Spartanburg, SC

During the aftermath of World War II Spartanburg, South Carolina began to lay the groundwork for its future as a successful and industrialized community. Spartanburg began as a small railroad town surrounded by farms. In just fifty years Spartanburg has doubled in size to contain many large shopping centers and to be one of the largest, most prominent cities in the state. The original part of the city still contains that old railway town charm, with a small, beautiful park right in the center of downtown. Spartanburg contains a surprising number of European factories and European style homes for such a southern city. Large companies such as Milliken have made this once small town into the city it is today. The author of the book “Guten Tag Ya’ll: Globalization and the South Carolina Piedmont, 1950-2000” upon visiting Spartanburg for the first time, was absolutely amazed at the number of European influences throughout the town. After World War II Spartanburg gained an influx of young workers whom had previously been at war. These workers needed jobs, so Spartanburg began to encourage the building of new companies, most of them European, to give the young workers jobs. Over time, these companies flourished and grew so the Spartanburg was in a steady state of expansion. What is now known as the “East Side” of Spartanburg, was the entire original Spartanburg. In just the past thirty years Spartanburg has more than doubled in size, so that it is now split between the “East Side” and the “West Side”. The East Side features the downtown of Spartanburg, which has had a lot of work done in the past twenty years. Many of the older buildings have been refurbished to contain the new offices and companies that continue to come in. At the center of downtown there is a small, beautiful park called Daniel Square with a bell tower and a large statue of Daniel Morgan. Daniel Morgan was a Revolutionary War commander who is honored in the square because he won the Battle at Cowpens, which is a small town just outside of Spartanburg. The West Side of Spartanburg- the newer part- is very large, much larger than the original Spartanburg. Just thirty years ago the West Side was fields and fields of cow pastures belonging to the farms located near the railway station in Spartanburg. Now it is part of the large and prosperous city of Spartanburg. Spartanburg’s remarkable transformation from a small, unimportant town to a modern city is all due to the presence of European companies. These companies employed hundreds of workers, encouraging other people to move to Spartanburg to find work. They provided a different, more cosmopolitan standard of living for the once small town, country people of Spartanburg, South Carolina. Works Cited “Guten Tag, Y'all: Globalization and the South Carolina Piedmont, 1950-2000” Maunula, Marko. University of Georgia Press. Athens, GA, USA. 08/2009