Russell Stall puts his pen down upon his desk and stretches. It’s been a long day juggling different tasks for his seat on Greenville’s City Council.

“I’m trying to be a voice for those who don’t have a voice,” he says, explaining why he ran for the position. “Just the other day I told my mom, ‘Y’all have given us the gift of being able to change our world. You’ve given us the freedom to facilitate change, and not many people can say that.’ It’s pretty cool.”

His mom is no ordinary mother; she’s Betty Stall. While that name might not sound familiar to newcomers, her maiden name probably will: Peace, a proper noun forever linked to providing the arts to the Upstate through the Peace Center. And while the performing arts center is the centerpiece of Peace contributions to the community, it’s just one thread in an intricate design family members have woven, helping transform Greenville from a simple textile town into an international destination.

Out of darkness

Not long after the Civil War, Capt. Jackson Peace and his wife, Judith, set up home in the Dark Corner, a region of northern Greenville County known for isolation, shenanigans and moonshine. The Scotch-Irish father and English mother welcomed Bony Hampton Peace in 1873. The young boy would grow to illuminate the brightest light in the Upstate by establishing a media empire.

After entering the printing business in Spartanburg as a teen, Bony Hampton Peace became the business manager of a “moribund” Greenville News. He ended up purchasing the paper and turning it into the leading publication in the state, growing it from 5,000 to 31,000 readers by 1931. By then, his sons Roger, Charlie and Bony Hampton, Junior, had joined the family business, which expanded to include WFBC-AM radio and TV stations, as well as others.

In 1995, the Peace family sold the media conglomerate to Gannett for $1.7 billion. “The Gannett deal is what created wealth in the family,” reveals Russell. “My forefathers were basically journalists and they did OK, but weren’t ultra-wealthy. We came from meager means.” But that money, combined with lessons learned at the newspaper offices and family dinner table, created community dividends that continue to make headlines today.

A light shines

Each morning, Ted Ramsaur greets the sun not far from Caesars Head, on land his grandfather, Roger C. Peace, left him.

“I was very close to him,” he recalls of the ancestor who worked his way up from sports editor to business manager and eventually publisher of the Greenville News. “I thought the world of him. He was extremely intelligent, very open and sharing and giving. He was a fascinating person to be around.”

Ted and his sister would stay with Roger and his wife, Etca, when their parents traveled. His grandfather modeled a servant’s heart, founding the Community Foundation, volunteering as president of the Greenville Chamber of Commerce and working tirelessly as a trustee of Furman University.

“I can remember him saying many times how good the community had been to us,” Ted shares. “They bought our newspapers, watched our television station and listened to our radio station. Those became words to live by and honor. To whom much is given, much is expected.”

When it came to his giving, Ted found outlets where others could benefit from his keen eye. “I grew up in a family of writers,” he muses. “Everybody was a writer, but I fell in love with photography.”

Like so many of his aunts, uncles and cousins, the shutterbug started at the newspaper, but left to take pictures for United Press International and then open his own commercial photography business. He also poured his artistic talents into the Greenville County Museum of Art.

“I was on the board there. I taught there for awhile,” he explains. “It’s important to me and my wife, and of course the Peace Center is another primary focus.”

The spotlight spreads

More than 125 Peace family members gathered at the performing arts center at the last family reunion. They now span multiple generations, living up and down the East Coast. “It’s ginormous,” Russell chuckles, as he traces the family tree. “My grandfather, Bony Hampton Junior’s branch, is the most robust. We’re big, but we’re close.”

As they move, many family members make philanthropy a priority in their new locales. “I think community service is part of our DNA,” Russell declares. “We’ve been given a lot of resources. We’ve been given a lot of access, and it’s incumbent upon us to use our resources to make a difference.”

Russell’s aunt, Genevieve Sakas Manly, was a driving force behind the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. Another aunt, Mary Sterling, was one of three primary donors to fund the Upcountry History Museum. And his mother, Betty Stall? Her contributions are legendary, from guiding the integration of Greenville schools to serving as the backbone of projects from here to the coast, including her beloved Brookgreen Gardens.

“We’re all different, and there are a lot of us,” Betty says with a smile. “Our lives have exposed us to different things that include the arts, education, environment. The Peace Center was probably the one project the entire family was unified on. We’re lucky we’ve had this opportunity in our lifetime to do something together that has had such an impact on Greenville and the region.”  Prompting the public to call for an encore.

30 years at peace

COVID-19 may have cut the 2020 season short, but there’s so much to celebrate as the Peace Center turns 30. When it was built in the late 1980s, city leaders were struggling to save Main Street, a victim of urban decay. The new Hyatt Regency anchored North Main, but 300 S. Main St. featured three dilapidated factories on the muddy banks of the Reedy River. A group committed to revitalizing the city as well as the arts jump-started a campaign to build a performing arts epicenter, where neighbors could celebrate music, dance and drama.

“We thought of it as a quality-of-life issue,” Betty explains. “A community without arts and humanities is dead. Dull, anyway.”

Three arms of the Peace family pledged $10 million, prompting all branches to give, and a total of $42 million was raised through public-private partnerships. Some of the 19th-century buildings were restored and incorporated into the entertainment complex. The Peace Center opened in November of 1990 with the main concert hall seating 2,112, and Gunter Theatre seating 439.

About 20 years later, Vince Gill was the first artist to appear on the outdoor TD Stage, when it opened directly on the riverbank, as part of a $23 million renovation that added Genevieve’s, Ramsaur Studio and the Huguenot Mill Loft.

“My grandfather bought the Greenville News in 1919. He certainly didn’t dream of anything this grand and influential,” Betty reflects. “I think it’s a legacy to his generation, what they wanted for Greenville. The times change, and you can do different things in different times.”

Over the last three decades, budding ballerinas to presidential hopefuls have taken the stage to form their future. Although the theater is dark this season, the lights will shine again. President and CEO Megan Riegel predicts, “Our future is every bit as bright and beautiful as the last 30 years. The Peace Center will survive this pandemic and thrive as we create new programs and performance spaces to support an exciting and ever-evolving community.”

Just as the founders envisioned. Betty closes, saying, “One of the things we felt so strongly about when doing this, is that it open windows of the world in Greenville for kids, and gave them hope to dream dreams they never could have dreamed before.” May the curtain never fall.

The post DELVE: Let There Be Peace appeared first on GREENVILLE JOURNAL.

Photos by Joe F. Jordan Photography, courtesy of Greenville Historical Society

With folks using cellphone cameras to document every moment of every day, it’s hard to imagine a time when only major events were captured on film.  Photographers would stand still and steady, set an f-stop, and gently squeeze their finger. Only later, in a darkroom with a red light, would the snapshot artists discover if they’d adequately seized the moment for eternity.

Luckily for Greenville, Joe Jordan rarely missed a shot. “He loved a Rolleiflex camera,” recalls his son, Doug Jordan. “He absolutely loved those cameras because of their flexibility. He once said, ‘If I can’t use a Rolleiflex anymore, I’ll quit.’”

With that small, black German camera in hand, Joe Jordan worked the front lines of history as a police officer and politician, deputy coroner and journalist. He eventually opened his own photography business, where one of his favorite activities was hiring pilots to take aerials over the budding skyline.

“The camera opened doors for him,” shares Doug Jordan, who followed in his father’s footsteps at the studio. “He could go into different environments that most people couldn’t see.”

