HOA Management in Greer, SC

Greer, S.C. facts & Information

Greer, is a municipality located in both Greenville and Spartanburg counties As of 2021, Greer is the 14^th largest municipality within South Carolina. Greer is chartered as a city by the state of South Carolina.

The Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP), which serves the Upstate region of South Carolina, is just south of Greer. The airport first opened on October 15, 1962. After the Charleston International Airport, the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport is the second-busiest airport in South Carolina, with around 2.61 million passengers in 2019. The asphalt and concrete runways are 11,001 feet long.

Greer is home to the North American BMW manufacturing facility, even though it is commonly known as the Spartanburg manufacturing plant. The BMW facility employs around 9,000 people, along with around 12,000 people employed by BMW suppliers. The facility manufacturers around 1,500 vehicles per day. The models produced included the X3, X4, X5, X6, and X7 SUV models.

A Brief Historic Overview of Greer

The first recorded inhabitants of the future Greer area and the entire section of South Carolina were the Cherokee Indians. The future Greer was part of the Cherokee people’s vast hunting ground. During the American Revolution, the Cherokee Indians sided with the British. As a result, the Cherokee territory was taken from them and added to the state of South Carolina in 1777. It was open, for the first time to “legalized” settlement by settlers of European origin.

Greer’s namesake was James Manning Greer (08/07/1827 – 07/02/1900). He was the great-grandson of John Greer Sr., who in the 1750s surveyed and took possession of land in Laurens County. The Greer family initially homesteaded in the area of Duncans Creek and the Enoree River. This is the vicinity of the historic Duncan’s Creek Presbyterian Church (Latitude: 34°31′17.08″ N, Longitude: 81°48′21.50″ W) northeast of Clinton, South Carolina. John Greer Sr.’s descendants are spread throughout the general area and region.

James Manning Greer and his family settled his family around ten miles northeast of Greenville, which ultimately became known as Greer’s Station. This origin traces its roots to the Atlanta & Richmond Air Line Railway, which was incorporated in 1870, and was operational in 1873. The Atlanta & Richmond Air Line Railway constructed a depot on land that was once owned by James Manning Greer and thus, the name Greer’s Depot was born in 1873. The depot’s name was changed by the railroad to just “Greer” in 1901.

The new depot was of Victorian design with a cupola, slate roof and constructed with red brick. It was demolished in 1976 and was located between Trade and Depot streets adjacent to the rail line. The new depot also housed the town’s first post office.

The future City of Greer was incorporated in 1876 as the Town of Greer’s. The apostrophe “s” attached to Greer was included and sometimes not included in newspaper accounts of the town. The apostrophe “s” and the plural “Greers” slowly fell out of use through the years. In the 1970s, the name was formally changed to the City of Greer.

With the arrival of the railroad in 1873, it immediately became the major economic driver for the entire area. Agricultural enterprises and supporting businesses slowly developed around Greer’s Depot. Cotton and peaches were the primary crops grown in the area at the time. The railroad helped facilitate the cultivation of these two crops by opening faraway markets to these two cash crops.

A downtown developed along the rail line from the Greer’s Depot with these businesses. Greer’s first bank, the Bank of Greer’s, was funded and opened in 1900. Around the turn of the 20^th century, textile manufacturing in the region began to play a larger part in the economy. The railroad played a large part in the development of textiles in the region as well. A second rail line was laid down through Greer in 1914. Greer developed into a major textile center with four major mills Victor, Franklin, Apalache, and Greer mills. As the textile mills continued to be opened in Greer, the population increased to keep pace with the employment demands of these textile mills.

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