantation on the Reedy River called the Great Plains in present-day downtown Greenville. The American Revolution divided the South Carolina country between the Loyalists and Patriots. Pearis supported the Loyalists and together with their allies, the Cherokee. After the Cherokee attacked the Patriots, the Patriots retaliated by burning down Pearis' plantation and jailing him in Charleston. Pearis never returned to his plantation but Paris Mountain is named after him. The Treaty of Dewitt's Corner in 1777 ceded almost all Cherokee land, including present-day Greenville, to South Carolina.

Greenville is located at 34°50′40″N 82°23′8″W (34.844313, −82.385428), roughly equidistant between Atlanta (145 miles [233 km] southwest), and Charlotte, North Carolina (100 miles [160 km] northeast). Columbia, the state capital, is 100 miles (160 km) to the southeast.

Downtown Greenville from the air
Greenville is in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range, and includes many small hills. Sassafras Mountain, the highest point in South Carolina, is in northern Pickens County, less than 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Greenville. Many area television and radio station towers are on Paris Mountain, the second most prominent peak in the area, 8 miles (13 km) north of downtown Greenville. According to the United States Census Bureau, Greenville has a total area of 28.8 square miles (74.6 km2), of which 28.7 square miles (74.3 km2) are land and 0.2 square miles (0.4 km2), or 0.51%, are water. The Reedy River, a tributary of the Saluda River, runs through the center of the city.

Greenville is located in the Brevard Fault Zone and has had occasional minor earthquakes.

Famous Peoples From Greenville South Carolina

Charles Hard Townes

(July 28, 1915 – January 27, 2015) was an American physicist. Townes worked on the theory and application of the maser, for which he obtained the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics associated with both maser and laser devices. He shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nikolay Basov and Alexander Prokhorov. Townes was an adviser to the United States Government, meeting every US president from Harry S. Truman (1945) to Bill Clinton (1999).

He directed the US government's Science and Technology Advisory Committee for the Apollo lunar landing program. After becoming a professor of the University of California at Berkeley in 1967, he began an astrophysical program that produced several important discoveries, for example, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Townes was religious and believed that science and religion are converging to provide a greater understanding of the nature and purpose of the universe.

We also serve Summerville city.

More Info.

PD&G Wallcover Inc.

Call Us: 949-487-9261
Email: deb@pdgwallcover.com