A Brief History of Spartanburg
Saturday, June 25, 2016
A treaty with the Cherokee Indian Nation in 1753 opened up the area for settlers. The county formed in 1785 and got its name from the Spartan Regiment, a local militia unit that fought in the Revolutionary War. The county has grown from a frontier trading post and later a major textile center to an important and diversified manufacturing center with more than 500 manufacturing
Continue Reading >Three Spartanburg County Chefs Serve Up Their Secrets
Tuesday, April 05, 2016
As a fourth-generation South Carolina farmer, I’m always interested to see how chefs showcase our regional staples on their menus. While Spartanburg County is renowned for peaches, our unique corner of South Carolina is home to a number of seasonal delights. I talked to three local chefs about the ways they highlight our area’s artisanal foodstuffs and here’s what they ha
Continue Reading >The Sparkle City Pizza Scene
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
When I told my girlfriend that I had been asked to write an article about Spartanburg’s pizza scene, she crunched her face into a quizzical smirk and asked, “What pizza scene?” The attitude was expected. My girlfriend is a bona fide Yank—born and raised just outside of New York City—which means, among other things, that she maintains a steadfast discrimination toward
Continue Reading >The Scholar’s Tour of Spartanburg County
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Historical documents often give researchers an understanding of the social history of a place and how residents interacted with one another in the past. Libraries are one of my favorite places to visit when I go to a new town. This type of historical preservation is a quieter more nuanced art and it tends to be overlooked by visitors. However, if you find yourself in Spartanbur
Continue Reading >Spartanburg’s German Connection
Monday, February 08, 2016
Raise your hand if, when you think of Germans in Spartanburg, you think BMW? Me too—so I was surprised to learn that there are 27 German manufacturing companies in Spartanburg County and that the German community here predates BMW by decades, going back to the days when textiles were king of the manufacturing landscape. In the 1960s, part of Spartanburg’s strategy for keep
Continue Reading >Spartanburg is an Arts Town
Thursday, February 04, 2016
Music on Main, one of Spartanburg’s celebrated weekly warm-weather events, ceases at the beginning of winter, but there are plenty of things to do within city limits. With over 1,335 annual events and festivals, 43 galleries and art exhibit spaces, 21 indoor live performance venues, and nine outdoor performance venues, options abound, and most are free. There is no famine of
Continue Reading >Meat and Three: It’s What’s Cooking in Spartanburg
Wednesday, December 09, 2015
By Jan Scalisi , produced in cooperation with the HubCity Writers Project. If you’re visiting Spartanburg County—and would like to think that you’re doing a fine job of taking in its special culture—be sure to do this before you leave: Relax your belt buckle a notch, loosen your traveling pants, and take in some Southern-style comfort food. The locals will tell you tha
Continue Reading >A Tale of Two Distilleries
Friday, November 13, 2015
By Sharon Purvis, produced in cooperation with the HubCity Writers Project. If you ask ten people to name ten things that they associate with the Southern Appalachians, it's a pretty safe bet that most of them will include moonshine on their list. And with craft breweries and distilleries on the rise, it was only a matter of time before legal hooch made an appearance-but it's
Continue Reading >Visiting Peter’s Creek Preserve
Wednesday, November 04, 2015
By Tim Marsh, produced in cooperation with the HubCity Writers Project. When I first arrived in Spartanburg as the new Writer-in-Residence at the Hub City Writers Project, there was naturally a lot I needed to learn. There was the social and economic history of a very old county, the mannerisms of a deeply intricate culture, and the environs of a widely-diverse ecosystem. My
Continue Reading >Disc Golf – Spartanburg County Style
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
By Susan A. Sistare, produced in cooperation with the HubCity Writers Project. Updated for accuracy in April 2019. Disc Golf from Joe Canali on Vimeo. Not far off of Highway 9 in Boiling Springs, my friend Rhonda and I found the Shoally Creek disc golf course, a beautiful little spot on the grounds of Va-Du-Mar McMillan Park, a county-owned park north of Spartanburg. We w
Continue Reading >