He shot it all: starlets and presidents, parades and progress, the KKK and friends of MLK. Unbeknownst to him at the time, he was preserving pieces of Greenville’s past — pieces that otherwise are quickly disappearing from people’s minds and Main Street.

When Joe Jordan died in 2009, he left more than 380,000 images behind.  His family has donated all the negatives, slides and prints to the Greenville Historical Society.

Local historian and documentary film producer Don Koonce has been scanning the images to upload to the Historical Society’s website by year’s end. “What Doug and his family did is so important,” explains Koonce, who serves on the board of the Historical Society. “These have such historical value. Joe started taking photos in 1953 and didn’t stop until 1998. When coupled with our other collections, we’ll have everything that happened in Greenville from the 1800s to the 2000s. This is essential to anyone doing research, or wanting to learn more about our area.”

It was important to the Jordan family to make the collection accessible to the public. “They mean basically everything to me,” admits Doug Jordan. “My father documented one of the biggest growth spurts of Greenville, and now everyone can enjoy that work. I think he’d be really, really proud. I really do.”

Old City Hall 1970/Demolition 1973:  This grand Romanesque Revival-style City Hall once stood on the corner of Main and Broad streets, where Fidelity Investments and the seasonal downtown ice rink now operate. Built in 1892, it was first used as a U.S. Post Office, before politicians and administrators moved in to run the town. The building was torn down in 1973, with Greenville’s new City Hall already casting a shadow upon the streetscape.

Richard Nixon Visits Main Street: Many presidential hopefuls have made campaign pit stops in Greenville, including Richard M. Nixon. In 1968, the candidate visited Main Street, meeting crowds near the South Carolina National Bank Building. When built in 1923, the 17-story structure was the tallest in both North and South Carolina. Woodside Securities owned the structure at Main and Washington, but lost it during the Depression. The building was demolished in 1974, and today Wells Fargo stands in its place.

YMCA/1958 & 1960: Greenville’s first YMCA operated out of the 1822 courthouse with a gym and rec space. In 1912, the Y moved into its own building, this classic structure on the Northeast corner of East Coffee and Brown Streets. The original building was vacated and torn down in 1958, as YMCA operations relocated to the new facility on Cleveland Street.

Downtown Airport 1953 & African American Protest 1960: Now known as the Greenville Downtown Airport, the Greenville Municipal Airport opened in 1928. By the early ’30s, Amelia Earhart and Eastern Airlines were using its runways. In 1960, African American leaders marched from downtown to the airport to protest segregation. The airport had denied visiting baseball star Jackie Robinson a seat in the lobby, making him wait outside in the elements.

Donaldson Center Front Gate/1961: World War II birthed the Greenville Army Air Base, which was later named for World War I local flying ace Captain John O. Donaldson. In the years to come, the military dubbed Donaldson Air Force Base the “Airlift Capital of the World,” as its C-124s moved soldiers, sailors and flyers around the globe. The Air Force closed the base in 1962 with the city and county taking it over and renaming it. Today the 2,600-acre commerce park and airfield operate as the South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center (SCTAC), home to 118 companies supporting 8,500 jobs.

McAlister Square: After World War II, shopping centers started popping up far from Main Street, closer to suburban development. In 1968, a $6.5 million dollar shopping mall opened on Pleasantburg Drive. Anchored by Ivey’s (which became Dillard’s) and Meyers-Arnold (which became Upton’s), McAlister Square was the largest mall in South Carolina. By the turn of the millennium, all anchor stores had left. Today the space is owned by Greenville Tech and houses the University Center of Greenville.

Memorial Auditorium & the former BI-LO Center: The past and present of entertainment sat side by side for a few short years. Greenville Memorial Auditorium was built in 1958 and hosted high-energy concerts, wrestling and basketball games for decades. It was imploded in 1997, while the $63 million BI-LO Center arose just down the street. With almost three times the seating of the beloved “Big Brown Box,” the modern-day arena now goes by the name Bon Secours Wellness Arena, which fans have shortened to “The Well.”

Meadowbrook Baseball Field: If you build it, they will come. The future home of Unity Park once served as Shoeless Joe Jackson’s playground and home of the Spinners: Meadowbrook Baseball Field. Other famous players to rise from the diamond there included Tommy Lasorda. The semi-pro field was flanked by the Reedy River, warehouses and train tracks on the west side of town, as well as a lesser field for minorities. The African American field was far from ideal, with permanent light poles standing within the infield and outfield areas of play, and the police pistol range mere feet off the third base line.

Masonic Temple 1958 & 1970: At the turn of the last century, Main Street witnessed a building boom that rivals today. The six-story Masonic Temple went up between the Romanesque Revival City Hall in 1909. By 1913, Greenville had grown into the “Textile Center of the South,” and the Masonic Temple was the unofficial headquarters of the industry. At one point in time, 24 of the Upstate’s 48 mills ran from offices inside the building, with mill owners frequently gathering to discuss business. During the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1915, members of the Greenville Rotary Club met on the roof, as they could not meet indoors anywhere else. Today, City Hall stands in the Temple’s old footprint.

Most of these photos are just one shot in a series of snapshots documenting historical places and events. A portion of the Jordan Collection is set to go up at GreenvilleHistory.org next month. The Historical Society is currently exploring options for a permanent location to house the thousands of negatives, slides and prints.

The post Joe Jordan: How a congenial everyman preserved Greenville’s history, one image at a time appeared first on GREENVILLE JOURNAL.

Deep in the bowels of the Strom Thurmond Institute at Clemson, 35 boxes hold Buck Mickel’s personal files. It’s a treasure trove of photos, speeches and memorabilia, as well as hand-scrawled vision lists revealing his hopes and dreams for Greenville.

“He always wrote in red ink,” recalls Minor Mickel Shaw, Buck Mickel’s oldest child. “He’d circulate the list each year to our family and his friends. He was so forward-thinking in many ways. He was the most visionary of any of the people who added items to the list.”

Scarlet red bullet points outlined the conception of the Peace Center, the BI-LO Center, the Hyatt Regency, the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities and so many other amenities thousands enjoy today. The businessman was a builder, erecting a cityscape upon the posts and beams his uncle, Charles E. Daniel, cemented a generation earlier.

Builder of the South

Elberton, Georgia, may be known as the granite capital of the world, but native son Charlie Daniel used steel and concrete to forge a name for himself. After serving in World War I, he moved to Anderson, South Carolina, to ride the Palmetto State’s industrial building wave. He eventually founded Daniel Construction Company, which set up headquarters in Greenville in 1941, and at one point was considered the largest construction company in the world. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy named Daniel “Industrialist of the Year.”

Working side by side with Daniel was his wife since 1924, Elberton’s Homozel Mickel. The two never had children, but both mentored their nephew, Buck Mickel. “Our dad’s dad died when he was 12,” explains Shaw. “Homozel and Charlie were very, very close to Dad. Charlie Daniel even gave my dad away at his wedding.”

Daniel’s interests spread over time, as he ventured into banking, telecommunications and airlines. In the mid-’50s, Daniel worked with Roger Milliken to create the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport. He represented South Carolina as an appointed U.S. senator, advised and constructed buildings at Clemson and Furman, and recruited to expand the state’s industrial base. Fortune magazine wrote, “If the customer permits himself to be lured into Daniel’s hometown, he is a gone goose.”

That magnetism is what his grandniece recalls. “Dad always described him as a man’s man, and he was,” shares Shaw. “He had a kind of bigger-than-life personality. I remember him that way. He was quite successful and very charismatic.”

