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The aptly named Hub City Spartanburgers minor league baseball team has become a part of Spartanburg’s revitalized city identity.
Provided photo, OneSpartanburg, Inc
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Morgan Square is a focal point of downtown Spartanburg activity, flanked by shops and restaurants.
Photo by Ian Curcio
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Bruce Gathman educates visitors to the Hub City Railroad Museum about Spartanburg’s history as a railroad town that thrived on the textile and peach markets.
Photo by Ian Curcio
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The Hub City Farmers Market boasts more than 30 vendors most weeks, selling locally raised produce, handmade pottery, honey, crepes and more.
Photo by Ian Curcio
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Inessa Onufriychuk serves a customer at The Coffee Bar on Spartanburg’s Main Street.
Photo by Ian Curcio
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Josh Griffin browses at Hub City Bookshop & Press, a full-service independent bookstore on Spartanburg’s Main Street.
Photo by Ian Curcio
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The Artists Collective in Spartanburg is open to the public, featuring 32 studios and 60 artists.
Photo by Ian Curcio
An hour before midnight, fireworks fill the summer sky. Country music plays, and people “ooh” and “ahh” and clap as they beg for more. Not even a pregame rain shower can dampen the experience at the still-smells-new minor league baseball park for the aptly named Hub City Spartanburgers on this sultry evening.
You see, Spartanburg is no longer your grandpa's sleepy Southern town where the sidewalks roll up at 5 p.m. This new version of Hub City is where folks come in search of entertainment, good food, a vibrant arts community and walks in nature.
Near the ballpark, the AC Hotel, with its modern artwork and rooftop restaurant, is lit up, its green lights giving off an Oz vibe.
And as you walk toward Oz, you experience a moment of silence, just a few seconds, and then you hear it: the long, lonesome wail of a train from the west. And you remember the past, even in a place where everyone seems intent on moving forward.
Original Hub City
“This town would be nothing without the railroads,” Bruce Gathman says between tours on a Saturday at the Hub City Railroad Museum.
He tells of the 1920s when Spartanburg was dubbed Hub City, the axis where seven railroad lines connected and 30 passenger trains made daily stops at the depot on Magnolia Street, where the museum is now located.
The railroads and textile mills worked hand in hand during the first part of the 20th century. The railroads brought coal to power the mills, machinery to make the textiles and cotton to feed the looms. Finished goods were shipped from 56 mills, with Spartanburg County at the center of the highest concentration of mills in the South.
And when the cotton market declined, the railcars were filled with peaches. At one point in the 1940s, Spartanburg County was shipping out more than 7,000 peach-loaded cars a season, more than the entire state of Georgia.
But that was then. Today, there are only two passenger trains—the Amtrak northbound that stops at 3:04 a.m. and the southbound at 4:20 a.m.
Gathman hopes that visitors to the museum learn a little about Spartanburg and the importance the railroads played in its growth, how the railroads evolved and how Spartanburg could learn from its past.
“History is still there, and that's a great thing,” Gathman says. “But if you don't grow, you're not going to survive. You can't sit back and do nothing.”
Growing community
Stan Lawson has lived in Spartanburg County most of his life. “As a kid,” he says, “there really wasn't much to do in the community. It sort of felt a little detached. You could either go to the skating rink, the movies, or you could hang out in the Petco parking lot.”
Lawson grows native medicinal and edible plants and can usually be found among the more than 30 vendors at the Hub City Farmers Market, which features locally raised fruits and vegetables, handmade pottery, honey, crepes, New Orleans-style cuisine, and more.
“It's been a bit of a melting pot,” says Jenni Callahan, the food systems program manager for PAL (Play. Advocate. Live well.) Spartanburg, which operates the year-round market. “It's not just people buying their groceries and handmade items. They're here to socialize. All these different types coming together.”
Lawson points to the numerous open spaces available in Spartanburg that drive community and spark volunteer opportunities.
“We're just trying to become a different place than we used to be,” he says. “We have some of the best native trails around. You can walk around and see greenery you wouldn't find in other places. We take pride in how we make things look.”
Remaining authentic
The Hatcher Garden and Woodland Preserve is Spartanburg's botanical garden and is a perfect place to enjoy nature.
Benches are sprinkled throughout the 12-acre park, as are plaques honoring beloved fathers, mothers, children, siblings and neighbors. One says, “A garden heals the soul.” Near a clump of oakleaf hydrangeas heavy with white blooms is the flash of blue of an indigo bunting.
The pace picks up downtown, with a bustle of activity in Morgan Square, which is blocked off to traffic and lined with shops and restaurants.
“Five, six years ago, that's not how it was,” says Zach Fox, communications director for OneSpartanburg. “You had a lot of people that worked downtown, so lunches would be busy, but after 5 p.m., it kind of went to sleep a little bit.”
Fox has been in Spartanburg since 2013, and he's seen the town undergo a “dramatic change.”
“We don't really want Spartanburg to become a Greenville. We want it to maintain that kind of character it's had the entire time,” Fox says. “We seek to remain authentic.”
Creating something new
Authenticity is on full display at numerous art galleries in Spartanburg, including the Artists Collective, where 60 mostly local artists create and display their pieces.
Alana Hall, operations manager for the collective, has lived in Spartanburg for more than 10 years and seen her city change.
“When it comes to artwork, you're supposed to learn the rules so you know when to break them,” Hall says. “You learn from all these older artists and the famous artists no longer living. And then you take everything and just break it apart and create something of your own.”
Hall reimagines in a variety of media: watercolor, acrylic, oil, wash, digital painting and murals, and she also works in ceramics and papermaking. The evolution of clay into ceramics isn't so different from her city's transformation, she says:
“You fire it multiple times and glaze it with more earth, and you're creating something new.”
Walking The Dan
A day ends, and can often begin, on one of the walking trails that weave around communities across Spartanburg. Known as “The Dan,” the Daniel Morgan Trail System is a 55-mile network of trails.
Just off downtown is the Mary Black Foundation Rail Trail, a 1.9-mile blacktopped path that runs beneath a shaded grove of maples and oaks, past the Little River Roasting Company where the smell of coffee beckons, and around Pine Street Elementary before connecting with Duncan Park.
Walkers raise their hands and say, “How ya doin'?” and bicyclists speed by in a flash of color and click of spokes.
You walk and embrace all that is Spartanburg, your feet keeping a steady pace atop that fresh layer of blacktop that follows the path where the trains once ran. And you remember the past and look forward to what awaits around the next curve.
Hub of activity
From street festivals to holiday celebrations to family-friendly events, Spartanburg hosts a wide array of activities for all ages and interests, including:
The Spartanburg Criterium
This closed-circuit, multi-lap bike race twists and turns through the downtown streets each spring.
Sparkle City Rhythm & Ribs Festival
Enjoy all the BBQ, brisket and classic summer treats you can eat, then relax with some live music.
Spartanburg Music Trail
A 30-minute, self-guided tour through downtown celebrates musicians, singers and songwriters with local ties, including the Marshall Tucker Band, the superstars of Southern rock; Hank Garland, the guitarist who played alongside Elvis Presley; and “Singing Billy” Walker, the singer who put the words and music together to create the hymn “Amazing Grace.”
Find more at experiencespartanburg.com.