The mill history of the Village of West Greenville
The Village grew up around two of the biggest textile mills in the South. Brandon Mill opened in 1901 and Woodside Mill in 1902, and by 1914 Woodside's second addition made it the largest cotton mill under one roof in the world. Each mill built its own village of worker cottages with stores, churches, and ball teams; the Brandon community alone had about 2,000 residents by 1925, and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson played for the Brandon Mill team before the major leagues. The town of West Greenville gave up its charter and merged into the City of Greenville in 1948.
Brandon Mill closed in 1977 and the area declined for decades. The turnaround began when an artist bought the mill's old general store and opened it as ArtBomb Studios in the early 2000s, drawing other artists and small businesses to Pendleton Street. In 2014 the mill itself was bought for conversion, and West Village Lofts at Brandon Mill opened in 2016 with 186 apartments. The district was formally named The Village in 2021.
The homes in the Village of West Greenville
Housing here is a mix that no other Greenville neighborhood has. The original early 1900s mill cottages, small frame houses on compact lots, line the streets around Brandon and Woodside, and many have been renovated into some of the most affordable in town homes near downtown. Alongside them, newer townhome and cottage developments have gone up on former mill land in the last few years, with modern floor plans and rooftop or porch views back toward the city skyline. The converted mill lofts add a rental option inside a historic building.
Buyers should expect block by block variation: a fully renovated cottage, an untouched original, and a new construction townhome can sit within a hundred yards of each other, and prices reflect that spread.
Getting around from the Village of West Greenville
Pendleton Street is the spine of the district, with more than sixty working artists and galleries, studios, restaurants, and a monthly First Friday gallery night that draws people from across the city. Downtown's West End is about a mile and a half east, and Unity Park, the 60 acre park that opened in 2022 along the Reedy River, connects the Village to the Swamp Rabbit Trail and to Main Street on foot or by bike. Joe Jackson Memorial Park, on the old Brandon Mill grounds, is the neighborhood ballfield.
Pendleton Street continues west as Easley Bridge Road toward Highway 123, and the drive to downtown takes about five minutes. School assignments are set by address, and because the area is changing fast we recommend a conversation about which blocks match what you want before you start touring.