Even as his world expanded, Daniel’s heart stayed home. He and Homozel established the Daniel Foundation to give to local hospitals, churches and college students. He also kept an eye on Main Street, which was in decline. He appealed for downtown renewal, and his last public act was the 1964 groundbreaking for the tallest building in South Carolina: the 25-story Daniel Building.

“Charlie Daniel was a builder,” explains Charlie Mickel, who carries his great-uncle’s name. “When you build things, you build for the future. Dad was a builder, too, and always focused on building a community for the next generation.”

Both of Buck’s children vividly recall a childhood with their father drawing blueprints for a modern Greenville.

Georgia boy done good

Like his uncle, Buck Mickel was an Elberton boy who returned from military duty to raise a family in the Upstate. Buck had married his fourth grade sweetheart, Minor Herndon. Little Minor was in tow, and two sons would come. The engineer worked at Daniel’s construction company and rose through the ranks to became president when his beloved uncle passed in 1965.  In the ’70s, Fluor Corporation came calling, and Mickel presided over negotiations that turned the local gem into a shining, international construction giant.

The peach not falling far from his ancestral tree, Mickel, too, held a passion for community service. He joined forces with Max Heller and Tommy Wyche to create one of the most powerful trinities of local servanthood the city has seen.  With Mickel’s gregarious salesmanship, Wyche’s legal mindset and Heller’s political connections, the trio changed the face of downtown, joining others to form Heritage Green, land the Hyatt Regency, forge Riverplace, build the Peace Center and more.

“All of them were sincere about getting involved and making sure projects got done,” shares Buck Mickel’s youngest, Charlie Mickel. His sister adds, “They really didn’t take no for an answer! The BI-LO Center took 20-something years to pull off, and they kept going at it different ways. They knew if they didn’t do something like this, Greenville would go by the wayside. They didn’t have a choice but to be bold. They were passionate, and they wanted Greenville to succeed.”

The Georgia Tech graduate was also passionate about supporting education. Buck Mickel served as a trustee for Clemson University and Converse College, and supported both his alma mater and Greenville Tech. He continued his aunt and uncle’s giving to Furman, and to this day, scholarships are still awarded at Elberton High, in honor of the Class of 1942’s valedictorian and salutatorian (Buck and Big Minor). A final project prior to his death: backing the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities.

“I had the opportunity, right before he passed, to ask Dad, ‘How do you want to be remembered?’” reveals Charlie Mickel. “And he said, ‘Georgia boy done good.’ That was it. He did say, ‘If your mom and I have done a good job, you’ll continue this legacy.’”

And so they have.

Third-generation servants

Although none of the third generation joined the construction business, Minor Mickel Shaw, Charlie Mickel and their brother, Buck (who is now deceased), have continued down the family’s path of service. Before his death at 54, the middle sibling showed boundless support for the Greenville County Museum of Art, the Peace Center and the YMCA of Greenville.

When his brother died, Charlie Mickel took over as president of the family’s investment vehicle, RSI Holdings, while serving on boards for the Peace Center, the Community Foundation and the Museum Association. His expertise in action is visible to anyone driving down I-85. As a member of the Clemson University Foundation Board, he assisted with the creation of CU-ICAR, the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research.

During that enterprise, Charlie Mickel crossed paths with his sister, who is a trustee on the Hollingsworth Funds Board. Mimicking her father’s endeavors, she was instrumental in fundraising to build the Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities and currently chairs the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport Commission. Today, the businesswoman continues to hold positions with the United Way, the Duke Endowment out of Charlotte, and the SC Blue Cross/Blue Shield corporate board.

Perhaps the brother and sister’s most personal post is leading The Daniel-Mickel Foundation. Along with Shaw’s daughter, they guide giving from the entity set up by their great-aunt, great-uncle and father. To date, the foundation has contributed more than $57 million to organizations in the area.

“I hope people look at our family as one that has been helpful to Greenville and our community, and humble in how we are perceived,” says Charlie Mickel.

Shaw adds in closing, “We’ve been fortunate enough to live here and have always felt like it was extremely important to give back. As Greenville continues to grow, we hope that people who chose to live here will become involved in helping Greenville continue to thrive and love this community as much as we do.”

Adding their dreams to that vision list in red.

Family Legacy: Locations the Daniel/Mickel families helped secure 

• BI-LO Center (Now Bon-Secours Wellness Arena)
• Brookgreen Gardens
• CU-ICAR
• Daniel Building (Now Landmark Building)
• Daniel Chapel/Furman University
• Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport
• Heritage Green
• The Hyatt Regency
• Minor Herndon Mickel Tennis Center/Furman University
• The Peace Center
• RiverPlace
• South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities
• White Oaks/President’s House/Furman University

Family chart

1. Charles E. Daniel & Homozel Mickel Daniel
2. Buck Mickel & Minor Herndon Mickel
3. Minor Mickel Shaw, Buck A. Mickel, Charlie Mickel

TIMELINE:

• 1895: Charles Ezra Daniel born in Elberton, GA
• 1917: Daniel leaves the Citadel to fight in WWI.
• 1924: Daniel marries Homozel Mickel.
• 1925: Buck Mickel and Minor Herndon born in Elberton, GA.
• 1934: Creates Daniel Construction Co. with a $25,000 loan.
• 1941: Daniel Construction moves HQ to Greenville.
• 1946: Mickel marries Minor Herndon.
• 1948: Mickel starts working for Daniel.
• 1964: Daniel passes away.
• 1965: Mickel succeeds Daniel as president of Daniel Construction.
• 1977: Fluor Corp. acquires Daniel Construction
• 1998: Buck Mickel passes away in his sleep.

The post From the Ground Up: How the Mickel and Daniel families helped form the foundation for today’s Greenville appeared first on GREENVILLE JOURNAL.

A dust of red clay shoots into the air as the runner slides into third. Safe! The home team dugout at Timmons Park comes alive, as cheers ripple across the 26-acre haven nestled between Wade Hampton Avenue and East North Street.

The donation of the highly-used public green space is just one of many ways the Timmons family has left its mark upon the community. The Greenville Chamber of Commerce, Furman University, Christ Church Episcopal School, the Metropolitan Arts Council, the Peace Center and dozens of other nonprofit groups bear the fingerprints of this five-generation, Greenville-based family.

Road map to success

Architect Bill Pelham scans the Timmons family directory. The burgeoning document lists just over 100, including spouses and fifth-generation newborns. Pelham is third-generation through his mother, Jean Timmons Pelham. Everyone can trace their lineage back to William R. Timmons Sr. and his wife, Eva.

“I never knew him,” Pelham reveals of his grandfather. “I wish I had, but he died young. I’m told he was a magnificent tenor, a leader and an entrepreneur.”

To call William Richardson Timmons a leader is like saying Greenville has a small stream trickling through downtown. William Timmons graduated from Furman University to enter World War I.  Upon his return, he doubled the size of the Upstate’s oldest business organization: the Greenville Chamber of Commerce.  He also utilized his entrepreneurial spirit to build Central Realty Corporation and Canal Insurance. Those two companies grew into bigger businesses, side businesses and a holding company that continue to operate today.

“Most family businesses don’t survive to the third generation,” reveals Pelham. “There’s a definite pride in ownership, but we’ve been lucky, and my uncles were very smart in what they did, and current leadership has expanded it as well.”

Pelham’s cousin Chuck Timmons was the last family member to serve as president and CEO of Canal Insurance, before the company and board looked to outside executives and directors as a “best practices” approach. “Our parents worked long hours and it grew much bigger, so we were driven to do the same,” he explains. “We love to work hard and grow our family business, and we love to give back to the community.”

