“The only thing I could say was nice was the two parks," Duckett said. Meadowbrook was nice, but Mayberry was the only park she was allowed to go to.Įverything else was "desolate," she said. Mary Duckett, who lives in a home in the Southernside neighborhood built through affordable housing efforts, grew up in the park area. Federal government work programs created during the Great Depression resulted in a deepening of the Reedy River that opened the way for more recreational facilities in the park. The city set aside $15,000 to buy 15 acres of low-lying wetlands to create Mayberry Park, a park dedicated for "negro children" who were excluded from white parks. The vision for Hudson Athletic Fields, now Unity Park, was remote considering the treatment of the minority community that called it home - though it wasn't as if they didn't ask, or practically beg, for a park to call their own.Īs early as 1914, the city began to place its undesirable elements in the area, with the opening of a city stockade on Hudson Street, followed years later by a city incinerator, according to a history compiled by the city through local historians, council meeting minutes and clippings from The Greenville News. Falls Park sparked downtown development and showcased the Reedy River Falls upon its completion in 2004 along with the Liberty Bridge. The idea for the park first arose in 1907, when Boston landscape architect Harlan Kelsey proposed three parks along the Reedy River - Cleveland Park, Falls Park and what was then referred to as "Hudson Athletic Fields."Ĭleveland Park was completed in 1928. The story just comes up again and again." "Everything they wanted to do got railroaded over. "Story after story, you have people who have no power, no voice," White said. The story of the area was one Mayor Knox White said he didn't fully understand until meeting with the community about five years ago to discuss the possibility of a park. The area had been off the radar of developers and city leaders more focused on downtown until the push westward of that downtown development, marked most prominently in 2011 with the opening of the KROC Center on Academy Street. It encompasses historically low-income and predominantly African-American Southernside and West Greenville communities. Unity Park will be developed in the coming years in an area west of downtown between West Washington Street, Hudson Street, Mayberry Street and the Norfolk Southern Railroad. Today, opportunity knocks in so many ways, with so much money to be made. The legacy of neglect, especially the highway, is still evident even as new development rises from the ground. Support stories like this by supporting local journalism. It's a stark contrast to the days when the state government planned to run a highway loop through the middle of the neighborhood, or when the city literally dump its junked police cars and housed inmates and operated a firing range that would send errant bullets into homes. Whereas private investment like Hughes' RiverPlace came after the public contribution to make Falls Park, the private sector arrived in the area of Unity Park before dirt was even moved. The land that isn't public is some of the most-lucrative real estate in the region and a reason why the city is making such a concerted effort to set aside land as the cost for housing increases with property values. Much of the land is owned by the city, by a combination of circumstance and, in recent years, strategic planning. The result was lots of vacant land, vast expanses empty in the 60-acre park and the larger footprint around it. The price: segregation, broken promises, opportunism by those with power against the better interest of people without it. The idea of there being anything resembling "beachfront property" in the area west of downtown Greenville where Unity Park will emerge would have been unthinkable even half a decade ago.įor generations, the predominantly black and poor community surrounding the lowlands along the Reedy River paid the price for the unique opportunity Greenville has today to create a $70 million symbol of its ambition to present itself as a world-class city.
Watch Video: The new Unity Park in GreenvilleĮditor's note: This article was first published April 15, 2019.
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