Blue Ridge Country May/June 2022 - 17

OUR BLUE RIDGE TOWNS
JOE HILTABIDEL
In fact, through much of TR, the Swamp Rabbit and
Main Street run nearly side-by-side. So if you want to
stroll Main Street, put on your walking shoes and walk
the length of TR's section of the Swamp Rabbit. It'll take
you by Charlie's Rustiques, located in an old Sinclair Gas
Station with the green DINO brontosaurus still painted
near the door. By the Whistle Stop Café ( " Our fried
green tomatoes are the best in the South! " ). Past Sidewall
Pizza Company, where thin-crust pizza go hand in glove
with craft brews. A sushi place, and Chinese and Vietnamese
eateries.
And near the center of Main Street sits the beautiful
Victorian Spring Park Inn, where, story has it, the owners
used to greet the trains stopping just yards from the front
door to help visitors with their luggage. Recently donated
to the TR Historical Society by the original owner's greatgranddaughter,
Nell Anderson Gibson, the house is listed
on the National Register of Historic Places, and the surrounding
20 acres now has a conservation easement that
assures it will not be developed. When the restoration is
complete, the Spring Park Inn property will serve as a central
gathering place for TR residents and visitors.
And nearby the Inn, if fundraising is successful, there
will soon be a statue of Travelers Rest Revolutionary War
heroine, Dicey Langston, who lived most of her adult
life in TR.
" You can't throw a rock without hitting a Dicey descendent, "
Mayor Amidon says with a grin. (Langston
gave birth to 22 children.) Called " the female Paul Revere, "
Langston is best known for warning her brothers'
patriot encampment at Little Eden of an impending attack
by the Tory renegade Bloody Scouts.
It's just plain fun to walk the Swamp Rabbit, used by
visitors and residents, hard-core bikers and runners, kids
and elders, dogs on leashes and babies in strollers. It's
beautiful evidence of " If you build it, they will come. "
In fact, TR is bent on making sure that all of the city is
bikeable and/or walkable. " We've been very intentional, "
Amidon says. " Everything needs to be connected. "
CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT: The farmers market on the Swamp
Rabbit Trail is the largest independent market in South Carolina.
The amphitheater is also part of Trailblazer Park.
Aerial view of Travelers Rest highlights the beauty of the city and Paris
Mountain on the horizon.
The welcome at TR goes well beyond the welcoming signage.
Unique shops add to the experience of the small mountain city.
Just off the Swamp Rabbit, nearby Trailblazer Park is
an unusual and beautiful blend of city recreation and
government administration space. The park is home to
the largest independent farmers market in South Carolina,
and an amphitheater that hosts summer concerts
and free movies.
TR's newest housing area-being built on a forty-acre
site once home to a textile mill -will be easily walkable
to the Swamp Rabbit and downtown.
" We've worked with the family that owns the land to
assure that there will be a lot of green space here in Pinestone, "
Amidon says. " We'll have apartments and singlefamily
homes and some commercial space connected by
walking trails. " If all goes as planned, an estimated 850
new residents will soon call TR home.
True to its name, Travelers Rest, with its Swamp Rabbit
trail connecting it to the growing city of Greenville
on one end and the historic Geer Highway heading into
North Carolina on the other, is still a place you can pass
through. But it seems to me that it's made a much stronger
case for being a place to come to.
MAY/JUNE 2022 17
Blue Ridge Country May/June 2022

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