Greenville, South Carolina
Greenville | |
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Nickname : G-Vegas | |
Skyline at night |
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Location in South Carolina | |
Basic data | |
Foundation : | 1831 |
State : | United States |
State : | South carolina |
County : | Greenville County |
Coordinates : | 34 ° 51 ′ N , 82 ° 23 ′ W |
Time zone : | Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 ) |
Inhabitants : - Metropolitan Area : |
67,453 (as of 2016) 884,975 (as of 2016) |
Population density : | 999.3 inhabitants per km 2 |
Area : | 67.7 km 2 (approx. 26 mi 2 ) of which 67.5 km 2 (approx. 26 mi 2 ) is land |
Height : | 307 m |
Postcodes : | 29601-29617 |
Area code : | +1 864 |
FIPS : | 45-30850 |
GNIS ID : | 1245842 |
Website : | www.greenvillesc.gov |
Mayor : | Knox White |
Greenville is a city in northwestern South Carolina and the administrative seat of the county of the same name . It has 58,409 inhabitants (as of 2010 census) on an area of 67.7 km 2 and is 307 m above the Piedmont Plateau.
The so-called Greenville- Spartanburg - Anderson Combined Statistical Area in northwestern South Carolina , consisting of 8 counties with a total of approx. 1.2 million inhabitants, is also known as the Upstate . The name alludes to the region's elevated position on the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains compared to the rest of the state .
Greenville is about halfway between the cities of Atlanta, Georgia and Charlotte, North Carolina on Interstate I-85 . The city is still connected to I-185 and I-385 .
history
Around 1770, the Indian merchant Richard Pearis founded a large plantation with a sawmill on land that he had bought from the Cherokees . In the American War of Independence he fought with the Cherokees on the side of the English. After their defeat, the land was divided among the patriotic soldiers, the place was called Pleasantburg in 1797 and was given its current name in 1831 after the general of the North American troops Nathanael Greene . After 1815 the first schools, churches and factories were established. In 1853 Greenville was connected to the rail network. As a secessionist retreat, Greenville survived the American Civil War relatively lightly. In 1869 the place with then 2757 inhabitants was named a city.
Between 1895 and the time after the First World War, Greenville experienced a heyday of the textile industry through the processing of cotton from the area, combined with a large population influx and a construction boom. In the mid-1920s, Greenville had 50,000 residents. The invasion of the boll beetle in 1926 triggered a major economic crisis in the cotton mills.
In the 1950s and 1960s the cotton mills closed; a service and speculation boom with real estate set in, which, however, repeatedly led to setbacks.
economy
The main industry of Greenville today is the automotive industry . The International Center for Automotive Research (ICAR) is currently being built in Greenville. The nearby Clemson University , the BMW Group , IBM , Microsoft , Michelin , the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), Sun Microsystems and Timken are involved .
The automobile manufacturer BMW operates its only automobile plant in North America about halfway along Interstate 85 between Greenville and Spartanburg, about 50 kilometers away. It is in Spartanburg County, however . The BMW X3 , X5 and X6 are currently being produced here. The X4 has also been produced here since 2013, and the X7 will follow in 2018.
With the settlement of the automobile industry and the resulting increased income for the city, the city center in particular was continuously upgraded. A park, numerous bars and restaurants make it look extraordinarily European in contrast to other inner cities of the same size. The annual 3-day street festival in autumn (“Greenville Fall”) also plays a major role in this.
With the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport , the region also has an important regional airport.
university
At Furman University , founded in 1826, around 3,000 students receive classes. There is also a traditional college of the Southern Baptist Convention .
Trivia
Greenville's society in the 1950s forms the background for Dorothy Allison's semi-autobiographical novel, Bastard Out of Carolina , in which a young first-person narrator talks about the contempt of the middle classes for the " white trash ", of which they are stronger is affected than by poverty.
In early 2007, Greenville was one of the filming locations for the Hollywood film A Tempting Game (Originally: Leatherheads ) with George Clooney , John Krasinski and Renée Zellweger in the lead roles.
sons and daughters of the town
- Jaimie Alexander (* 1984), actress
- Cat Anderson (1916-1981), jazz trumpeter
- Rudolf Anderson (1927–1962), pilot and officer in the United States Air Force and the only person killed in the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962
- Willie Anderson (born 1967), basketball player
- Peabo Bryson (born 1951), singer
- Robert Bullock (1828–1905), lawyer, politician, district judge and Brigadier General of the Confederate States of America in the Civil War
- John Casper (born 1943), astronaut
- Fred Crane (1930–1985), jazz musician
- Sarah Cunningham (1918–1986), actress
- Jim DeMint (born 1951), politician
- Daniel Dunklin (1790–1844), politician
- Joseph H. Earle (1847-1897), politician
- Esquerita (1935–1986), musician
- Lucas Glover (* 1979), professional golfer
- Bo Hopkins (born 1942), actor
- Jesse Hughes (* 1972), musician and front man of the band Eagles of Death Metal
- Jesse Jackson (* 1941), politician, civil rights activist and Baptist pastor
- Anna Hill Johnstone (1913–1992), costume designer
- James Robert Mann (1920–2010), politician
- Edwin McCain (* 1970), musician
- Nile (founded 1993), technical death metal band
- Roger C. Peace (1899–1968), politician
- William H. Perry (1839–1902), politician
- Charles Hard Townes (1915–2015), physicist and Nobel Prize winner
- John B. Watson (1878-1958), psychologist who founded the psychological school of behaviorism
- Sean Weatherspoon (born 1987), American football player
- Emmett Williams (1925–2007), poet, performance artist and co-founder of the Fluxus movement
- Josh White (1914–1969), black folk, spiritual and blues guitarist and singer
Name variants
The city has a few different names:
- Greenville City
- Greenville Court House
- Greenville Courthouse
- Pleasantburg
- Pleasantville
Twin cities
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ History of Greenville
- ↑ dpa: Lower currency risk: BMW builds X3 successor in the USA - WirtschaftsWoche. In: WirtschaftsWoche. May 15, 2007, accessed April 23, 2009 .
- ^ New York 1992.
- ^ Richardson, James M. History of Greenville County, South Carolina, Narrative and Biographical. Spartanburg, SC Reprint Co., 1980. p41
- ^ US Postal Guide, various edition dates. Use code US-T133 / YYYY. 1887
- ^ Huff, Archie Vernon, Jr. Greenville: The History of the City and County in the South Carolina Piedmont. Colombia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1995. p66
- ^ Names in South Carolina. vols. 1-28. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina, 1954-1981. v17 / p6
- ^ Names in South Carolina. vols. 1-28. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina, 1954-1981. v25 / p24