Another cousin in the ranks: Sydney Timmons Taylor. “As long as I worked really, really hard, I figured I might as well be doing it for the family business,” she shares. “My Uncle Charlie once said he tried to make other employees forget he’s a Timmons. That’s the way it was: old school.”

After decades at Canal, both Sydney Timmons Taylor and Chuck Timmons retired, yet today remain engaged by serving on family-company boards. Currently, Canal employs 233, while providing insurance to trucking operations in 48 states.

Sydney Timmons Taylor’s brother, Rick Timmons, currently serves as senior vice president of investments and board member at Canal, and financial vice president and board member of Central Realty Holdings. Over the years, the real estate arm of the family business has developed Greenville’s first mall (Wade Hampton Mall), which is now owned by Bob Jones University, restaurants and retail at I-85 and Pelham Road, and the mixed-use NorthPointe, which stands in various stages of occupancy and completion at the corner of Wade Hampton Boulevard and Stone Avenue.

Ticket to ride

Just as the businesses have grown, so has the family. The 14 cousins who grew up spending holidays together at their Grandmother Eva’s home on Chick Springs Road gave birth to a fourth generation of 35 descendants, who live as far away as Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2006, the Timmons family started exploring ways to keep all relatives updated on business affairs and philanthropic matters while strengthening family connections. The third generation eventually formed the EVA Assembly, which hosts an all-family gathering twice a year.

“It’s a great deal of fun, we get together and eat, drink and visit,” says Pelham. “Outside speakers are often on the program, and as the fourth generation expands, we’re all evolving within our own communities. We all learn from each other and support each other.”

Sydney Timmons Taylor adds, “Understanding the businesses and how they work just increases the sense of stewardship of the companies. It’s been really good and something my generation didn’t know as children. It’s going to be exciting, whatever the next generation comes up with when they are in charge.”

That transition is starting to happen, with fourth-generation member Brittany Timmons serving as an EVA leader in recent years.

Although on-roads exist to work at the family companies, the fourth generation is paving different career paths in education, corporate America, real estate and even politics for U.S. Rep. William R. Timmons IV. They work individually and collectively to support groups, projects and improvements across the region. Yet young and old alike prefer to avoid using the word “legacy.”

“We’re a humble family,” admits Chuck Timmons. “I don’t know if that came from our parents or our grandfather, but most of us are that way. We are warm and sincere and caring of Greenville.”

Pelham echoes the sentiment, adding, “We are a family that is interested in giving back to the community in terms of time, talent and treasure.” Treasure that makes Greenville shine that much brighter.

Greenville Chamber of Commerce

The Roaring ’20s had just begun when William R. Timmons Sr. started serving as secretary of Greenville’s Chamber of Commerce. The 31-year-old business group was holding steady at 1,000 members when leaders looked for ways to expand industry in the region after World War I. Across Timmons’ tenure, the Chamber doubled in size to 2,009, becoming one of the largest chapters in the South. The committed figurehead’s recruitment efforts included a new monthly magazine, barnstorming train tours and even musical compositions singing the praises of Greenville.

In 1921, Timmons launched “Greenville: A Civic and Commercial Journal,” touting the region’s commercial opportunities through letters, articles and advertising. In 1924, he rallied more than 100 members to embark on goodwill tours from Cuba to Canada, selling the area’s attributes. The secretary even used his musical skills with the Chamber of Commerce Quartet to perform “We are From Greenville” on Charlotte radio station WBT.

Timmons was also charged with promoting construction of a 10-story “skyscraper” on Main and Court streets. The Liberty Life Building, as it’s now called, came to symbolize “New Greenville.” When the $250,000 structure opened, the Chamber of Commerce occupied the first floor, welcoming all who visited downtown. Upon his untimely death in an auto accident on a rain-drenched road, colleagues described Timmons as “the best secretary the Greenville Chamber of Commerce ever had … and one of the outstanding secretaries in the Southeast.”

The Paladin Connection

No one can question the Timmons family’s ability to heed Furman University’s alma mater, singing, “Our love, our lives we give to thee.” Since William R. Timmons graduated in 1912, the family has supported the private liberal-arts institution from academics to the end zone.

In “The Bell Tower and Beyond: Reflections on Learning and Living,” former Furman president David Shi writes, “The entire Timmons family has been a pillar of support to the university for many years.” Each generation includes members who have attended Furman, while others reside on the rolls of the Advisory Council, Athletic Hall of Fame and Benefactors Circle. Furman’s Board of Trustees has included a Timmons for many years. Bill Timmons completed five terms as a trustee, and his son, Rick Timmons, currently sits on the board.

In 1988, the family donated $4 million as the lead gift for Timmons Arena. The family is also credited with sponsoring Furman Pro-Am events, endowing a music scholarship and funding digital scoreboards.

The Timmons Touch

The family has donated millions of dollars to wide-ranging projects, groups and institutions over the years. Rick Timmons credits his ancestors, saying, “Probably the greatest legacy of the second generation was their estate plan that passed a large portion of their accumulated wealth to charitable foundations that will benefit the communities where their descendants live for many years to come.”

Today, giving is done primarily through the Bill & Connie Timmons Foundation, Charles Timmons Foundation, Jean T. & Heyward G. Pelham Foundation, Allen Timmons Foundation and Neill M. Timmons Foundation.  Beneficiaries have included:

Artisphere

Bob Jones University Museum & Gallery

Bon Secours/St. Francis Foundation

Camperdown Academy

Carolina Music Museum

Centre Stage

Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Children’s Museum of the Upstate

Christ Church

Christ Church Episcopal School

Citadel Foundation

Clemson Architectural Foundation

Clemson University Foundation

Duke University

Greenville Area Parkinson Society

Greenville County Museum of Art

Greenville Little Theatre

Greenville Tech

FBC Greenville

Fine Arts Center Art of Architecture

Furman University

Junior Achievement of the Upstate

Metropolitan Arts Council

MAC Open Studios

Myers Center

Peace Center Foundation

Pendleton Place

Piedmont Women’s Center

Presbyterian College

Project Host

Safe Harbor

Salem College

SC Children’s Theatre

SC Governor’s School for the Arts

SC Historical Society

United Ministries

Upcountry History Museum

USC Educational Foundation

United Way of Greenville County

Upstate Warrior Solution

YMCA of Greenville

Young Life

The Warehouse Theatre

Wounded Warrior Project

Timeline

1912: William R. Timmons Sr. graduates from Furman University and joins the U.S. Army during WWI, rising to the rank of captain.

1920: Timmons marries Eva McDonald and serves as secretary of Greenville’s Chamber of Commerce.

1926: Timmons begins operating Central Agencies, a real estate and insurance agency, laying the foundation for Central Realty Corporation.

1930: The William R. Timmons Agency starts serving the trucking industry in South Carolina.

1939: First National Bank of Columbia incorporates Canal Insurance.

1942: Timmons acquires Canal Insurance for $17,500.

1948: William R. Timmons Sr. dies in an auto accident, leading his sons, Bill and Charlie Timmons, to join Canal to work alongside a veteran management team.

1958: Canal Insurance is licensed in 27 states and D.C.

1960: Canal is licensed in 42 states, with assets close to $6 million.

1989: Canal celebrates its 50th anniversary.

1992: Canal Insurances moves into the old Sears building on Stone Avenue, where it remains today.

1998: Chuck Timmons is named president of Canal Insurance.

