A Visit to Walnut Grove
Friday, May 09, 2014
By Brad Steinecke, produced in cooperation with the HubCity Writers Project. Whenever I visit Walnut Grove Plantation, I like to take a few minutes to walk out into the field facing the house and close my eyes. I enjoy letting the 21st century fade away, focusing on the quiet breeze and imagining the familiar natural landscape of the post-industrial Upstate transformed into
Continue Reading >The Gardens of Spartanburg
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
By Jan Scalisi , with the HubCity Writers Project. You can drive by it on busy John B. White Sr. Boulevard and never notice it. You can even pull in and park at the entryway, but still have no clear idea of what’s ahead. It’s only as your walk unfolds, step by surprising step, that you begin to realize where you've arrived: in a peaceful garden in the middle of the city.
Continue Reading >The Fish Camp Experience
Friday, March 21, 2014
By Jeremy L. C. Jones, produced in cooperation with the HubCity Writers Project. The Flounder Fish Camp doesn't look like much. It's nothing fancy inside or out. Most fish camps aren't. They're not supposed to be. The Flounder is out of the way—off Interstate 26, northwest of the city of Spartanburg, at 160 Barbado Lane. It's a relatively plain stucco rectangle with bro
Continue Reading >The West Main Artists Co-op
Friday, March 14, 2014
By Christopher George, produced in cooperation with the HubCity Writers Project. From the outside, the steeply sloped roofline and large, ornate windows would make it easy for anyone to guess at the original purpose of the large red brick structure at 578 West Main Street. Originally housing a Baptist church, this 20,000-square-foot building planted on a small hill just west
Continue Reading >Cycling Spartanburg
Monday, February 03, 2014
By P. L. Thomas, produced in cooperation with the HubCity Writers Project. My journey to becoming a cyclist began in the early 1980s when I bought my wife and me two Schwinn bicycles from the Great Escape in Spartanburg when the store was housed in what we called then “the old Sears building” across from the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium. At the time, as we walked out o
Continue Reading >BMW: A Day with the Ultimate Driving Machine
Friday, December 20, 2013
There’s a green cone just off the edge of the track at the BMW Performance Center, marking where my first of four timed laps will start. I’m behind the wheel of a 135is, the fastest version of a diminutive vehicle affectionately known by German car enthusiasts as the “Baby Beemer.” Mine is the first in a line of five identical models—all in a color BMW calls “Deep S
Continue Reading >Paddling the Pacolet
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
By John Lane, HubCity Writers Project I love our local rivers and I want everybody in Spartanburg to love them as well. The only way to really love rivers is to come into close contact with them, and with that in mind, on a sunny, fall Sunday a group of Spartanburg County community members of varying skill levels put in on the lower end of Lawson’s Fork under the bridge on
Continue Reading >Brewing Beer in Downtown’s Grain District
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
By Jodie Free, HubCity Writers Project I came to Spartanburg on a summer internship from my graduate school in Oxford, Mississippi, and during the three months that I lived there, RJ Rockers beer became a staple of my diet, and the brewery became one of my favorite places to be downtown. Founded in 1997 by head brewer and New Jersey native Mark Johnsen, RJ Rockers is a microb
Continue Reading >Showin Off at Glendale Shoals
Monday, October 14, 2013
By Andrew Waters, HubCity Writers Project On a Wednesday afternoon in early fall I am getting a tour of the Glendale Shoals Preserve with Steve Patton and Fred Parrish. That’s a thing I’ve noticed about Glendale Shoals—people love to show it off. Of course, I could hardly ask for better tour guides than Fred and Steve. Both are residents of the Glendale community
Continue Reading >Being Pet-Friendly in Spartanburg
Monday, October 14, 2013
By Jeremy L. C. Jones, HubCity Writers Project We usually go to Spartanburg’s Rail Tails dog park early in the morning or late in the afternoon, but the absolute best time is just after dinner when the sun has dipped but not set, the shade has lengthened, and the dogs of Spartanburg are ready to burn off their excess energy. One day recently my daughter Molly and I show
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