Lectures and Events

Greenville: Then and Now, and Spring Meeting

Speaker: John Nolan

See Greenville like you never have before. Side-by-side photos from all around the county show what places looked like in earlier eras compared to the same location today. You will see fascinating buildings that used to be here, as well as old buildings that are still here in their earlier days. Explanation and context are provided, along with current developments in these locations.

Speaker: John Nolan, President of the Greenville County Historical Society and owner of Greenville History Tours.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Society hosted the Member Spring Meeting, where members voted on an update to the bylaws and elected 2026-2027 officers.

BJU Comes to Town

Speaker: John Matzko

Learn how a tiny college founded by an Alabama evangelist went bankrupt in Florida, prospered in Eastern Tennessee, and became the third-largest college in South Carolina when it moved to Greenville in 1947.

Speaker: John Matzko is a longtime Bob Jones University historian, archivist, and former chair of the Division of History, Government, and Social Science. A BJU graduate, he earned advanced degrees from the University of Cincinnati and the University of Virginia. He specializes in American legal history and has taught at BJU since 1972.

Joel Poinsett: The Untold Story

Speaker: James Hammond

It is not all about the poinsettia. Joel Roberts Poinsett was a diplomat, revolutionary, reformer, and controversial statesman. He encouraged revolutions in Spanish South America, opposed nullification in South Carolina, strengthened the U.S. Army as Secretary of War, and was entangled in the great moral and political conflicts of his time.

Speaker: James T. Hammond has published two books, delivered numerous history lectures, and spent 45 years as a newspaper journalist. His career included long tenures with the Wall Street Journal/Europe, the Asian Wall Street Journal, and The Greenville News. Now retired, he lives on the farm north of Greer where he grew up.

Yummy Greenville: Greenville’s Delicious Restaurant History

Speaker: John Nolan

Greenville’s modern culinary scene has risen to prominent local, state, and national recognition. Numerous restaurants have appeared on “best of” lists, James Beard nominations, and Michelin’s prestigious culinary guidebook. How did we get here?

John Nolan, author of The Lost Restaurants of Greenville and owner of USA Today’s third-ranked food tour company in America, takes you on a nostalgic journey of the stories, owners, recipes, and distinctions of iconic local restaurants that paved the way to where we are today.

Springwood Cemetery: A Living Museum

Speaker: Chuck D’Imperio

Chuck’s talk highlights some of the great stories from his favorite walking tour with Greenville History Tours, Springwood Cemetery. He shares tales of the city’s founders, the money men, fascinating family dynasties, tragic stories, accounts of those who served in every war America has fought, plus many curious stories you have never heard before.

Speaker: Chuck D’Imperio came here after retiring from his radio career, where he hosted an award-winning morning radio show in New York for more than 30 years. He has written more than a dozen New England travel guides and ran his own tour company giving walking tours of historic Cooperstown, New York, for 20 years.

Max Heller: Lessons in Leadership

Speaker: Dr. Russell Stall

Dr. Russell Stall explores the life, leadership, and lasting impact of Max Heller, Greenville’s transformative mayor during one of the most pivotal periods in the city’s modern history. Serving from 1971 to 1979, Heller helped steer Greenville through desegregation, downtown decline, and the early groundwork for the revitalization we often take for granted today. This talk looks beyond the highlight reel to examine how Heller governed, the risks he took, the resistance he faced, and the choices that reshaped Greenville’s political culture and physical landscape.

Click to watch the lecture.

Stagecoaches, Railroads, and Street Cars

Speaker: Dr. Robert Benedict

From Cherokee trading paths to electric trolleys, Greenville’s journey has always been about movement and transformation. This talk traces how early wagon roads carved by settlers and drovers became the arteries of a growing city, from the ruts of stagecoach wheels and the stone arches of Poinsett Bridge to the steam and steel of the Greenville and Columbia Railroad, and finally to the clang of streetcars that defined the city’s modern age.

Click to watch the lecture.

Greenville in the Roaring 1920s

Speaker: John Nolan

The former agricultural town of Greenville had by the 1920s transformed into a powerhouse of industry as the Textile Center of the South. New buildings, neighborhoods, organizations, and events were springing up all around, much like the growth of our city going on today. Join us for a look at the fascinating happenings and changes that came to town in the 1920s.

Click to watch the video.