Lee Bailey> Woodruff was created 151 years ago by Thomas Fuller.

Mr.

Woodruff settled here with his family from North Carolina and incorporation was done in 1874 and named after the Woodruff family.

When Woodruff was created, we had a railroad that helped shape the textile and the cotton agriculture fields from the early 1900s to the 1980s.

Woodruff's main economic engine was textile cotton mills.

Kenneth Gist> You know, we were the mill town.

You had textile.

You had jobs.

You had, grocery stores.

You had downtown.

The city of Woodruff was really, really doing great.

Lee> And in the late 80s, those went away, and Woodruff became very stagnant.

We struggled for many years to find our next foothold to the future.

Kenneth> Back in the 2000s, you could see things start progressing again.

Industry started coming.

At this present moment, you have the BMW battery plant, which is in process.

It should be really up and running by October of this year.

You have an Airsys Industrial company just opened employing about 300 employees.

The growth is coming back now.

People left, but you see a lot of people coming back to the city of Woodruff.

♪ >> I'm Mary Margaret Bowen, the public information officer and event coordinator for the city of Woodruff.

We have many signature events.

Starting out the year, we always have our Spring Fling that brings people from all over the place, Spartanburg, Simpsonville.

We had a lot of people come from hours away from Piedmont, Westminster, even Columbia.

We've been having around 5000 to 10,000 people attend.

Then we have our McKinney Park concert series.

We've been doing that for a few years.

We have many of the bands come from all over the state.

We have the Tams that come from Atlanta and they always bring a huge crowd.

We usually have around 1500 people that come to 2,500 especially for our fireworks.

We also have our Christmas event.

We have our tree lighting event where we light up the entire park.

Thousands of people come just to be able to see that.

We have some dance companies that come.

We have carolers that come from Greenville.

We have our Christmas parade.

We also have our Easter event called the Easter Extravaganza, where we drop 8000 eggs from the fire truck.

And hundreds of kids go and they come and get those Easter eggs.

We have two cleanup days each year and we partner with Spartanburg County.

They always give us best.

They give the little pick up, and then we have around 100 people in the community that come and we clean up downtown.

We clean up all the roads.

We have a very energetic downtown.

There's always something happening, whether it's at a local restaurant, whether it's a unique local business, and we have those community events to be able to draw a lot of people, not just to downtown for that event, but also getting people to see all those unique places that we have and getting business in there, as well.

Tammy O. Smith> My cousin Debbie Davis owns this store, and it was Debbie's dream to own a store, Home Goods and stuff that people would come in and find beautiful and would beautify their life.

The dream came true in 2018.

This building is 120 years old, and she and her husband Derek bought it and restored it.

It is named "The Yellow Butterfly" after my Aunt Shirley, Debbie's mother.

She had a debilitating stroke and was in a care facility for the last two years of her life.

She would do needlepoint and the only thing she did was yellow butterflies, and she gave those to people that she loved.

The yellow butterfly carries many well-known products.

We have lines like cotton colors who carry a line of housewares called "Happy Everything".

We carry Nora Flaming, which has a huge following.

We carry Farmhouse Fresh skin care.

Our clothing line, which includes some items that come from Italy, and then we carry Enewton jewelry, which is a Goldfield jewelry line, and we carry a lot of Jelly Cats, a London based company that's probably the most famous toy line or stuffed animal line in the world right now.

We have a diverse customer base.

Our customers come from a variety of places and age groups, because they're coming in for the variety of vendors that we house in our store.

♪ Dimitra Morrow> I'm from Spartanburg, but we decided to come in to Woodruff and open up our family restaurant 22 years ago.

Demeter's, it's a family name, so we passed it down.

My parents are from Greece.

They met in Thessaloniki, dated for a while and got married and came to the United States.

We started up north, and then my parents decided they wanted to come south and open up a restaurant.

We wanted to bring a little Greek and Italian into Woodruff.

So here we are.

We have Greek and Italian.

We have pizzas like we do our dough every day.

Homemade.

We make our own lasagna.

Everything we try to do homemade.

That's recipes, that's been passed down all the way, I guess, to my grandmother.

We have souvlaki, the marinated chicken with the homemade tzatziki sauce that we make here.

We have steak combos like Philly subs, cold cut subs, We have salads.

We have burgers.

So this really is something for everybody.

Scott Sisk> The most popular, I would go with the pizzas and then the wings and then the Philly combos.

Dimitra> Our customer base tends to be local, but now it's broadened.

Like we get people from Greenville to Spartanburg.

Scott> ...from Union to Mauldin.

We get them from everywhere.

Kenneth> If you've never been to Woodruff, it's a very pleasant town, a homey town, very close knit community.

We love our schools.

We love our football team.

Scott> We all come out and support Wolverines high school team, football, basketball, baseball.

We love to come here and watch them play.

Mary> We also have our McKinney Park that is right behind us, the splash pad and that playground.

We just renovated the playground last year.

That is what everyone comes for.

It is one of the best playgrounds in the upstate.

Lee> Riverbend Athletic Complex is a 102 acre sports complex.

We will have four major league sized baseball fields.

We will also have pickleball, a destination playground, dog park, walking trails along the river, and a kayak launch on the river.

And with the investment, we've made in Riverbend, that project is one of a kind in the state of South Carolina.

Kenneth> It's so many things, but if one thing I think that I'm most proud of with Woodruff is the people here.

Dimitra> It's a good small town feel where we can actually know people by name.

They do feel like family.

Tammy> Woodruff was founded as a revival town, and I think that our town still has that church and community.

And coming together as a small town.

Mary> We've seen a lot of growth probably the last five years.

Lee> This year in 2026, we were named the fastest growing city in South Carolina.

We have well over 7000 rooftops that are planned and coming to our community.

Kenneth> One reason is, where we're located.

We're located right here in the city of Woodruff but also you have access to 26, I-85, 221.

We have a lot of major highways coming in here.

Dimitra> Spartanburg is close by.

Greenville is close by.

Like we can venture out, but coming back to a small town.

Tammy> Even though we're the fastest growing city in South Carolina right now, we are retaining our small town charm, and it's my hope that, that continues.

♪ Lee> So I think in the future, when you look at Woodruff, you will see continued growth.

I think you will see more commercial opportunities, but also see the balance of offering services to our people down the road.

Kenneth> Woodruff, this is our town?

I mean, I love this city.

I've been here all my life.

You know, if you hadn't been here, you need to get here.

Tammy> This is Woodruff.

It's our town.

Dimitra> Woodruff.

This is our town.

Scott> Woodruff.

This is our town.

Mary> Woodruff.

This is our town.

Lee> Woodruff.

This is our town.

Welcome home.

♪