An article I wrote this summer for Spartanburg Magazine is now online at www.goupstate.com. The online version doesn’t have all the beautiful images taken by Tim Kimzey, but here is one of my favorites from the spread.
For two hundred years, Spartanburg has been built and rebuilt. The eighteenth-century frontier town has grown into a twenty-first century city with a population of nearly 40,000. In some South Carolina cities, such as Charleston or Abbeville, growth has been accompanied by a layering of architectural styles and historic sites. Spartanburg, however, has been torn down and replaced one building at a time, challenging the sense of place and the sense of aesthetic continuity or “look.”
Put more positively, Spartanburg is in constant exploration of how the new fits with the old, of how much to preserve and how much to clear away, and of how hidden history and contemporary innovations co-exist.
Spartanburg has long been a natural crossroads. The constant flow of people has brought rising and falling industries and a cross-pollination of architectural styles. More than anything, though, the economy has driven the architectural character of Spartanburg.
Early settlers constructed buildings they could afford that were big enough for their immediate needs. When the population of Spartanburg swelled, a common strategy was to level an old structure and erect a newer, larger one. In many cases, as many as three or four structures have stood on the same site.
The Great Depression solidified a predominant culture of fiscal cautiousness. With a few remarkable exceptions, it has not been until recent decades that Spartanburg has begun to see over-sized buildings that reflect financial optimism.
The buildings photographed below tell the story of a city rich with character and history, but also of a city that has both flourished and floundered economically. Mostly, Spartanburg’s architecture seems to be too busy doing other things to announce itself to the world. But it’s there, and well worth a second look.
Read the rest of the article here.