2000: Canal goes on a run, tripling its business across five years.

2009: Chuck Timmons retires after 33 years with the company.

2014: Canal celebrates its 75th anniversary.

2020: Canal staff includes 233 employees, serving 48 states. Central Realty’s seven employees oversee the completion of Northpointe.

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Tens of thousands of houses are spread across Greenville County. They line our streets, pack our subdivisions and stretch like a spider’s web from the center of town to outlying rural communities. We commute daily past a handful of homes that hold treasured links to the region’s past, cradling history like a protective mother. Today, the Greenville Journal pulls back the curtains for a rare peek at the foundation these legacy landmarks have formed over the centuries, creating the streetscape we travel today.

Falls Cottage/Touchstone House
615 S. Main St.
FallsCottage.com

Built in 1894

No edifice has witnessed the rebirth of Greenville more intimately than Falls Cottage. In fact, the quaint two-story stucco structure, long abandoned within the heart of downtown, experienced its own renaissance with revitalization of the West End in the late 1900s. Today, the old “Touchstone House” stands sentinel over Falls Park, greeting groups of tourists strolling Main Street. It’s a far different scene than the vacant dirt road and bramble-filled riverbank that once surrounded the structure when it was built in 1894.

Camperdown Mill supervisor W.E. Touchstone and his wife, Matilda, constructed the brick house at the bend of South Main Street just before the end of the 19th century. Several families and mill workers lived in the structure with its steep staircase and four fireplaces until 1918. By then, car dealerships were taking over downtown, and the home was covered in stucco and converted into a gas station to service Model T’s and Model A’s for decades to come.

But by 1970, the property sat empty and dilapidated, an eyesore to those trying to bolster the West End. In 1982, the city of Greenville and Carolina Foothills Garden Club partnered to buy it, restore it and rename it for the iconic falls spilling just beyond its back door. Several restaurants have leased the charming home in recent decades. Kent Fisher is the current owner of Mary’s at Falls Cottage, and he says he pays careful attention to the building’s historic detail and significance.

“I definitely feel blessed to use this space,” he shares. “I probably get five to 10 inquiries a day from people curious about the history of the building. The old coal-burning fireplaces are a favorite, and we call the basement ‘the dungeon.’ It’s kind of spooky. Garden Club members frequently stop in. I want to be a good steward for them. I hope we’re here for another 30 to 40 years.”

City officials say the Garden Club has the option to continue leasing the cottage to tenants through June 2028.

Beattie House
8 Bennett St.

Built in 1834

Oh, if these walls could talk! Not only did Beattie House serve as headquarters for the Greenville Women’s Club for more than half a century, but the National Register of Historic Places documents this antebellum structure as the city’s “center of social, cultural and religious life” in the 1800s. Odds are high that when he built the home as a newlywed in 1834, Fountain Fox Beattie didn’t predict the influence or longevity the home would have. It’s the third-oldest structure standing in Greenville today.

Beattie House first stood on three acres at East North Street. The home grew as the family grew, with one-story wings extending in an Italianate style, off the central Georgian floor plan — all popular at the time of construction. The home remained in the merchant and banking family until World War II, when the city purchased it and leased it to the Women’s Club. The residence was even moved twice when “progress” threatened demolition. For decades, the socially strong Women’s Club leased the home for $1 a year, but as membership decreased and maintenance increased, the club disbanded in 2014. After multiple proposals, the city sold the relic to Jori and Ryan Magg, allowing the home to shelter a family once more.

“It will be two years this August since we finished renovating and moved in,” says Jori Magg. “My kids understand history now so much better and appreciate architecture. The home has so many features that are unique that you don’t see anywhere else.” The one-time public driveway is now closed off, and the parking lot is a new grassy play space. Living in a house with a grand staircase, 12-foot-high ceilings and regular visits from the Palmetto Preservation Society, the Maggs strive to balance family function with historical conservation. “To live here? It’s not lost on us,” admits Magg. “We definitely love it. The biggest compliment I get is when people say they feel welcome, not like they have to take their shoes off or they’re in a museum.”

Cherrydale Alumni House/Cherrydale Mansion
3300 Poinsett Hwy.

Built around 1852

Easter egg hunts, small receptions and alumni activities have recently spilled onto the lawn of this grand Greek Revival house that sits atop the highest point at Furman University. Its Palladian-derived front windows and three-bay portico feature the architecture that was popular in the mid 19th century. The fact the 180-year-old mansion still stands showcases its staying power. This is the second location the house has called home, and Furman is currently debating how to use it in the future, given its origin on a plantation that used enslaved laborers.

Around 1852, George Washington Green built a modest one-story farmhouse at the foot of Piney Mountain (near today’s Cherrydale Pointe Shopping Center). Green sold that structure to James C. Furman, the first president of Furman University. The home sat in the middle of a 1,200-acre corn and cotton plantation with apple, peach and cherry trees. The preacher and educator enlarged the dwelling, named it Cherrydale and lived there until he died.

The Furman family kept the mansion until 1939, when they sold it to Eugene Stone III, who established Stone Manufacturing’s facility nearby. Traffic came to a halt, literally, when the Stone family sold the site to AIG Baker in 1998 and offered the now two-story structure to Furman University. A company accustomed to relocating lighthouses took two days to painstakingly move the mansion at a snail’s pace up Poinsett Highway to where it sits today.

Faculty, staff and guests dedicated Cherrydale Alumni House in October 1999, but currently university officials say it will remain closed through the fall. Clinton Colmenares, Furman’s director of news and media strategy, explains, “We have a task force reviewing the history and future of the home. They are reviewing a lot of things. This is a chance for Furman to acknowledge its past and put history in context in a respectful manner. The house is not in use and won’t be for the near future.”

Chandler School/Granville Wyche House
2900 Augusta St.

Built in 1931

Traveling a congested Augusta Street, it’s hard to believe this was considered “the country” when Granville Wyche erected his ornate Italian Renaissance residence in 1931. The National Register of Historic Places notes the lawyer built one of the most elaborate and expensive homes of the time, spending $25,000. He injected Beaux Arts influences with a massive portico, grouped classical columns, window crowns and keystones, and honored the Wyche’s family focus on the outdoors with a small grotto, grape arbors and gardens. His grandson, Brad Wyche, recalls many good memories at the home. “We would go over there on Sunday afternoons,” Wyche recalls. “We would visit Papa. He had big fruit trees. We’d walk around and talk about his trees and garden.”

Papa Wyche lived to 97, and the home was sold to Kasper Fulghum, who marveled at its history. “On the corner of the property is a 5-mile marker, citing 5 miles from City Hall,” he says. “Five were placed in a star-shape across Greenville, and this is the only marker still in place. Granville wanted to be as far in the country as he could get but still have city protection.”

Fulghum eventually moved out, and the Chandler School operates on the property today. “The kids love the place,” shares founder and headmaster Dana Blackhurst. “It’s like Hogwarts. The old staircase is amazing. The secret hallway to the top. The hardwoods and alcoves. It’s like a British boarding school.”

Those who spy the house while motoring down Augusta will most likely see it for years yet to come. “I gave my word to Tommy [Wyche],” reveals Blackhurst. “I will always use this house for something good. There is too much history here to do otherwise.”

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The Greenville skyline fills the high-arch windows of Hayne Hipp’s office in the old Liberty Life building at the corner of Main and Court streets. As he looks down from the 10th floor, he reminisces about his first job with the company his grandfather founded.

