Judy Bainbridge: When it comes to city halls, Greenville's long had a 50-year itch

Think of it as a 50-year itch. Or maybe it’s just that official buildings wear out after a half-century or so, and we’re ready for change.

Greenville's first City Hall is an example. It was not a distinguished structure. After the city was chartered in 1869, aldermen purchased a site at the northeast corner of West McBee Avenue and Laurens Street from the McBee family for $2,500, but it took six years — until February 1879 -- to erect a small, two-story, brick building on the northeast corner.

Mayor Samuel Townes, whose municipal budget derived almost entirely from taxes on saloons and billiard parlors, had finally gathered sufficient cash to construct a town hall appropriate “to a city of Greenville’s wealth and importance.” (Its population then topped 6,000.)

The building extended down McBee Avenue 45 feet. At the corner, a 45-foot tower held the town’s fire alarm bell. The fire department’s hose truck was housed next door. The police department and city courtroom were housed in an attached building that extended 50 feet up Laurens Street.  A cornice at its roofline was its only decoration.

But the complex wasn’t big enough to govern a growing city. By 1913, the facility—and Greenville -- had doubled in size. A city jail (not to be confused with the county one on Falls Street) was located behind the police department, whose patrol automobile was garaged in an adjacent building.

Fire Station No. 1, together with its steam engine, roller, and fire truck, were located on McBee Avenue. The tower was gone, and City Hall was confined to a two-story brick building.

 In spite of improvements, the mayor complained that the police department area was poorly arranged, unattractive and unsanitary.

But Greenvillians were too concerned about replacing their condemned county jail (“old Siberia”) on Broad Street and demolishing their leaking 1856 courthouse to spend money on a new city hall or police headquarters.

After 1916 when the new jail was complete, and ground-breaking had been scheduled for a new courthouse, however, they— briefly — contemplated a new building. In fact, council sold the West McBee facility to J.W. Norwood in December 1915. After more discussion (and highly negative comments in The Greenville News), they repurchased it a month later.

 In 1924, they tried again. Given Greenville’s cotton prosperity, it was time for upgraded quarters. This time aldermen proposed buying Textile Hall on West Washington Street and converting it into a new city hall. No luck.

  Nor did they have any in 1931, when the city, by then mired in economic depression, requested nearly $170,000 from the federal government for a new city hall. The feds said no.

Thanks, however, to US Sen. James Byrnes, Congressman J.J. McSwain, and lobbying by the Chamber of Commerce and City Council, three years later the government did agree to build a new federal building and post office in Greenville.

 It would replace the much-loved, sprawling 1892 landmark at the corner of Main and Broad streets. When the Postmaster General’s office recommended its demolition, however, Greenville officials argued that razing it would cost $5,000 and that citizens were opposed. Furthermore, a better site could be found for the federal building.

In a complicated deal, Council traded the McBee Street City Hall site to the heirs of the Ware estate, who in exchange gave them a large lot at East Washington and Church streets. City officials then traded that site to post office authorities for a federal building and got in exchange the elaborate 1892 red brick Main Street post office.

The deal cost the city $75,000; the estimated value of their new building was $200,000.

But then Mayor Mauldin, who had masterminded the trade, went out of town. Marshall Prevost and other council members who wanted a brand-new building offered their new acquisition to South Carolina National Bank for $100,000, with the idea of using the money to build a new city hall.

When the news leaked out, citizens exploded. The mayor returned to town and promptly squelched the idea. The old post office would be the new city hall.

Architects Beacham and LeGrand drew renovation plans, and by September 1938, when Postmaster General James Farley came to town to dedicate the new federal building (now the Haynsworth Federal Building), Greenville also had one of the most elegant and spacious (and newly painted red) city halls in the South.

It was, in fact, a bit too spacious. Officials couldn’t figure out what to do with all the room. The police department, the water department, and the city clerk’s office occupied much of the first floor, while the second floor housed the Sewer Commission and the Health Department and several vacant offices. Half of the third floor stood empty even after the city engineer and the records office moved in.

For a while it housed Greenville’s fledgling art museum.

Fast forward to 1960. The city had grown to fill every office (thanks to Donaldson Air Base, population now topped 66,000), and the red brick structure’s narrow staircases and fire hoses coiled on walls barely met code.

And so, once more, Greenville officials had building dreams. Mayor David Traxler broached the idea of a new city hall in 1961; in 1964, voters approved a bond issue that included $1.585 million for a new structure.

But that amount would not come close to covering the cost, so council stashed the cash in an interesting-bearing account to allow it to grow.

In the meantime, there was controversy. Some leaders wanted a city hall to anchor a “civic center” to be carved out of the old Furman Women’s Campus on College Street. Others, including those working to revitalize Main Street, argued passionately for keeping it downtown.

The downtowners won. In November 1969, Council purchased the 1910 Masonic Building at the intersection of West Court and South Main streets. It would become the site of the new municipal building. They paid $270,000, well over its appraised value.

That was only the beginning of what The Greenville News called “the torturous project.” Preservationists were outraged. Cost overruns, labor troubles and bad press haunted construction.

More controversy erupted over the first design, but after McMillian Bunes Townsend Bowen submitted a second design in 1971, officials and a citizens’ advisory committee agreed to a “shimmering” bronzed aluminum and glass solar-paneled 11-story building to be shared by city government (65 percent) and the water system (35 percent.)

Plans included an 11th floor heliport and penthouse, a drive-in window for water system payments, and, most controversially, razing the adjacent former federal building to create 19 underground parking spaces below an “international plaza.”

 Dozens of letters to The Greenville News attacked the demolition. New Mayor Max Heller defended the plan, inquiring where the Historic Preservation Commission proposed to find the money to repair and maintain the 90-year-old structure. Council meetings got nasty.

Greenville News editors reported that two-thirds of city residents wanted to maintain the old building. But the city controlled the dollars. In May 1973 the landmark building fell to the wrecking ball. It was a sad day for Greenville history and historians.

But that was a half-century ago—and now, once again, a new City Hall is proposed. The old building needs millions of dollars for repairs.

City officials are considering—from news stories on the brink of deciding—that the City should buy the 30-year old the Bowater Building. (It was constructed in 1992, although it is, evidently, in prime shape.)

Certainly, the views from its windows will be charming. 

Judy Bainbridge, a local historian and author of seven books about Greenville history, is a retired professor emerita of English at Furman University. She has served on the board of trustees for the Greenville Library System and for the Greenville Historic Preservation Commission, and was for 26 years a member of the Greenville Urban League. She writes a twice-a-month local history column for The Greenville News.

You can reach her at [email protected].