Restoration efforts for the historic Mayberry baseball field in Unity Park will soon be underway. A ceremonial groundbreaking was held Nov. 14.
The new ballpark will sit on the former site of Mayberry Park, the city’s segregated park for Black children. The ill-maintained park served as a gathering place for children within the surrounding neighborhoods for many decades.
Read more on the history of Mayberry Park
“The story of Mayberry Park I think is a narrative our community can learn from,” said Craig Brown, owner of the Greenville Drive. “It’s also, thankfully, a story that we can build our future around. It’s our desire to play a role in restoring the park and celebrating the sense of place the park represented in the community.”
The project will be completed through a public-private partnership between the city of Greenville and multiple private donors. Brown and his wife, Vicki, are the lead donors for the new field. It is located on Mayberry Street, near Unity Park’s Auro Bridge.
Named Mayberry Field, the new Little League baseball field will feature:
- Grandstand bleachers
- Batting tunnels
- A large scoreboard
- LED field lighting
- A press box
- Dugouts
- Concession stands
- A landscaped outfield for additional seating
Goodwyn Mills Cawood LLC, an architecture engineering firm, was recently selected as the project’s planning and design consultant after the city released a bid request in September 2023.
Final designs for the project have yet to be finalized and construction plans need to be completed. Neil Wilson, senior project manager at Harper General Contractors, said they are hopeful those two elements will be completed within the next three to six months and then construction will begin. Work could start in early 2024.
“Unless the design is able to move along pretty swiftly, I think we’re probably looking at some time in the fall of next year (to be complete),” Wilson said.
