8
www.gsabusiness.com
June 13-26, 2022
Business community awaits park for 83 years By Molly Hulsey
T
mhulsey@scbiznews.com
he wait for the grand opening geyser of Unity Park’s Greenville Water Splash Pad could have been an eternity. Dozens of families ringed the edge of 4,100 square feet of dry concrete, glistening with sweat in 83 degrees and keeping children in line as the May 19 ceremony came to its promised conclusion. And then, with a triumphant shout, the park opened, heralded by a cascade of fountains across the concrete and the rush of bolting kids weaving between needles of water. The Westend Community Choir launched into a set of gospel hymns nearby. But it was the family of Southernside resident E.B. Holloway that had waited the longest — and the Greenville business community that supported him. “We’ve had people to call us up and rake us out about this park. We’ve had people to call and tell us that you don’t need to put all that money in this park,” City Councilor Lillian Brock Flemming, representing Greenville’s Southernside neighborhood, told the crowd of hundreds of neighborhood residents, community leaders and families gathered for Unity Park’s opening. “Folks, we’ve been waiting since 1939. The park was given to us by the state of South Carolina in 1937, y’all, and the city took it at that time.” In 1938, the city of Greenville turned half of the 15-acre Mayberry Park, the last park remaining for the Southernside neighborhood’s segregated Black population, into a baseball stadium for white spectators. “And that’s why the neighborhood said, ‘that’s the last straw,’” Mayor Knox White said. “They went to City Hall — 1938. They were ignored, but what happened next was so Greenville, and yet, so remarkable for the time.” Holloway, the leader of the Southernside neighborhood and the city’s first Black postman, returned to City Hall, this time with stalwarts of the Greenville business community. Rhoda Haynsworth from the family that founded the Haynesworth, Sinkler Boyd law office; Hugh Aiken, president of Piedmont Paint Manufacturing Co. and founder of Charlotte’s Rutland Plastics; and L.P. “Pete” Hollis, founder of the Parker School District for the then-operating Parker Cotton Mill community, all backed Holloway. "We want the park because we need it,” Holloway wrote in a letter to the editor of the Greenville Piedmont newspaper at the time. “We want the park because our social and recreational life is at stake. Please give us a park.” The mayor and council were then
The opening ceremony for the 60-acre park concluded with an inaugural spray of fountains at the Greenville Water Splashpad. (Photo/Molly Hulsey)
Gensis Turf and Harper General Contractors built the 30,400-square-foot TD Synnex playground featuring mound structures new to the Upstate, according to the city. (Photo/Molly Hulsey)
moved to action. “That got their attention,” Knox said. “The community rose up with him. The business community stood with him. In 1939, a commitment was made: a promise was made to this community to build a park for the African American community here.” However, when World War II came to the U.S. home front in late 1941, the promise was bypassed for larger items on the budget. For decades, the 60 acres where Unity Park now stands wasted into a crematorium for animals and a graveyard for county vehicles. Holloway died in 1949. “It was a city-produced liability,” the mayor said. “But in the future, it’s going to be a city-created asset for this neighbor-
hood.” The first phase of the park — more than 57,100 square feet of playground, welcome center and network of three pedestrian bridges built by Genesis Turf, Southern Aquatics, The Heirloom Companies, Bridge Brothers, Artistic Concrete and Harper General Contractors — is now complete. But Knox said construction will start soon on 13 acres of affordable housing within the park. The 13-acre plot, expected to be the largest footprint of affordable housing in the city, was worth $1 million five years ago; today, it’s valued at $17 million. “We should commit ourselves: that the profit from the sale of those properties in the future will be reinvested in Southern-
side and West Greenville,” he said. “We can use it as a down payment on a community center, and do so much more in West Greenville, so that this park is forever truly an asset, truly an investor in the entire West Greenville community.” Holloway’s grandchild, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren stood during Knox’s introduction at the event. Once complete, they will have the opportunity to walk along a pedestrian and bike trail linking Meadow and Welborn Streets named after their ancestor. Industrial communications company Sealevel Systems donated $250,000 to sponsor the Nassau Street-lining trail in Holloway’s name and help install interpretative panels on the history of the park and its founders. The Liberty-based industry designs, engineers and manufacturers communications hardware and software for clients ranging from the U.S. military to cold chain logistics companies. “We are proud to play a role in providing this incredible park to the community and helping share the story of E.B. Holloway,” Susan O’Hanlan, president of Sealevel Systems, said in a news release. “His legacy of standing up for his community and lifting those around him is inspiring, and we couldn’t be more honored to have our name associated with his.” Reach Molly Hulsey at 864-720-1222 or @mollyhulsey_gsa on Twitter.