History
Considering the number of people building homes in the Greenwood area today for the purpose of vacationing and future retirement, it comes as no surprise that the first residence here was built in 1823 by John McGehee, Jr. as a summer home for him and his bride.
This 600-acre plantation was named Green Wood by McGehee’s wife, Charlotte. This area today, called Green Wood Village, is located in the East Cambridge Avenue area. When the first railroad came through in 1852, it moved the center of the village to its present-day location since stores and businesses began to locate around the depot. This marked the beginning of developing the “widest Main Street in the world” and the Square, now referred to as Uptown Greenwood.
During the last half of the nineteenth century in Greenwood, considered a railroad town, merchants dealt in groceries, general merchandise, dry goods, farmer’s supplies, furniture, rice, and cotton. There were also banks, insurance companies and undertakers.
The Greenwood community was becoming known throughout the state as “preeminently an example of what can be accomplished by unremitting energy and boundless self-reliance” and Greenwood’s “hospitable and progressive” people welcomed “all who may come to” their town. These characteristics are still present in today’s Greenwood residents.
Area historians have credited several “pillars” with shaping the Greenwood of today, and those were in place from the outset. One was an early special interest of Greenwood residents in educating students. By the time of its chartering in 1857, Greenwood had schools that were already 25 years old.
A second foundation for Greenwood’s continued prosperity was the initiative and hard work of its founders and early settlers in providing transportation facilities; first railroads, then highways and an airport.
A third key part of Greenwood’s development was the area’s textile industry, which remains a vital economic block supporting the Greenwood Community.