“I was 12 years old,” he recalls. “I worked in the print shop, there where the Peace Center now sits. I would print stuff for the branch offices, and then come here and fill candy machines on each floor, and hitch a ride home with Dad.”

That young boy grew up to run the Liberty Corp., a publicly held holding company that included a multimillion-dollar insurance business, broadcast empire and support services. By 2006, all arms of the corporation were gone – successfully separated and sold. Yet today, “Liberty” lives on for thousands to enjoy at the Liberty Bridge in Falls Park, the Liberty Clock on Main Street and the multi-building complex on Wade Hampton Boulevard that now houses NEXT High School and Concentrix.

Those are just fingerprints of the callus-forming work the Hipp family has been engaged in over the years to create a vibrant and diverse community. The 80-year-old patriarch paints the many accomplishments of four generations with a broad brushstroke, saying, “Whether you’re trying to build a neighborhood park, or change the whole state, the important thing is to have a positive impact on making South Carolinians better, South Carolinians happier, more productive and more skilled, so they are in a better place. That’s the joy in doing that.”

It’s hard to believe that two-penny insurance policies provided the springboard for that joy.

Liberty’s roots

Hayne Hipp’s grandfather, W. Frank Hipp, grew up in Newberry, South Carolina. After a two-year bout with tuberculosis, he moved his young family to Greenville and organized Liberty Life Insurance in 1919.  The company specialized in selling 2-cent life insurance policies to mill workers. Hipp’s creation survived the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, ranking ninth in the nation in policies written. W. Frank Hipp gobbled up regional insurance companies, bought his first radio station (WIS in Columbia), and moved into new headquarters on Main Street, across from the Poinsett Hotel.

The founder died in 1943, leaving his three sons to run the growing conglomerate. During Liberty Life’s Golden Anniversary in 1955, Hayne Hipp’s father, Francis M. Hipp, set the cornerstone for a $2.5 million facility at Wade Hampton Boulevard and Pleasantburg Drive, which became the largest single-office building in the state. By 1969, the brothers created The Liberty Corp., which was one of the first four South Carolina-based companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange. That’s the same year Hayne Hipp joined the company as an executive.

“The myth is that Liberty Corporation was a family-owned, family-dominated company,” Hipp clarifies. “Once we sold shares, our ownership went from 90% to 40%. The Hipp family did not control Liberty Corporation except through their ability to run a very efficient, profitable business.”

Hayne Hipp rose through the ranks, embracing the team culture his dad and uncles had developed. To this day, he remembers the first letter he wrote his dad from school. Francis Hipp sent it back with all of the ‘I’s circled. “He was not an ‘I’ person; he was a ‘we’ person,” Hayne Hipp reveals. “An ‘I’ person can’t really build anything. You can’t build a family, you can’t build a community, you can’t build a company, you can’t build a state. You have to build it on a ‘we,’ because an ‘I’ doesn’t hold up by itself.”

The Hipp family worked the “we” way beyond business, starting with Francis M. Hipp.  In 1959, Gov. Ernest Hollings appointed Hayne Hipp’s father to chair the state Development Board, where he set the stage for industrial growth across the region. “They all actively participated in the community,” Hayne Hipp recollects of his elders. “You can look at Aunt Dot Gunter with the [Peace Center Gunter] theater down here, or Uncle Herman and Hipp Hall at Furman, or Uncle Calhoun and the Hipp scholarships at Davidson.”

Hayne Hipp also worked to support and strengthen many groups, agencies and nonprofits over the years, including helping start the Greenville Urban League (now the Urban League of the Upstate) and Alliance for Quality Education. Perhaps his farthest-reaching 501(c)(3) effort is the Liberty Fellowship, which he founded with his wife, Anna Kate, and others in 2003. Through intense seminars, the group brings together a cross-section of state leaders from every niche to open lines of communication and trust. Each fellow is then charged to use these new relationships to break barriers, tackle issues and solve problems. “It’s critical,” says Hayne Hipp. “It’s an investment directly into the bloodstream of South Carolina leaders. We’ve got to break down the silos of arrogance and learn to collaborate. Liberty Fellows can make the difference, to show where we’re going and how to get there.”

One Liberty Fellow in particular is showing the way, while following in her father’s footsteps.

The fourth generation

 Mary Hipp checks her phone with each ping and ding. She’s trying to nail down a lease for new office space for Feed & Seed, the nonprofit she helped found in 2016.

“Our mission is to make fresh food affordable to all of South Carolina,” Hayne Hipp’s oldest child explains. “We have the local farmers and we have the end-users, but the structure to connect the two is either broken or nonexistent.”

Food has been a passion of Mary Hipp’s since her days at Washington and Lee University when she cooked for friends. Culinary arts called her to jobs from coast to coast. A pit stop home in 2004 turned into a permanent parking spot. “I had no intention of staying,” she admits. “I still had the Greenville I left decades ago in my head, and no appreciation for the Greenville it had become. I got to meet a new Greenville.”

The chef stumbled into service and mimicked what her parents modeled.  First, she chaired Friends of the Greenville Zoo, then served on boards from the Humane Society and the Greenville Chamber of Commerce to the Peace Center and Project Host. She’s a founding board member of Greenville Women Giving (which has granted $6 million locally) and enhances the downtown vibe through posts with the city’s Accommodations Tax Advisory Committee and Metropolitan Arts Council.

“Mary led the organization to its first year of surpassing $1 million in income,” reveals MAC Executive Director Alan Ethridge. “Her experience in fundraising, nonprofit policy and marketing were true assets at a pivotal period in the organization’s history.”

Mary Hipp simply sees her work as continuing the family legacy. “There’s never been a conversation from Mom and Dad, but I watched Liberty Insurance sponsor things, and Mom and Dad get involved with the community,” she shares. “I am not Liberty Corporation. But if I have the time, means or treasure, I do feel a responsibility to engage.”

Her father hopes future generations will feel the same. “I consider myself very lucky,” Hayne Hipp reflects. “We were lucky to be here in Greenville, in South Carolina at a time when this state was moving forward aggressively and we were able to build our business. In any community, you will always find individuals and families who are inclined to give. They have been successful, or very lucky. We have the opportunity to move things forward. Let’s continue to find common ground and collaborate.”

135 S. Main St.

The Beaux Arts style building was built in 1924-25, when Court Square was renovated. As one of the first skyscrapers on the downtown horizon, it symbolized a “new Greenville.” The chamber of commerce lost ownership of the building during the Depression, and it became the home office of Liberty Life Insurance. The Liberty Corp. eventually sold the building. Yet in recent years, when Liberty Fellowship leased office space on-site, the new owner told Hayne Hipp he had the original Liberty Life elevator doors in storage. The two pulled them out and restored them, allowing Lady Liberty to greet all who enter.

Liberty Bridge

Many call the towering pedestrian bridge overlooking Reedy River Falls the “crown jewel” of downtown Greenville. One of the community leaders who helped set the glistening gem in place: Anna Kate Hipp. Her efforts started in the 1960s, when the Carolina Foothills Garden Club reclaimed 26 acres for the park. They toiled across four decades to clean the river, build the park and restore the historic Falls Cottage. Once the four-lane Camperdown Bridge fell to reveal the falls in 2002, a landscape architect designed the world-class public garden, while Hipp and Pedrick Lowrey chaired raising more than $4 million to establish an endowment fund to maintain the park. “We wanted to create this fund to protect the park forever,” says Hipp. “It was an easy sell and the most fun I’ve ever had raising money. People were excited to see this part of town come to life.” The bridge’s name honors Liberty Corp. founder W. Frank Hipp and his children, Francis M., Herman, Calhoun, and Dorothy Hipp Gunter, for their commitment and contribution to the Greenville community.  Liberty Bridge has become a symbol of Greenville around the globe.

