Court Square on Greenville’s Main Street began as the historic center of the village from when its plat was laid out in 1797 by Lemuel Alston and remains the historic heart of the city today with its original borders still preserved. The wooden courthouse, stores and homes that defined its original look took on a much more regal character in the 1820s with the familiar landmark buildings that defined it for the next century. There’s the Mansion House hotel on the northwest corner and the County Courthouse designed by Robert Mills (later the Record Building, then Chamber of Commerce). The village also gained its first local newspaper, The Greenville Republican, in 1826, which gave us additional and lesser-known buildings and occupants of the historic square.
The store house of J.H. Goodlett Esq. opened in the summer of 1826 between the courthouse (middle of the east side of Court Square) and Dr. John Crittenden’s home on the northeast corner (now the site of Luna Rosa). For a small village, Goodlett’s store provided an impressive variety of goods, including an assortment of ready-made clothing consisting of frock coats, vests, pantaloons, shirts, hats, shoes and gloves, as well as things like hair powder, combs, parasols, braids, ribbons and shawls. Competition, however, wasn’t far away. If locals didn’t find what they wanted at Goodlett’s, they could walk across the square to Peter Shockley’s store (formerly occupied by John E. Brown) for an assortment of ready-made clothing, hats, shoes and boots. While there, they could pick up other items Goodlett didn’t carry, like saddles, bridles, hardware, books, medicines and dry goods — all brought in from the Charleston market.
People who bought silks and other fabrics at Goodlett’s store could walk across the square to the south side where L.J. Hunter opened a new tailoring business in early 1827 in a building formerly occupied by Thomas Bridgeman.
On the southwest corner of the square, Capt. Isaac Wickliffe was the first to purchase a lot from Lemuel Alson on April 22, 1797, and he built a home there. Just north of his lot, before reaching Col. William Toney’s Mansion House, a printing office was used as the first location for the creation of The Greenville Republican newspaper.
Just south of Wickliffe’s house towards West Broad Street (approximately where city hall is today), Italian immigrant Antonio Zenoni opened a confectionary store in 1828 after being “attracted by the just celebrity of Greenville as a place of fashionable and elegant retreat during the summer months” for Charlestonians. Locals and summer visitors alike could enjoy Italian dolce delights such as cordials, candies and lemon syrup. Other products Zenoni supplied included cigars, wines, preserves, French fruit, figs, prunes, raisins and olives.
Next time you visit current sites on Court Square such as the Symphony Center, M. Judson Booksellers, Soby’s, the Westin, or Luna Rosa, let your mind go back to what life must have been like 200 years ago with some of these old businesses and occupants.
John M. Nolan is owner of Greenville History Tours (greenvillehistorytours.com) and author of “A Guide to Historic Greenville, SC” and “Lost Restaurants of Greenville, SC.”
