Greenville Built the Main Street Back

Greenville had a waterfall in the middle of downtown and, for forty years, a four-lane highway bridge sitting directly on top of it, which is as clean a summary of mid-century America as exists. The city tore the bridge down two decades ago, built a park around the falls and a footbridge over them, and the main street that runs from that park is now, by wide agreement among people who collect main streets, the best in the South. The rest of the country has been sending study delegations ever since. Everything below assumes two nights.

Stay on or just off Main Street, since the whole point of Greenville is a downtown that works on foot, and the hotels along the street put the falls, the restaurants, and the evening promenade at the door. Weekends book up during the city's festival calendar and college football Saturdays, so check the schedule and reserve accordingly. Rates remain gentle for what is delivered.

Start at Falls Park, where the Reedy drops through the middle of town and the suspended footbridge curves over the gorge, and walk Main Street north from it, a mile of trees, awnings, and sidewalk tables that the city planted and widened when everyone said downtowns were finished. The street rewards slowness. In the evening it fills with actual residents, which remains the whole test, and Greenville passes it nightly.

The Swamp Rabbit Trail runs twenty-some miles along the old rail line from downtown up to Travelers Rest, paved the whole way, and riding it is the correct Greenville morning, coffee downtown, an easy hour up the river valley, lunch in Travelers Rest, which the trail single-handedly revived, and the gentle grade home. Rentals cluster near the park. The trail explains the city's whole philosophy better than any brochure.

The main street revival was led by the kitchens, and the street and its side blocks now hold a full weekend of eating, Southern rooms with ambition, a barbecue and biscuit culture that needs no help, and sidewalk tables running three seasons of the year. Book the serious dinners on weekends. The Saturday farmers market on Main is the correct start to that morning.

Come in spring or October, when the street's trees and the trail are at their best, and check the festival calendar, which can double the crowds and the fun in equal measure. The mountains begin half an hour north if the legs want more than the trail, and the drive up to the Blue Ridge escarpment makes an easy afternoon.

On the last evening, walk back to the falls after dinner, when the bridge is lit and the water keeps working under it in the dark. The highway sat on top of this for forty years. The city that chose to look again is the one worth returning to.