ETV Classics
Greenville Accent on Action | Profile: SC Cities (1968)
Season 4 Episode 10 | 28m 56sVideo has Closed Captions
Greenville has many booming industries including textiles, cloth, fabric, and more.
The program follows a town called Pleasantburg that would eventually turn into Greenville. The program tours the city of Greenville and shows what can be found there. Greenville has a concern for total development, and they plan to reevaluate downtown Greenville.
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ETV Classics is a local public television program presented by SCETV
Support for this program is provided by The ETV Endowment of South Carolina.
ETV Classics
Greenville Accent on Action | Profile: SC Cities (1968)
Season 4 Episode 10 | 28m 56sVideo has Closed Captions
The program follows a town called Pleasantburg that would eventually turn into Greenville. The program tours the city of Greenville and shows what can be found there. Greenville has a concern for total development, and they plan to reevaluate downtown Greenville.
Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (Wrisley) Many years ago, there was a little village way stop in South Carolina called Pleasantburg, a little town that was destined to change.
♪ Would you believe that this is that same town?
Only now, it's almost a hundred years later, and little Pleasantburg is now big, bustling Greenville.
Greenville is still having some growing pains, which is generally true of a community that's on the move.
Happily, the people of Greenville are keenly interested in a continuing, balanced growth for their community and have come up with a list of proposed projects that will help ensure Greenville's total development.
That's the key, total development, meaning make the most of your potential.
Greenville's concern with total development has resulted, for example, in a plan to reevaluate downtown Greenville.
Key civic leaders are meeting to discuss all possible ways to rebuild, update, and make more effective and attractive the downtown section of the city.
Study is given such projects as tearing down outdated, useless buildings, creating action programs that will ease the always growing traffic problem, giving old buildings an updated facelift in keeping with the times, building to stay in step with the times.
Setting the pace for Greenville's skyline of the future is the magnificent Daniel Building, which reaches 23 stories into the sky.
Named after the late Charles W. Daniel, who headed the large construction firm which bears his name, the Daniel Building is a preview of things to come.
Mr. Daniel was a Greenville native instrumental in bringing much of the textile industry into this section of the Piedmont, adding vitality to the economy of the entire Greenville area.
The interior of the Daniel Building mixes modern, functional efficiency with a design that's pleasant to the eye, totally impressive to the visitor to the Greenville skyscraper.
♪ ♪ Another addition to the changing face of Greenville's Main Street is the News-Piedmont building, home of two of the three Greenville newspapers.
If someone in the area needs insurance, Greenville boasts more than 100 companies from which to choose.
Another landmark is the modern home office of Liberty Life, the first South Carolina insurance firm to reach the 2 billion mark in coverage.
The fact that companies of this size and importance have put down roots here clearly demonstrates their deep faith in Greenville's future.
They know that Greenville is growing and is going places.
Several progressive savings and loan associations and various banks contribute to Greenville's financial life, serving as sensitive barometers to the area's economy.
At these financial institutions, Greenvillians can be found cashing checks, making payments on a mortgage, perhaps paying off a last installment on a car or appliances.
Greenville is a city in motion.
With the rapid growth of the swelling suburbs, convenient shopping centers have sprung into existence, and many others are now in the planning stage.
One of the largest is Pleasantburg Shopping Center, which covers 10 acres or about 2 1/2 city blocks.
Across the street, the McAlister Shopping Plaza, designed as a completely covered, modern mall.
Its enclosed mall area is destined for air conditioning in summer and heat in winter, giving the shopper all-weather comfort outside the stores.
Greenville literally feeds itself since local farmers supply much of the poultry, truck crops, dairy, and meat products consumed in the area.
Residents can buy homegrown products at the busy wholesale farmers market or at the city/county curb market in the heart of the city.
♪ It's well worth getting up early in the morning to be able to take home to the table farm-fresh fruits and vegetables or Grade A, country-fresh eggs.
♪ From fresh eggs to a fresh outlook on education, including, of course, educational television.
♪ One of the prime points in the Greenville plan of total development is assuring adequate educational facilities, not only for its present citizens but for those of the future as well.
Not so very long ago, overcrowded schools had the children of Greenville going to school on double shifts.
What is being done about it?
Here's an example: one of the recent additions to Greenville's school system, with its bright and modern facilities.
One of the modern approaches is the school cafetorium, which is the present-day version of a combination cafeteria and auditorium.
This is one of the objectives in modern school design, to make every inch of available space do double duty wherever possible.
Greenville's educational leaders are keenly aware of the fact that overcrowded classrooms make both teaching and learning extremely difficult, and they're working to ease the situation.
Tanglewood Elementary and Junior High has an average of 1 teacher for every 29 students, which is on par with the national average.
Nearly all of Greenville's high schools are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, and accreditation of all elementary, junior high, and high schools is scheduled by the end of the 1970 school year.
