GREENVILLE, a city of north-western South Carolina, U.S.A., on the Reedy river; the county seat of Greenville county. It is on Federal highways 25, 29 and 76; has a municipal airport; and is served by the Charleston and Western Carolina, the Pied mont and Northern (electric), and the Southern railways. The population in 192o was (35% negro) and was 29,154 in 193o by Federal census. For the area within 2.5m. of the centre of the city, the estimate for 1928 was 65,000. Greenville lies amid beautiful mountain scenery, at an altitude of I,o4of t., near the foot of the Blue Ridge. The incorporated area is a circle with an area of 4.82 sq.m., but for economic and social purposes the urban unit includes a fringe of textile mills and a village popula tion of 30,00o just outside the corporate limits. It is an important cotton market, handling i,000,000 bales a year, and is one of the principal textile centres of the South. The 28 textile establish ments in the county in 1928 had over 20,000 looms and 770,000 spindles, and manufactured 4,50o different patterns of cloth, from heaviest duck to fine silks, voiles and shirtings. The Southern Textile Exposition is held here in alternate years. The city has various industries complementary to the spinning and weaving of cotton, such as bleaching, finishing and dyeing, and it is possible here to see the entire process of production, from the growing of the staple to the turning out of garments ready to wear. There are also sundry diversified industries, including plants making equipment for the textile mills and a meat-packing house. Green ville is the seat of Furman university for men (Baptist; opened 1852), which grew out of an institution established elsewhere in 1826; and of Greenville Woman's college (Baptist), established in 1854. The site of the city is part of a tract that was ceded to South Carolina by the Cherokee Indians on May 20, 17 7 7. In a town was laid out here for the county seat, and was named Pleasantburg, and in 1831 the name was changed to Greenville.
The city was chartered in 1868.