Rooted in Legacy

W. Frank Hipp

Francis M. Hipp, Herman Hipp, Calhoun Hipp, Dorothy Hipp Gunter

Hayne Hipp (Wife Anna Kate Hipp)

Mary Hipp

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“I’m actually having a hard time believing I’m really going to be 70 years old,” admits the attorney and environmentalist. “They say age is just a number. Well, that’s a really big number!”

Aside from family gatherings, Brad Wyche also plans to attend Upstate Forever’s annual awards luncheon that will honor him for founding the conservation group and leading it for 17 years.

“I’m really pleased with where I am now in my life and with Upstate Forever,” he reveals. “I had a serious health scare two years ago. Out of the blue, I had a stroke. It made me realize it’s all about carpe diem. Get the most out of every day. Live life to the fullest.”

The Wyche definition of “full” is different than most.  No one can walk Greenville’s Main Street or drive across the Upstate without witnessing the family’s handiwork. And it all started with a country doctor.

Prosperity or bust

Against the odds of the Civil War and Reconstruction, Cyril Thomas Wyche managed to leave his native North Carolina to attend medical school and set up practice in Prosperity, a town in Newberry County. The doctor immediately injected public service into the Wyche family DNA. He rode on horseback to house calls and served in the state House of Representatives for 14 years, where he advocated for education and the creation of a state health department.

The doctor’s youngest son, Granville Wyche, witnessed this life of personal sacrifice, and in 1916 accepted an appointment as assistant U.S. district attorney. Through that post, Granville Wyche became the first Wyche to move to Greenville.

“I remember Papa Wyche well,” shares his grandson, Brad Wyche. “He lived to 97. Dad and I would go visit him on Sunday afternoons at his home on Augusta Road that’s now the Chandler School. He was such a nice guy, so friendly and selfless.”

After five years in public law, Granville Wyche entered private practice with Cothran, Dean & Wyche. The firm changed names multiple times over the years, but one element stayed the same: The practice served as a springboard for its attorneys to aid the community.

“That became an expectation the firm continues to this day,” explains Brad Wyche, who worked at Wyche, Burgess, Freeman & Parham for 19 years. “The lawyers need to give back. They need to be involved. That’s always been the expectation in the firm and in the family.”

Granville Wyche volunteered his legal skills with the Greenville Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club. He also leveraged his oratory skills at multiple state and national Democratic Party conventions, campaigning for Franklin D. Roosevelt.

As they say, like father like son. But Granville Wyche’s son, Tommy Wyche, took the family’s altruistic intentions to new elevations in the surrounding mountains and city streets.

Changing lanes

Tommy Wyche attended Greenville High, where he stood out as a leader and courted younger classmate Harriet Smith, who would become his wife. In college, he and Granville Wyche exchanged many letters about his joining the family firm. He soon committed himself to the firm, family, pro bono work and community improvements.

Each day, he took in his surroundings while entering the office on Main Street, above where Soby’s now sits. In the ’60s and ’70s, many viewed downtown Greenville as an eyesore. Tommy Wyche dreamed of R&R: restoration and renovation. First, he collaborated with others to create the civic center cluster now called Heritage Green. He then focused on Main Street and contacted an architectural design firm to build water sculptures. Their feedback went far beyond fountains and against conventional wisdom, recommending narrowing Main Street from four lanes to two, planting trees and widening sidewalks to make them pedestrian friendly.

“Dad got fired up,” recalls Brad Wyche. “He worked with his friends Max Heller, who was mayor, and Buck Mickel, a well-respected corporate executive. They were a great team. Max was the leader, the politician. Buck was real gregarious, talking things up. Dad was quiet behind the scenes, getting the legal work done.”

That plan formed the foundation of Greenville’s award-winning streetscape, which thousands walk today.

“Tommy was one of our community leaders who insisted on ‘going bold,’” says current Mayor Knox White. “That’s the lesson I learned from him. Bring in the best designers you can and insist on excellence.”

Tommy Wyche and his son soon set their sights on much bigger places for the public to play.

Land lords

As focused as Tommy Wyche was on revitalizing the city, he also enjoyed the wilderness. Brad Wyche recalls countless canoe and hiking trips with his dad, and one story of warning. The first time Tommy Wyche flew to Los Angeles and witnessed sprawl and smog creeping up the nearby hills, he vowed to stop that from happening to his beloved Blue Ridge Mountains. In 1973, he created the Naturaland Trust, one of the Southeast’s oldest conservation land trusts. The organization protects significant tracts of land in South Carolina, making them available for public use.

“His 40-plus-year effort has resulted in 100,000 acres of protected wilderness,” Brad Wyche says.  “It’s one of the most significant conservation achievements in our nation’s history.”

Brad Wyche also embraced Tommy Wyche’s love of the outdoors and, after experiencing the inaugural Earth Day as a college student, changed his undergraduate major to environmental studies. After obtaining a master’s degree in natural resources management and a law degree, he too joined the family practice, specializing in environmental law.

“As much as I enjoyed it, I just felt like I needed to give back more,” admits Brad Wyche. “I saw a true need for a group like Upstate Forever. I could see development coming and thought we’ve got to manage that and protect special places before it’s too late.”

In 1998, he gave up his job to jump-start Upstate Forever from his home. The first project secured land for the Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail. Today, the nonprofit group employs 21 people, who have inked 123 conservation agreements protecting 23,500 acres, while guiding land planning and policy.

“Brad is a visionary. He was talking about land-use planning and land protection before the Upstate was experiencing this unprecedented growth,” says current Upstate Forever Executive Director Andrea Cooper. “One of his legacies is that he’s insured the protection of many iconic places, while allowing for sustainable development.”

At 65, Brad Wyche transitioned from executive director to senior adviser. He just capped off chairing the organization’s capital campaign, which brought in $8.4 million. He wants to travel more with his wife, Diane Smock, and spend more time with his children and grandchildren. The living patriarch hopes future generations will carry on the family tradition of serving others.

“Granville was very well respected and had impeccable integrity. My father is an impossible act to follow,” confesses Brad Wyche. “If I can do 10% of what Dad did in my life, I’ll be very happy. We need to give back.”

Falls Park

Harriet Wyche was instrumental in leading the Carolina Foothills Garden Club to build Falls Park in the 1960s and ’70s.  To honor her, the Wyche family and friends commissioned “Rose Crystal Tower” by Dale Chihuly. The glass sculpture in Harriet’s Garden in the West End symbolizes her love of roses. “She was a visionary herself,” Brad Wyche states. “The first domino to fall in rebuilding downtown was the park in the ’60s with mom. The river was badly polluted. But they were determined they were going to have a park to celebrate Greenville’s birthplace.”

Downtown locations Tommy Wyche helped develop

The Hyatt Regency

Peace Center

Bi-Lo Center (Now Bon Secours Wellness Arena)

RiverPlace

SC Governor’s School for the Arts & Humanities

Cleveland Street YMCA

Heritage Green

Wyche Pavilion:  The open-air brick building on the shores of the Reedy River dates back to the early 20th century, when it served as a coach factory paint shop and then a mayonnaise production and packaging plant. The Peace Center obtained the abandoned building in the late 1980s, and it was named The Wyche Pavilion in honor of Tommy and Harriet Wyche for their dedication and leadership in “restoring downtown Greenville.”

