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Greenville and its people have roots that run deep. Since its earliest days, people from all walks of life, drovers to mill workers to merchants to plantation owners, directly shaped and contributed to what we know Greenville to be in today's world. Now, under the careful direction of the Historic Greenville Foundation, Greenville's rich history has become a reachable, touchable part of the lives of modern Greenville residents through the Greenville Regional History Museum.
Located at the corner of Atwood and Buncombe Streets in downtown Greenville, the $13-million Regional History Museum project includes 43,000 square feet of exhibition and office space. Its location, adjacent to Heritage Green, is a "natural." Chris Chadbourne, of Christopher Chadbourne and Associates in Boston, MA, created the plans for the displays and exhibitions that tell the story of Greenville's history. The museum shows how Greenville evolved from a simple agrarian settlement on the Reedy River to a regional textile power to its current position as an international economic contender. The story is told in a powerful way. By using different facades, displays, storytelling characters from different time periods and audio bites of different sounds that have been heard throughout our Upstate history, the displays come to life. Characters from varying times, economic levels and political positions are used to help convey the sometimes conflicting opinions that molded our regional history. It is in this way that the museum is unique and exciting, showing today's students, and adults as well, that the past is full of contrasting beliefs and attitudes. It wasn't merely "history" for these characters from our past; rather, it was life, with all of its pressures, opinions and judgements.
First floor displays includes scenes that show the character of Greenville, including a façade of the Reedy River Falls, a textile mill tower, and a drover's trail, complete with pigs running about on a muddy Main Street. The "Upcountry Frontier" area includes the Native American trade routes through the region in the late 1600s and into the early 1700s, and how these routes closely parallel today's major highways. Displays on the second floor include Greenville's more recent history, including its textile background, economic and racial problems that existed following the breakup of plantations and the Upcountry's military bases. A video program focuses on post- World War II segregation problems and the resulting desegregation of the Civil Rights era of the 1960s. Given the current plan for displays, films and exhibitions that are included, the Greenville Regional History Museum is an excellent resource, not only for student groups, but also for newcomers to the area as well as people whose families have spent generations in the Upstate. The museum provides a powerful, all-inclusive look at Greenville and the surrounding region, and does not deflect its gaze from any part of the past, even the more difficult ones. In this sense, the story that the museum tells will be one that can be trusted; after all, not all events are pleasant or proud, but all events do work toward shaping the present, and must be remembered and examined in order for us to understand who we are and how we got here. The museum is a welcome addition and helps tell the story of Greenville in our restoration-oriented downtown. By providing this powerful and resourceful link, Greenville can proudly look to its future with its past clearly defined and understood. (Renderings provided by the Greenville Regional History Museum.)
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In the "Politics of the Upcountry" area, a film unveils the life of a woman who discusses the American Revolution and its effects on the Upcountry, the effects of ratification of the Constitution and the Nullification Crisis of the 1830s. The cast figure of a Lowcountry woman contrasts plantation life with that of the unsophisticated rural life in the Upcountry. Reproduced newspaper articles and personal stories report on problems of unionism versus secessionism. The character of Professor James C. Furman is on hand as he preaches secession from the Union at area Baptist churches. The history of education is revealed and will show how educational opportunities differed between boys and girls.