Greer Heritage Museum collection

1898 - c.1929: The Marchant House

• Somewhere around 1890, Dr. Robert L. Marchant built his home on this corner of Trade and Victoria Streets. Read our entry on the Marchant House for more information. The city grew around him, and about 1929 his house was torn down.

1930: The tiniest of "stores"

• The Sanborn fire map from January 1930 shows a bare space where the Marchant home stood. On the very corner stands a tiny building labeled as a store; is a metal-clad wood-framed building, perhaps 10' wide and 5' deep, with an overhang on the front. On the map, beside this little building, is an "A." — or automobile, often used to denote car storage. This might be nothing more than a parking lot, with an attendant's booth. Alternatively, there is a large auto repair shop immediately beside this lot; perhaps this is theirs.

1951: GULF filling station

• The 1951 map shows that a filling station has been built on this site, sharing its north wall with the neighboring store. Photos show it was a GULF station.

circa 1960: First National Bank of Greer

• The filling station was removed, and First National Bank of Greer built a very small building with a distinctive architectural sign; this sign can be clearly seen in a photo from the period. In addition, the Museum has a bank bag from First National which has an illustration of the building imprinted on it; this gives us detail as to what the building looked like. It also confirms that the existing structure in 2020 is the same building, with the distinctive sign removed.
• First National Bank of Greer is listed as the occupant in the 1959 city directory.

1966: People's National Bank

• On Dec. 31, 1966, First National Bank of Greer merged with People's National Bank. The 1969 city directory shows People's as the occupant.

1972: Citizen's Building and Loan Association

• The CBL website states "In 1972, we moved to our second location at 117 Trade Street" from their original location in the Bennett building at 101 Trade. The bank name game can be hard to follow; it appears they started as Planters; perhaps dropped that name when First National restructured; merged with and became People's National Bank; and eventually changed to CBL. Hopefully more information will come to light. There also seems to be a discrepancy in the statement that CBL moved from the Bennett building to this one in 1972; some evidence seems to indicate that they left the Bennett building prior to this time.

2020:

• As of June 2020, the bank building still stands. It has no tenant marked on the space. The ownership records give some clues as to what has happened with the building since it was First National.
  • 1966: First National Bank of Greer merged with the Peoples National Bank of Greenville on December 31, 1966.
  • 1975: Citizen's Building and Loan Association sold the property to Duke Power;
  • 1992, sold to West Poinsett Partners LLC;
  • 2003, sold to Roman Properties LLC;
  • 2007, sold to Emery Properties LLC; 
  • 2008, sold to Simply Everything LLC.