A $66 million SC park just opened where a dump and animal crematory once stood. Check it out

More than 80 years ago, a mail carrier and community activist named E.B. Holloway asked Greenville leaders to build a park in West Greenville, one of the city’s Black neighborhoods.

This week, the city answered his plea.

The 60-acre Unity Park opened on land once filled with junk cars, two dumps and an animal crematorium.

It was paid for with $66 million from hospitality and accommodations taxes and $10 million in private donations. Half of the private donations came from businesses such as BMW $2.5 million to restore wetlands, $1 million from Michelin for green space, $1 million from Prisma Health for a welcome center and $500,000 from Auro Hotels for a bridge over the Reedy River.

A trail named for Holloway will join the Southernside community, which is part of West Greenville, to the park. It will be paid for with a $250,000 donation from Sealevel Systems. Holloway died in 1949. Many of his family members attended Thursday’s opening ceremony.

The park includes:

• Four playgrounds, including a 4,100-square-foot splash pad, two green spaces, covered picnic tables and a 10,000-square-foot welcome center with restrooms, a first-aid station and event space.

• Three pedestrian bridges across the Reedy River, which flows through the middle of the park.

• The Swamp Rabbit Trail, a 23-mile walking/biking trail, runs along both sides of the river. Five looped walking trails totaling 2.5 miles have been built in the park.

• A half-mile of the Reedy River restored, including construction of a terraced bank to help manage water flow and native vegetation and grassy areas added to combat erosion.

• 750 trees planted and 200 preserved mostly along the river. The city promised to plant two trees for every one cut down and plant native trees such as oaks, magnolias, pines, cedar, sycamore and hollies.

To come:

• Restoration of a wetlands area on the park’s northern perimeter for an outdoor classroom and an ADA-accessible boardwalk

• Two half-court basketball courts.

• A baseball field on the site of the former Mayberry Park, which was built in 1925 and home to the Greenville Black Spinners and Sterling High School. The field was restored with a donation from Greenville Drive owner Craig Brown and his wife, Vicki.

Mayor Knox White said at the opening ceremony the city will donate six acres on one side of the park, valued at $3 million, to an organization that builds affordable housing.

Thirteen acres on the other side valued at $17 million will be sold and the profit reinvested in the Southernside and West Greenville community, he said.