RiverPlace: Tommy Wyche worked for 25 years to piece together vacant and underutilized property along the Reedy River in the heart of downtown. The land eventually became the RiverPlace development. In 2012, the city of Greenville dedicated the RiverPlace Bell Tower and Carillon to Tommy.

Upstate Forever is holding its annual Forever Green Luncheon Feb. 24.  For more on the conservation group visit www.UpstateForever.org.

“Renaissance Man: The Life of Tommy Wyche” is set for release on April 2. Journalist Lynne Lucas worked with the family to compile history and stories. The book also includes a forward by former U.S. Secretary of Education Dick Riley.

Cover photo: 1950s photo of Main Street in Greenville by Greenville County Historical Society.

The Greenville Journal is committed to telling the stories of the people and places that shaped our city. Join us each month as we Delve into their legacies, which continue to impact all who live here today.

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“They found it! They found it!” Rector Harrison McLeod rushes into his office at Christ Church Episcopal. “The cornerstone looks like every piece of vertical granite, so it was hiding in plain sight,” he says. “We’re going to dig it up this afternoon for Sunday’s celebration.”

Work crews had located the sacred cornerstone just in time to kick off the first of the church’s bicentennial celebrations that will run through 2020.

To thumb through the archives of Christ Church is to hold South Carolina history in your hands. Diplomat Joel Poinsett, businessman and benefactor Vardry McBee, U.S. Sen. Joseph Earle all have ties to the oldest church in the city of Greenville. For centuries, promises and programs presented from the religious center’s pulpit have canvassed the community, casting a hue upon all that has been as colorful as the nave’s great Ascension window.

“It’s humbling to be a part of something that has had such meaning for so many people for 200 years,” McLeod says. “We really recognize the value of that tradition and hope for the future.”

Snap beans to stained glass

They came every summer. Wealthy Lowcountry residents would trek to the Upstate to escape the coastal heat and humidity. On Sundays, a handful of Episcopalians would gather at the old wooden courthouse or private homes to worship with traveling minister Rodolphus Dickinson.

“Christ Church was known as the snap-bean church,” McLeod says. “It didn’t operate year-round. Services were only in summer when it was time to harvest the snap beans.”

Dickinson established St. James Mission, which became Christ Church in 1826.  During that time, merchant and farmer Vardry McBee donated “four acres and twenty-three poles” to build an Episcopal church in the small village of Greenville. Three houses of worship have occupied the land since, and that first congregation of Episcopalians has grown from 4 to 40, and now 4,000.  The brick Gothic building and its 130-foot bell tower stand as constants against the city’s ever-changing skyline.

“What fascinates me is this church building today looks like our forefathers envisioned it to look in 1852,” McLeod says of the current facility. “What kind of imagination and hope for the future would inspire a small community of Episcopalians to build a church that fits 675 people, when there were only 11,000 people living in the county at the time? They were obviously looking to the future.”

One woman certainly was.

Invitation to all

Since the beginning, members paid to sit in Christ Church’s pews. Yellowed ledgers detail “pew rent” payments of $75, $110 and $1,000.  But in 1880, when members were looking to add another wing, Sarah Coxe Croft offered $3,000 to build the South Transept, as long as its pews were rent-free.

“She was very generous,” says her great-great-great-grand-nephew and current church member Tom Croft. “She did a number of things like that and was very inclusive in making sure everybody could participate.”

Today’s leadership follows her lead.

“She had a real passion for the community and wanted to create a place for diversity within our parish,” McLeod says. “She sort of established the DNA of the parish. We always think back to Sarah Coxe and the example she offered us 100 years ago. That’s what we try to maintain today.”

Christ Church’s outreach over the years runs in the millions, both in people touched and dollars spent. Members have built at least seven local churches, while sustaining humanitarian and religious projects in numerous countries. The congregation currently supports programs in Costa Rica and Ecuador, but its largest international effort is in Haiti, where it’s brought safe drinking water, a hospital and school to the Central Plateau region, north of Port-au-Prince.

Aiding the local community has been a focus since the church’s inception, with members creating a school for the poor and Greenville’s first general hospital in the 1800s.  Modern-era non-profits with Christ Church roots include the Greenville Free Medical Clinic, Project Host, United Ministries and most recently, Jasmine Road that helps women escape sex trafficking. Members are also building affordable housing and tutoring children in the Sterling Community. More than 15% of Christ Church’s $3.6 million annual budget is earmarked for outreach.

“What fascinates me is this church building today looks like our forefathers envisioned it to look in 1852.” – Rector Harris McLeod

“We like to be kind of entrepreneurial and find whatever the unmet need is in Greenville and see if we can offer a solution,” McLeod says. “Partnership is key. It’s always our preference to build a coalition around something so it’s a community project, not a Christ Church project.”

The churchyard

Construction cranes and office towers fill the horizon where Interstate 385 dead-ends downtown. Traffic whizzes past the corner of Church and East North streets at a pace Vardry McBee never could have imagined when giving away his pastureland in a small 19th century village. That initial “four acres and twenty-three poles” has grown into a vibrant 12-acre campus featuring a church and chapel, educational and administrative buildings, children’s playgrounds, and six acres of churchyard providing a tranquil spot of respite in the heart of downtown.

“It’s an anchor for Greenville as we grow,” says Mary Johnston, lifelong member and chairman of this year’s churchyard preservation fundraising. “Visitors come here to eat lunch, to visit and walk around. That’s what makes a city, is to have green space for people to enjoy. It’s tremendously important.”

McLeod grows philosophical as he walks through the space from the parking lot to the church, passing dozens of granite monuments, carved headstones and ornate benches.

“It’s a pilgrimage,” the spiritual leader says. “It’s a metaphorical sort of death to life. We take this journey every Sunday and surround ourselves by all of these people of faith who came before us, our forebearers who witnessed the power of this church and the power of Christ in their lives, and now we get to participate in that.”

The past lives on in the present.

“I hope they would be very gratified if we could interview them today,” he says. “They would say, ‘This is what we hoped for. This is what we built for.’ I am confident Greenville is the city that it is because of this church and other churches. I hope we are setting the stage for this church to continue to thrive and be an important voice for hope and transformation for another 200 years.”

Christ Church Episcopal School

In the late 1950s, Christ Church partnered with St. James Episcopal Church, Church of the Redeemer and St. Andrews to create a parochial day school. In 1959, Christ Church Episcopal School opened in three homes on East Washington Street with nine faculty members and 213 students in primer through sixth grade. Today, the church is still actively involved with the school, educating more than 1,100 students in pre-K through 12th grade.

Bicentennial celebrations

Jan. 26: Kickoff Brunch on Campus

April 24-25: Joyful Garden Tour at Area Homes and Campus

Sept. 26: Bicentennial Family Celebration at Fluor Field

Nov. 22: Bicentennial Closing Breakfast on Campus

Recurring: 20 for 20 Community Service — donate 20 hours to a project of your choice.

Joyful Garden Tour (April 24-25)

Artists, music and food will fill campus during this year’s Joyful Garden Tour, raising money for the Beth Croft Endowment Fund for landscaping and churchyard upkeep. The tour will also include gardens of homes on McDaniel and Crescent avenues. More than 850 people visited during the 2018 tour, raising almost $120,000.

For more on Christ Church Episcopal, its bicentennial events, as well as its past, present and future, go to www.ccgsc.org.

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