Best Small Town in South Carolina

[goodbye]

I've really enjoyed reading sbout the many places everyone has visited or grew up in here in the great state of South Carolina. I thought it would be extra-cool if we had a thread where we could post everything we like about the rural places in the state. This can include small towns that might even be considered partial suburbs of a major city, but mostly those quaint villages we enjoy visiting or driving through out in the countryside.

Have fun and give us as much info as you can, because others may want to visit these places sometime.

[goodbye]

I don't have much time, but here are a couple of my favorite small towns in the Upstate...

Abbeville - charming historic town that played a major part in both the beginning and ending of the Confederacy. The town square and buildings have been renovated and preserved for great historic walking tours.

Landrum - absolutely awesome quaint town in northern Spartanburg county. Antiques galore!

[emerging.me]

Great topic!

I think Newberry is really neat and has great potential. I've said this before, but I could see it becoming to Columbia, sort of what Fort Mill is to Charlotte.

I like Edisto Beach -- obvious reasons.

And I have a soft spot for Manning. Not a lot that's notable about it. It's just that my grandparents lived in the nearby sawmill town of Alcolu for years so that area is filled with childhood memories for me.

And there really is nothing to it except a couple of streets with closely-set tiny houses, but I have always thought Peak was kind of charming.

Tomorrow I'll be making my first trip to Salley, SC -- for a family member's funeral -- so, I'll get to see what that's like. Passing through Perry, Wagner and New Holland Crossroads on the way.

[Spartan]

I was impressed with Kingstree which is way of the beaten path for most people.

I have heard that Elloree is a nice town.

Gaffney has a rather nice core area.

I think Camden and Lexington are often overlooked.

Hartsville is a fanastic small town. Excellent core area. Lakes too.

[Topher1]

I agree with the choices of Newberry and Abbeville. Both have very solid historical downtowns, and you have to love the small town grand opera houses...

I love the equestrian tradition of Camden. The city really reminds me of a smaller Aiken...

Barnwell and New Ellenton are both interesting due to their proximity to SRS and the way they were influenced by that (for those who don't know, the entire town of "Ellenton" was completely picked up and moved to its present site as "New Ellenton" when SRS was built).

Edgefield is famous as small town political powerhouse (10 SC governors grew up here as well as Strom Thurmond) and has a surprising downtown (the remake of "That Darn Cat" was almost entirely filmed there). Unfortunately, I'm only super familiar with the Western SC towns.

@emerging.me - I wouldn't expect too much from Wagener-Salley, or the surrounding areas... These definately aren't the best parts of Aiken County, unless you really like farms and tiny churches... If theres time, I'd definately recommend travelling the extra half-hour to Aiken, but I doubt that'd be in the cards during a funeral...

[Charleston native]

Beaufort is really becoming a great town. Of course, it has access to the beach and plenty of history.

Edisto Beach and Pawley's Island/Murrell's Inlet are fantastic little towns with beach access and big city stuff nearby.

Folly Beach is a great beach town, but I don't know...can I include it even though it is a suburb of the metro area of Charleston?

[TruantSpeakEZ]

Saluda. But only because that's where I'm from originally.

[The_sandlapper]

I'd have to say Beaufort, & Murrell's Inlet.

[Topher1]

I agree that Beaufort is a great town (and one of my faves), but would it really be considered a "small town" in South Carolina terms? It's population is ~12,000, which is probably pretty close to the top 20 in SC... I do agree that it has great small town qualities, but it may be outgrowing small town status... Now "small city" might be a better moniker...

[vicupstate]

Several of the ones listed here are worthy of a mention. Abbeville, Beaufort, Hartsville to be sure.

Hartsville gets my vote for "most improved" in the last 20-30 years, that city has changed dramatically for the better. It use to be a smelly, undistinguished small city, but it has really accomplished a lot since those days.

Newberry also has improved a lot over the years, especialy since they renovated the Opera House.

Among medium-size cities, I think Greenwood deserves a mention. Their downtown is without peer in SC for it's size. Does anyone have any pics of Greenwood they can post?

Florence use to be nice, but it has deteriorated IMO. Azaleas and dogwoods have fallen to billboards and blight. As my hometown, it disappoints me to say so.

[The_sandlapper]

I have to say I was actually surprised by the size of Greenwood. It was larger than what I thought it would be. If it had a major interstate running through I think it would be alot larger.

