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Morgan Square Redevelopment


Spartan

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This is UP's official thread for topics concerning the redevelopment of Morgan Square.

For starters- here is the official design plan which is posted on the City of Spartanburg's website:

MorganSquare2005.jpg

Today (4/4) the Herald-Journal has an article concerning the start of construction. Key facts include:

  • Demolition begins today:

    • The downtown bus stop

    • flagpoles

    • median trees

    [*]$2.5 million

    [*]Duration- 8 months

    [*]Traffic patterns will change Wednesday

    • The connector between West Main Street and Broad Street will be closed permanently

    • A detour will be set up for traffic traveling east toward Broad Street

    • The outside lane at the intersection of West Main Street and Daniel Morgan Avenue will be converted to a "right-turn-only" lane. The other lane will be for left turns and through traffic.

    • Signs will direct traffic heading to Broad Street to turn right at Daniel Morgan Avenue and left onto Broad Street.

    • One lane will continue to be available for traffic bound for Morgan Square.

    • Traffic traveling from west to east is being encouraged to use St. John Street as a cross-town route.

    this article in the Herald Journal

All facts in this post come from

Here is an illustration of the Morgan Square revitalization area, and the road to be closed:

morgansquare_02.jpg

Red = closed connector road

Red Arrow = Rerouted traffic

Yellow = Morgan Square revitalization

citySpartanburgSC_morgansquare.jpg

Morgan Square (4/3) -SHJ

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I'm overall excited about the project. I'm a little concerned about the angled parked cars backing into traffic. Having to look over your right shoulder to back into busy traffic is not always fun. Saw a fender bender in front of me yesterday in that area. Also, I hope they can "square up" some intersections. There seems to be a lot of diagonal crossings in the city.

Regardless of the design, I'm just glad to see it turned into something besides a confusing parking lot. I wish them luck.

Does anyone know if they allow people to cut through the Extended Stay building coming from the garage to the square. There is a great fountain connecting the two and would make for a great walking entrance into square, but I don't know if that is possible.

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This is UP's official thread for topics concerning the redevelopment of Morgan Square.

For starters- here is the official design plan which is posted on the City of Spartanburg's website:

MorganSquare2005.jpg

Today (4/4) the Herald-Journal has an article concerning the start of construction. Key facts include:

  • Demolition begins today:

    • The downtown bus stop

    • flagpoles

    • median trees

    [*]$2.5 million

    [*]Duration- 8 months

    [*]Traffic patterns will change Wednesday

    • The connector between West Main Street and Broad Street will be closed permanently

    • A detour will be set up for traffic traveling east toward Broad Street

    • The outside lane at the intersection of West Main Street and Daniel Morgan Avenue will be converted to a "right-turn-only" lane. The other lane will be for left turns and through traffic.

    • Signs will direct traffic heading to Broad Street to turn right at Daniel Morgan Avenue and left onto Broad Street.

    • One lane will continue to be available for traffic bound for Morgan Square.

    • Traffic traveling from west to east is being encouraged to use St. John Street as a cross-town route.

    this article in the Herald Journal

All facts in this post come from

Here is an illustration of the Morgan Square revitalization area, and the road to be closed:

morgansquare_02.jpg

Red = closed connector road

Red Arrow = Rerouted traffic

Yellow = Morgan Square revitalization

citySpartanburgSC_morgansquare.jpg

Morgan Square (4/3) -SHJ

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This is the latest iteration of Morgan Square's design and the first one since O'l Daniel went up with the pedestrian, not the automobile in mind. Morgan Square is really not a "square" but more of a haggled slice of pie and the city has struggled over the years to fuse pedestrian needs with parking requirements. Due to the square's odd shape there will probably be no perfect

way to do this.

If the patrons, merchants, and motorists will be a little patient, I think they will be impressed with the final product.

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Indeed. Historically, Morgan Square has been redone every 10-20 years on average. I think that so long as it alwayscaters to pedestrians it will be a great focal point for our community. It could be our "Reedy River."

Th angled parking will be fine. I think we will be able to handle it :) (It already exists on the Main St. side of the square).

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Daniel Morgan is having some locational troubles:

citySpartanburgSC_morgansquare_danielmorganstature.jpg

  • the statue was scheduled to be moved to the Arts Center for the next three to four months

  • the workers couldn't lift the statue off a granite base that was attached to the pedestal.

  • if the statue can't be removed from the granite base, it might be moved to the outside of City Hall.

All info and the image in the post came from this article from the SHJ.

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No major updates today. The Broad St. connector is permanently closed today. They decided that Daniel Morgan is going to the Arts Center for a few months.

