How Overbrook was built
Overbrook was one of Greenville's first streetcar suburbs. The city's trolley line was extended in 1910 to a new terminus on the eastern edge of town, and in 1913 the Woodside brothers, who had made their fortune with the Woodside Cotton Mill, organized the Overbrook Land Company and bought the surrounding farmland from Asa A. Green for $7,500. Architect H. Olin Jones surveyed and platted it that September. R.J. Rowley developed the first section, about 120 homes dominated by Craftsman bungalows, and a second survey by R.E. Dalton in 1917 led to Overbrook Circle being subdivided by 1922, with larger lots and larger houses built by Franklin Smith. By 1924 the neighborhood was complete.
The "Toonerville Trolley" that made it possible kept running until buses replaced it around 1928. Overbrook is now one of the city's seven designated historic districts.
The homes in Overbrook
The signature house is a 1910s or 1920s Craftsman bungalow with a low pitched roof, a wide front porch on tapered columns, and exposed rafter tails, and dozens of them line the original streets. Cottages, Tudor Revivals, and Colonial Revivals sit on Overbrook Circle and the later blocks, and the lots there are noticeably larger. A century on, the streetscape is remarkably intact.
Many bungalows have been renovated inside while keeping their original woodwork and windows, and a few newer homes fill lots on the neighborhood's edges. Prices remain more approachable than in Alta Vista or North Main for a comparable historic house, which is a large part of why buyers look here.
Getting around from Overbrook
Overbrook sits just east of downtown, between East North Street and Laurens Road, and Main Street is a few minutes by car or a short bike ride. Timmons Park is the nearest large city park, with a disc golf course, athletic fields, and playgrounds, and the Swamp Rabbit Trail extension along Laurens Road connects the neighborhood toward Cleveland Park. A small cluster of neighborhood businesses, including a farm to table restaurant and market, a doughnut shop, and a coffee house, has grown up along the neighborhood's edge in recent years.
Pleasantburg Drive and Laurens Road put I-385 and I-85 within ten minutes, and Prisma Health Greenville Memorial is close. East North Street Elementary is nearby, with assignments set by address. We confirm zoning and pull comparable sales for any specific home.