When it comes to higher education, Greenville moves right up to the top.
Nine accredited colleges and universities are located within 50 miles of the city.
One of the most unusual is Bob Jones University, located on a beautiful, spacious, and very up-to-date campus.
Its Rodeheaver Auditorium is one of the best equipped theaters in the Southeast.
It seats 3,000.
With an enrollment of 3500 students, nondenominational Bob Jones University offers a well-rounded liberal arts education with special accent on the fine arts.
As universities go, this school is a youngster, only about 40.
For the past 20 years, its home has been Greenville.
Another coeducational university located in Greenville is Furman, also highly active in the performing arts.
Furman boasts its McAlister Auditorium, with seating for 2,000 people and near perfect acoustics.
♪ Furman's new multimillion-dollar campus sprawling over a thousand acres is striking evidence of the huge strides Greenville has taken in meeting the educational needs of its people, now and in the future.
With an eye to the future, Greenville steps quickly forward in the technological era.
Its Technical Education Center was the first in South Carolina.
The TEC Center has programs geared to meet the needs of individuals coordinated with the needs of new and expanding industry.
The dental lab is one of the newest and finest additions to Greenville TEC.
♪ Trainees are taught the specialized techniques involved in the field of assistants in medical and dental laboratories.
It also provides, at no cost to industry, preemployment training for technical operations.
This special training, a program of South Carolina's Special Schools division, enables a new firm to obtain, at no cost to it, specially trained labor ready to work in the plant's specialized field the moment the doors are open for business.
The state supplies material and some of the machinery and equipment in these special schools.
Some is provided by the firm for whom the program is run, which also will supply key training personnel.
Trainees attend on their own time, without pay.
♪ In other words, if you want technical training, it's there, but you must go and get it.
You see, where education is concerned, Greenville's accent is on action.
♪ A Greenville resident will tell you that this beautiful spot in the foothills of the Blue Ridge is a fine place to live.
Located in the heart of the Piedmont Plateau, this area has lots of elbow room for ample growth.
Donaldson Center is an excellent example of how Greenville plans ahead.
When the federal government built Donaldson Air Force Base, Greenville county retained sole ownership of the land and made provision that any buildings on the land would revert to the county, should the government choose to close the base.
Now Donaldson Center, a business and industrial park, is the result of that foresight of years ago.
This center has been a model for many other areas of the Southeast who face the same potential problem of military shutdown.
About industrial growth, what does it mean?
It means more jobs, and jobs are the lifeblood of a city.
In this Piedmont area, the main industry is textiles.
Some 46 plants hum with the vibrant sound of production.
[machinery humming] [humming] [humming] [humming] [humming] The fact is, it's generally surprising to discover how many fabrics actually begin their existence in Greenville.
[machinery humming] [humming] [humming] [humming] Thousands of people in greater Greenville look to the textile mills for their income, and the Fiber Industries alone employ about a thousand people.
♪ This company produces nylon, which will be used in anything from clothing to tire cord.
[machinery humming] [humming] [humming] [humming] Stoneswear is a locally owned and operated manufacturing plant which started in humble fashion only to explode into the giant plant that you see today.
[machinery humming] [humming] [humming] [humming] Another Greenville landmark, Textile Hall is the scene of the giant biennial Southern Textile Exposition.
It has an exhibit area of 316,000 square feet for meetings and trade shows.
Because the textile industry is so closely interwoven into the fabric of life in Greenville, these expositions draw huge local crowds as well as thousands of visitors.
And in keeping with Greenville's keen regard for the way people travel in this modern day, Textile Hall not only provides parking spaces for over 2,000 automobiles, but for 300 aircraft as well.
Small wonder that Greenville is called the textile center of the world.
But let's look at still another face of Greenville.
What about the health of its people?
This is Greenville General Hospital, with 22 clinics and 7 schools, the largest hospital complex in the Carolinas.
Greenville General is presently engaged in a $27 million master expansion program, which will include a magnificent community health center to serve present community needs as well as those far into the future.
The Greenville Hospital System is considered to be not only one of the largest but also one of the most up-to-date in the entire South, including a well-equipped department of physical therapy, where nurses and students are taught modern methods of treating and rehabilitating disabled patients and a blood bank where, after a trifling sting, donors contribute a share of life-giving fluid.
While the pulse of any community must be its economy, the heart of the community must be its homes.
And where do Greenvillians live?
With Greenville growing so rapidly, it was natural to see homebuilding increase, and this has created a large number of carefully planned subdivisions like this one, which offers attractive homes and home sites in the middle price range.
♪ Another offers charming, livable homes in a slightly higher range.
The newer subdivisions are built with many factors in mind, not only to provide livability but to provide easy access to jobs in factories and offices.
For those who prefer the compact convenience of apartment living, Greenville provides a wide variety.
