The month of May is Preservation Month with this year’s theme being “People Saving Places.” What a great place to begin the conversation about what is happening in Greenville today to preserve and protect our local culture, existing architecture and the stories they tell? We all know how much we have lost in Greenville to development, whether it is in the present or in the past. Who is minding the store? Who is that person or people who get up every morning and thinks only about preserving our past to ensure our future? We have so many talented individuals employed in our City and County who have important roles to play. There are certainly many local citizens who are the grass roots watch dogs. But when it comes right down to it, don’t we need an individual whose job it is, Monday through Friday, to be the person who oversees the preservation of what is left of our past so we can ensure it is here for our future citizens? That person should be someone who has the support of the City and County with the ability to effect protection when it is needed.
Every day at the GCHS we receive calls and emails asking us questions such as what used to be located in a certain block, street, lot, before something else was built there? Or, how about the people who call regularly and begin their inquiry with “My great-grandfather, grandfather, was the owner of that building/business and it housed a very important part of our past and it is going to be torn down”. We have few resources to suggest to them that may help with the best possible outcome.
In 2017, the City of Greenville hired WLA Associates from Gainesville, Georgia to conduct a historic resources survey. In addition to identifying historic resources, WLA also made recommendations that the City designate additional local historic districts and landmarks to protect endangered and vulnerable historic properties. Although the City has engaged with the public regarding one such recommendation, the Village of West Greenville, other resources have been lost or adversely altered. We encourage the City to follow WLA’s full recommendations with an increased pace.
Another important recommendation by WLA and perhaps most important, it was recommended that a non-profit preservation advocacy group be enlisted and “should be a top priority for the city”. It recommended the city to encourage and help foster this advocacy group, support it, provide networking, promote it and provide locations for it to meet. The GCHS is currently playing this roll and could help to foster such a group.
The City of Greenville should make historic preservation a priority if we are to retain our historic character. It needs to happen before we lose any more of our existing local historic and architectural resources. Our heritage and culture are what makes Greenville distinctive.
Darlene G. Parker
Executive Director
Greenville County Historical Society
