How Greenville Transformed Its Main Street — And What the Clemson Area Can Learn
In the summer of 1974, an architectural design firm presented a bold plan to leaders of Greenville, SC. Downtown was in decline. Main Street was a four-lane state highway lined with half-empty storefronts. Shoppers had fled to malls. The heart of the city was dying.
Main Street in Greenville before: a four-lane highway through a fading downtown.
The architects made a surprising suggestion: shrink Main Street from four lanes to two.
Controversial Advice for Main Street Greenville
The design firm proposed wider sidewalks, diagonal parking, and rows of small trees that would eventually shade the street. In short, they recommended making downtown less convenient for cars so that it would be more inviting for people.
The plan was controversial. Some feared killing off the little business that remained. But civic leaders like Mayor Max Heller and attorney Tommy Wyche kept pushing.
Rebuilding Main Street in the mid-1970s after approval of the controversial “road diet.”
Freshly planted trees and wider sidewalks in the years right after the redesign.
Fifty years later, Greenville’s gamble has paid off beyond what anyone imagined.
One of America’s Best Downtowns
Today, Main Street is lined with more than 100 shops and restaurants, shaded by mature trees, and filled with people strolling, eating outdoors, and enjoying festivals. It is recognized nationally as one of the best downtowns in America.
Today, Main Street is shaded by mature trees, filled with people, and recognized as one of America’s best downtowns.
How to Build Beautiful, People-Friendly Downtowns
The lesson is clear: awesome downtowns don’t happen by accident.
They take bold planning, tough choices, and persistence.
That’s the challenge for local communities in the Clemson area today. All three town in the area – Clemson, Central, and Pendleton – still need work.
A few years ago Pendleton took some first steps to improve walkability around the Village Green. Hopefully those efforts will continue in a wider area around the town.
Pendleton widened sidewalks, created protected crosswalks, and narrowed car lanes.
Clemson commissioned a Downtown Corridor Plan in 2017, but much of the vision has not been executed.
This is what main street (aka College Ave) in Clemson feels like today.
And Central has made some improvements like adding downtown crosswalks, but main street as a whole hasn’t been transformed like it could.
Downtown Central has charm — but its main street is still designed for cars, not people.
What Needs to Happen in the Clemson Area
But here’s the hard truth for Pendleton, Clemson, and Central: all of their Main Street corridors are owned by the State DOT.
The state’s priorities are often not the same as local towns when it comes to making roads more pedestrian friendly.
So, to make real, people-friendly changes, Pendleton, Clemson, and Central will need to work with the SCDOT … or even take over responsibility for their main streets.
That’s what Greenville did. It’s also what Clemson University did in order to make pedestrian-friendly improvements in front of Bowman Field.
But in exchange for the chance to build vibrant, pedestrian-friendly downtowns, our towns would have to accept long-term responsibility for road maintenance costs.
I believe it’s a tradeoff worth making. It will allow the same kind of bold, pedestrian-friendly choices Greenville made for their Main Street in the 1970s.
And if we do the same, our communities will become even better places to live, work, and visit for decades to come.
