Its very difficult to create a defensible urban evaluation area of urban Rock Hill. I did my best to include only areas built before WWII with sidewalks and limited blight. I used Lucky Lane and State as the rough western boundary, the southern border is Albright Rd, Spenser, Eastbrook, Willow brook, and Charlotte as the eastern border, Cherry as the northern border, but north of Dave Lyle Blvd I only include the area between White St and Charlotte St.

Rock Hill is 5th-most populous city in South Carolina. The city is also home to three colleges, including Winthrop University, which enrolls 6K students. Rock Hill was a tiny settlement until the construction of the railroad in the 1850s. Due to its position on the railroad, Rock Hill became a transfer point for Confederate soldiers moving supplies to and from the front. Most of the merchants in Rock Hill around 1870 were former Confederate soldiers; many were entrepreneurs who were new to town, trying to start over. The town was not officially incorporated until 1870. The City’s population quickly grew to 5,500 by 1900 and then 15,000 by 1940s. After the WWII,  most of the City’s growth was come from sprawl, which got supercharged with the City being within the rapidly growing Charlotte Metro area. By 1980 Rock Hill reached 35K souls and currently sits at 75K residents.

Rock Hill has done a good job stabilizing its Dwtn and turning it into a destination and more recently a place to live. Main Street has a great streetscape and urban fabric. But when the urban fabric quickly turns into surface lots and low intensity uses in the ring outside of Dwtn. Residential areas west and south of Dwtn are spotty with some intact streets but others that contain many vacant lots. North of Dwtn the residential areas are more intact thanks to their proximity to Winthrop University. Some apartments buildings are popping up on the edge of Dwtn. Hopefully this trend continues and the core of Rock City continues to densify.

Click here to view my Rock Hill Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Dwtn Charlotte is  a1/2 ride with no traffic. Bus service to Dwtn is pretty infrequent.
* Good economic diversity across Rock Hill as a whole but very concentrated poverty south and west of Dwtn. Similar trend with racial diversity.
* Excellent age diversity thanks to the college and many families living here.
* Sidewalks and ADA curb cuts are pretty good across the City but certainly better at Winthrop University and Dwtn than the poorer neighborhoods to the south and west of Dwtn.
* Several decent elementary schools within central Rock Hill but not walkable middle or high schools.
* Good array of rental options with studios and 1-bed units leasing btwn $800-mid 1Ks, 2-beds lease btwn 1K-2K, and a handful of 3-beds that lease in the 2Ks.
* For sale housing is pretty affordably priced. 2-beds lease btwn 80K-400K, 3 & 4 beds sell anywhere btwn 150K-750K.
* Good parks including a several dwtn plazas, a large cemetery, a Botanical Garden, and a large park with sport fields, and a major recreation center.
* Overall a pretty safe community but a decent amount of blight remains.
* Good architecture dwtn including a good mix of historic and quality urban in-fill. Some nice housing north of Dwtn but a good amount of autocentric uses along the main streets outside of Dwtn.
* Good urban form in the core of Dwtn
* Cultural amenities are concentrated in the small Dwtn core including a good array of food & beverage businesses, several theaters, a handful of art galleries, a handful of night clubs, several museums, and the cultural amenities of Winthrop University.
* In the dwtn core this is a nice array of boutiques, clothing stores, banks, a book store, a couple home good stores, a dwtn public library, and several churches.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

• No bus service in Rock Hill but there are several decent shuttle routes connect the core City and to the University. There is also commuter service to Dwtn Charlotte which is over an hour.
• Pretty low density for an urban area but par for the course in the Carolinas.
• Biking infrastructure is non-existent.
• Ok retail amenities including.
• The Dwtn core is missing important neighborhood amenities including a supermarket, drug store, etc. Some of these are located in the suburban shopping mall located on Cherry Rd just north of the University. Outside of this shopping mall and the Dwtn core, retail amenities are pretty limited.
• Good pedestrian activity in the Dwtn core but limited outside of it.”