Greenville, South Carolina, is a delightful surprise just waiting to be discovered. For its size, 56,000 as of 2003, the city presents a diverse cultural profile, with fine restaurants, art resources and a highly regarded public education system. Some 470 houses of worship covering myriad creeds nurture its religious diversity.


Greenville ranks right up there with larger metropolitan areas in the per capita international investment. Yet its cost of living is 93% of the national average. With manufacturing covering everything from textiles, once its mainstay industry, to modern technology and automotive research, Greenville draws its residents from all over the nation and the world.


Internationals, representing 26 countries, have influenced Greenville's cultural life and educational profile, as special schools created to support the needs of expatriates' children. Michelin, which has its North American headquarters on I-85 just outside of Greenville, operates the Michelin French School, which is accredited by the French Ministry of Education. Classes for grades one through 12 are taught in French, so that students may take the French National Exams. The Japan America Society of South Carolina supplements education for Japanese students at the Japanese Saturday School. Korean and German students, the latter arising from the presence of a large BMW facility in adjacent Spartanburg County, have similar opportunities to keep pace with their at-home counterparts and contact with their native language and culture while living in the United States.


Nurturing these newcomers has been a task shouldered by the International Center for the Upstate (ICU), which assists internationals in the relocation process. International events focused on the food, music, art and culture of their countries have become a mainstay feature of the Greenville social and cultural calendar. Specialty markets procuring the distinctive foods these internationals may miss while in the United States have sprung up in Greenville, enriching every resident's table.


This vital, outward-looking, international-focused modern city grew out of a trading post that Richard Pearis established, along with an all-important grist mill, in what today is downtown Greenville. Pearis had a Cherokee wife, a relationship that enabled him to do business in this part of the world, and he later fought with both the Revolutionaries and the Tories in the American Revolution.


This part of South Carolina is home to many historic sites relating to the American Revolution, and is a virtual history class at every turn of the road. Following the Revolution, veterans flocked to Greenville, and soon its population topped 6,500. Like Greensboro, NC, Greenville, SC, was named for Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene.


Land that had belonged to Cherokee and Catawba Native Americans became the Upland, as South Carolinians call this part of their state, in 1777, ready to be settled by newcomers of generally Scotch-Irish extraction. Early settlers built manufacturing facilities, including cotton mills, among the first anywhere. Sawmills, flourmills, corn mills all ensued. But textiles remain a key element in Greenville's economy, making the Upstate South Carolina's economic center. .


Greenville always has drawn entrepreneurs and leaders. Among the famous 19th-century residents was John C. Calhoun, vice president of the United States and advocate of secession. His son-in-law, Thomas Green Clemson, donated the land that became nearby Clemson University. The home they occupied is located, and open to the public, on the university campus. Joseph Jefferson Jackson, known to baseball fans as "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, grew up in the area sweeping mill floors as an adolescent before batting his way to national fame with the Chicago White Sox.


A key element in the phenomenal growth of Greenville and adjacent cities is the Interstate network, which connects Greenville to Atlanta, just 2 1/2 hours to the southwest, via I-85, and to Columbia, the state's capital, and Charleston, the latter 3 1/2 hours southeast, via I-26. The combination of education, culture and transportation make Greenville an ideal magnet for business. And the city has attracted its share. Not sitting on its laurels, however, Greenville, South Carolina, looks forward to a stunning future rich with industrial development in such diverse fields as aviation, biopharmaceuticals and advanced materials.