Some of you may be wondering why this statue is such a big deal... Gen. Daniel Morgan is our local hero. He won the Battle of Cowpens during the Revolution. This statue is a significant monument in our city. He used to be located at the other end of the Square, which is where he will be returning.

Here is an old picture of the square. The buildings you see are no longer there. The ESA building sits there now. To the far left you can see the buliding where Ellis' Bistro is/was.

citySpartanburgSC_morgansq1.jpg

And here is another picture of the General's relocation:

citySpartanburgSC_morgansquare_danielmorganstatue_move.jpg

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I don't think I remember the last time Morgan Square wasn't under construction or planned for renovation. Nonetheless I've always looked forward to driving through & often route my trip to the Beacon to go through Morgan Square & by the statue. Isn't there also a statue for Nathaniel Greene nearby as well?

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I believe that Greensboro NC has a statue of Nathaniel Greene on horseback at the Guilford Courthouse battlefield.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And I think Charleston does as well - I just must have assumed I saw one in Spartanburg / Greenville. I admit I haven't been up there in a few years (I need to go back to visit some family though)...

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Some info on the trees that they will plant on Morgan Square from the SHJ:

Last week, there were 72 trees on Morgan Square.

When the project is complete 113 trees are planned for the square. Twenty existing trees will remain.

Most of the trees that have been removed were Bradford pears. The life span of those trees was nearly up, and they were planted haphazardly, said Les Mitchell, assistant city engineer.

Some of the new trees that will be added to Morgan Square include crape myrtles, cherries, elms, magnolias, oaks and redbuds

citySpartanburgSC_morgansquare_removeingtrees.jpg

Article

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  • 2 months later...

They have moved The base of the statue, and the western end of the Square is nearer to completion. I'll try to get some pics once some more obvious progress that can be photographed has been made.

I found out today that the Magnolia Street Garage is giving the first two hours of parking free for the next two months while the square is under construction.

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Indeed. The two nearest Morgan Square (Magnolia and Dunbar) are very nice, clean and new. The Kennedy St Garage is not new, but it its still nice- its just not convenient unless you happen to work at Broakwalk or Denny's Tower. Its great during SPring Fling and Music on Main, etc. We have a 4th on Broad St that is very skanky, and I wouldn't park there if you paid me to. I believe it is city owned too... maybe they will tear it down.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The latest on the Morgan Square rennovation is that they have finished the roads and most of the western end of the square. All that remains is paving the sidewalks and some landscaping. They are now starting to seriously focus on the eastern end. Its a mess to be sure.

I ate at the new Hub City Grill, which is a great restaurant. It just opened this week. ts mid ranged in price, but the food was worth it. I reccomend that you try it. Its located in what used to be Ellis's Bistro on Morgan Square at Magnolia St. It is still very similar to Ellis's on the inside. Once the square is complete, it will have a large outdoor seating area that can be shared with whatever locates in the former World Finance.

MSQ_WorldFinance.jpg

World Finance (pieced together from 2 pics)

I also took a walk around to inspect things, and I realized that tehre are an awful lot of finance companies located on Morgan Square. Hopefully they will relocate. I konw that one on the south side of the square did not renew its lease. I think its is either Palmetto or Carolina finance- not sure which.

During my walk, I noticed alot of the old cobblestone/brickwork that was the 'paving' of its day. I also noticed that they have been puilling up alot of the old trolley lines that used to run throughout downtown.

These were taken with my cell phone, so the quality is not as great.

MSQ_UC_dunbarandmagnoliaoldrolley1.jpg

MSQ_UC_dunbarandmagnoliaoldrolley2.jpg

MSQ_UC_dunbaroldrolley3.jpg

MSQ_UC_dunbaroldrolley4.jpg

MSQ_UC_southsideshops.jpg

MSQ_UC_lookingwest.jpg

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Spartan, thanks for the great pics. I love the "archeology of streets".

I remember seeing the photos of the Greenville Main St. rennovation in front of the Poinsett. They uncovered many different surfaces as well as trolley tracks.

If you visit the dungeon in the exchange building in Charleston, they have a door that used to be at street level. The street is now about 3 feet above the floor level. You can see the original street level and all of the layers built up on top. Way cool. B)

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  • 3 weeks later...

As they were pouring the curbs, they noticed that there was going to be a conflict of cars maybe backing up into each other. They decided to redo that one section, causing the loss of a couple of spaces. Shouldn' affect the timetable for completion. naturally, WSPA would want to make it seem like a huge deal.

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WSPA just said that they discovered an abandoned basement infront of Abbey's Grille that used to be a part of that building, and it extended under the street. It was forgotten about until they rediscovered it. So they have to fill it in first.

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  • 1 month later...

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