“Outside the city limits and policed by a single “rural policeman,” Stradleyville (that old term for West Greenville) was a place where illegal activities flourished. Eventually residents had enough and Stradleyville finally incorporated as a separate town in 1914 to help establish some semblance of law and order. Slowly the neighborhood filled in and by WWII West Greenville had a thriving business district where Pendleton and Lois Streets meet. The town merged with the City of Greenville in 1948. The neighborhood like many other inner city districts in Greenville slid into a slow decay likely in the 60s and 70s thanks to the closing of the mills and suburban sprawl. Thankfully West Greenville is on the rebound capitalizing on the rise in fortunate across all of Greenville. Revitalization started with the business district, which is now thriving, and many expensive new homes are being built here.
While the business node at Pendletown and Lois Street is in-tact and thriving, the neighborhood as a whole still has a fair amount of blight and is low density for an urban district. The eastern edge of West Greenville remained most in-tact and currently hosts the neighborhood’s best market values thanks to its proximity to the West End. Other than the Pendletown/Lois node, the main streets in West Greenville are pretty dead and autocentric. Public transit is also mediocre here and parks and good schools are limited. Important amenities including a full service supermarket, drug store, and consistant sidewalks are also crucial for West Greenville to be a more walkable place. But with the urban boom in Greenville as a whole, I am hopefully that the neighborhood will fill in and urbanize.”
Click here to view my West Greenville Album on Flickr
URBAN STRENGTHS:
* Great access to Dwtn being only 1.5 miles away.
* Good amount of affordable housing but lots of higher end new housing is being constructed. 2-beds sell btwn 100K-400K and 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 150K-900K. Decent amount of public housing here.
* Good Tree canopy but not as good as more affluent neighborhoods.
* Nice in tact urban commercial node at Pendleton and Lois Ave. Also hosts attractive historic commercial bldg but historic residential homes are generally nothing special.
* Good cultural amenities including plenty of restaurants, bars, cafe, a couple live music venues, a brewery, and a couple art galleries. Residents living in the Eastend of West Greenville are pretty close to the cultural amenities of the West End.
* Decent retail amenities including several boutiques & gift shops, a couple salons, several banks, a bakery, a jeweler, plenty of churches, and a major hospital just south of the neighborhood
URBAN WEAKNESSES:
* Very low population density for an inner city neighborhood.
* About 1/3 of the streets don’t have sidewalks.
* Mediocre public transit access.
* 1/3 of the residents live in poverty but it seems that well is starting to move into the neighborhood.
* Some rentals but all single family homes leasing in the 2Ks.
* Other than a small community garden there really aren’t any other park spaces. There is an extensive park (Unity Park) just north of the neighborhood but across railroad tracks.
* Until about the decade West Greenville was pretty impoverished and high crime area. With the revitalization that came to the neighborhood the past decade crime is being enough less and less of an issue.
* Only one quality school on the edge of West Greenville. Also a small Catholic grade school.
* Other than the urban node at Pendleton and Lois Ave the arterial roads (Pendleton and Academy St) are very auto centric.
* Urban commercial in-fill is limited but lots of decent new urban homes.
* Missing a proper supermarket, drug store, or a walkable library or post office.
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Evaluating our Urban Communities [with a focus on America] 