[socaguy]

I agree about Greenwood. One of the things I like most about this town are the "mill hill" neighborhoods on the North and South ends of town. In fact I think there are 3 mill hill areas that have the same architecture (closely set homes of stucco with red tiled roofs on gridded streets). Looks very California-ish. The Downtown is nice too, and a very large Latino population for such a small area.

Aiken is still one of my favorites in SC though. What a nicely clean-landscaped town that is. Not really that small anymore though. Very Gay-friendly as well, for South Carolina standards.

[waccamatt]

I've always liked Ridgeway because of the world's smallest police station there. I haven't driven through Ridgeway in years even though it is practically a suburb of Columbia now. I hope the little station is still there.

[Jerseyman4]

Best towns in SC? Never lived in a town in SC but i can list towns ive been to that were pleasant and nice to pass through.

Summerville is a very nice town despite being along the western fringe of the Charleston suburbs. Friendly and easy going people there.

Hartsville has an impressive downtown with a downtown Applebees living up to its name unlike most Applebee locations.

Cheraw has some really nice neighborhoods. With its close neighbor to the north which US 1 passes through Cheraw coming from NC, it will eventually be discovered. Thats also under the conditions if Chesterfield County/Cheraw encourages economic growth and wants to accept change to stay competetive with other towns trying to attract new growth. Downtown area seems to improve everytime i pass by. I-73 will pass by there too so that helps a lot.

Lexington was a very nice town passing through. Quite suprised of how clean and nice it was.

Aiken was an all around nice town. Getting in, through and out of it.. just a great town. The downtown is the best of all downtowns in SC based on my travels.

[emerging.me]

Cheraw has some really nice neighborhoods. With its close neighbor to the north which US 1 passes through Cheraw coming from NC, it will eventually be discovered. Thats also under the conditions if Chesterfield County/Cheraw encourages economic growth and wants to accept change to stay competetive with other towns trying to attract new growth. Downtown area seems to improve everytime i pass by. I-73 will pass by there too so that helps a lot. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've heard good things about Cheraw. A good friend of mine and his wife recently moved there. What's the scoop on I-73???

[Spartan]

I've always liked Ridgeway because of the world's smallest police station there. I haven't driven through Ridgeway in years even though it is practically a suburb of Columbia now. I hope the little station is still there.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Its still there. Its a tourist info place now.

[rockhilljames]

Hmmm.... I concur with Greenwood. I think it's a great little town, better than you'd think.

Aiken is great, as is Camden. Both have a great feel to them. ANY coastal town is going to be great Georgetown, Beaufort all those towns are really cool and have a different kind of flavor to them.

Although it's growing like a weed, Fort Mill has a really cool downtown feel to it.

[emerging.me]

I've heard good things about Cheraw. A good friend of mine and his wife recently moved there. What's the scoop on I-73???

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Scratch that. I found the scoop online. I was totally out of the loop on this. That will be huge!

Interestingly... it seems like everyone I've ever met at Myrtle Beach in the summer was from Ohio. This will interstate will be packed in the summer.

[goodbye]

Aiken does have that rich, charming old southern style about it.

To the north on U.S. highway 25, Edgefield makes a very nice place to see very old southern mansions, plantations, and a tiny old downtown. Very pleasant part of the drive between Greenwood and North Augusta/Aiken.

[goodbye]

Another lowcountry town I thought was neat when I drove through it, is Walterboro. Although I know very little about this town, I know that it was the main location in the film, "Radio," even though the real town of Radio's story is Anderson.

[Spartan]

York is a nice town as well. I've never actually seen it in the daytime though

[Jerseyman4]

All i know about Cheraw is that I-73 will parallel US 1 from the state line then in Wallace, I-73 is to go east paralleling SC 9 towards Bennettsville then follow SC 38 then follow US 501 to Myrtle Beach. Id prefer I-73 follow US 52 between Cheraw and Moncks Corner and connect I-26 but that will never happen.

[rockhilljames]

Let me add Laurens to the list. Really neat downtown for a small town.

[goodbye]

For some reason I haven't thought much about this town recently. It is really a nice little historic town where they've done some cute revitalization "downtown." I'm talking about Ninety Six, just a few miles from Greenwood.

[goodbye]

Here are a couple of pics from Abbeville town square.

This one is of the Opera House which was restored to its original beauty. Next door is another historic inn.