Greenville prides itself quite correctly on its scenic beauty and the excellence of its homes.
On the Sabbath, Greenville echoes to the sound of worship.
A churchgoing people, their spiritual needs are served by more than 400 churches and synagogues representing 26 faiths.
Southern Baptists constitute the largest individual group.
Here the doors swing open to welcome worshipers at the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Greenville.
As we've said, the city's pulse is its economy.
Its heart is its home.
A piece of its heart and a share of its mind might well be reserved for culture.
Fine arts are very much accepted in Greenville.
The Greenville County Museum of Art offers local art lovers not only a constantly growing permanent collection but brings in more than 30 new exhibitions each year, emphasizing high quality and fresh ideas.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ The museum's program of acquisition rests on three prime objectives: to collect the best of man in the field of fine arts, to preserve them, and to interpret them.
♪ Plans are underway for a new addition to the museum's art school, and in the world of good music, more than 60 musicians and a resident conductor make up the Greenville Symphony Orchestra.
The symphony annually presents a series of concerts with nationally known guest soloists.
There is also a pops concert and two free concerts for schoolchildren.
A thriving offshoot of the Greenville Symphony is the Greenville Little Symphony, which is composed entirely of students.
♪ ♪ The Greenville Little Theatre is one of the finest amateur theatrical groups in the country and is Greenville's oldest and largest cultural organization.
Early this spring, it moved into its new and completely equipped building, which seats 600.
It is one of the largest community theater groups in the Southeast, with a membership of 7,000.
Like the symphony orchestra, it, too, has an offspring: the Children's Theater.
Bob Jones University, through its Division of Fine Arts, maintains its own opera company, and leading artists from the national companies, including the Metropolitan, are engaged to perform the leading roles.
Students round out the remainder of the casts and choruses.
♪ ♪ ♪ As you may know, Bob Jones also houses one of the world's finest collections of religious paintings.
To accent its interest in the arts, the community each year holds a fine arts festival in which every area of the arts is well represented.
♪ ♪ Greenville is on the move in the jet age.
This is dramatically illustrated through a trip to the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport.
Frequent flights leave this modern jetport daily for all parts of the country.
This transportation center came into being in 1962 when the farsighted chambers of commerce of Greenville and Spartanburg stimulated interest in the project.
It is equipped with the most modern traffic control facilities available, with safety and convenience designed into the basic concept of this complex.
The jetport's touchdown lighting and centerline lighting systems are the first such installations in the country of this FAA-approved new lighting.
♪ The ultramodern jetport provides the best in facilities for the air traveler and is an outstanding example of this area's development.
As you can see again, the Greenville accent is on action.
♪ It's not all work and no play in the Greenville area.
Perhaps basketball is the attraction or a wrestling match at the multimillion-dollar Memorial Stadium.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ By the way, the huge auditorium regularly schedules top entertainment: ice shows, rodeos, even the circus.
Parks and playgrounds abound throughout the area, offering a zoo, tennis, riding, and softball.
Elsewhere in the field of recreation and good health, Greenville's YMCA and YWCAs rival facilities in many larger cities: fine swimming pools, health facilities, and plenty of room for parties and community meetings.
The climate is perfect for water sports on the Saluda River or nearby Lake Hartwell.
Here, people from the Greenville area can find excellent water for boating, water skiing, or putting in at a convenient marina for a snack.
Here also is the home of the imposing Hartwell Dam, whose generators supply electricity to the Piedmont regions of South Carolina, North Carolina, and some sections of Georgia.
Over the entire scene loom the magnificent Blue Ridge Mountains, surrounding Greenville on three sides.
The Blue Ridge chain of the Appalachians towers to an altitude of 3,400 feet, and from these mountains, the rolling Piedmont Plateau serves as the shelf upon which the city of Greenville rests at some 3,000 feet above sea level.
Greenville residents think of the spectacular Blue Ridge mountains as a very special part of their everyday living, whether for traveling on or just plain looking at.
How did it happen?
How did sleeping, little Pleasantburg become big, booming, bustling Greenville in just under a century, one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas of the South?
Well, it took a lot of planning with a sharp eye on the future.
And there's more to be done.
The Greenville County Planning Commission, in its program of total development, is trying to eliminate any problems that affect the region's livability and impede its continuing growth.
The work is involved and never-ending.
Statistics show that within 25 years, the Greenville area will be almost the size Atlanta is now, and Greenville's leadership knows what must be done to ensure this development.
But Greenville also knows that its finest asset is its people, people who hold the future of the area in their hands.
You can be sure their hands will not be idle.
These are the hands that put the "Accent on Action."
♪ ♪ Captioned by: CompuScripts Captioning www.compuscripts.com ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
ETV Classics is a local public television program presented by SCETV
Support for this program is provided by The ETV Endowment of South Carolina.