Saturday, January 21st, 2023
Fountain Inn, SC: One-legged man at an ass-kicking contest
Greenville has a bevy of suburbs, some of which were established, independent towns long before Greenville began to boom and engulfed them. Of them, Greer has the largest downtown area, followed by Fountain Inn, Travelers Rest, and Simpsonville. Then you have Mauldin, which never really had a downtown area at all, plus a few others like Taylors that mainly existed only to serve the nearest mill, whose names live on as Greenville neighborhoods.
You'll note that two of these suburbs, Travelers Rest and Fountain Inn, have names that are quite poetic. And Fountain Inn, where we spent Saturday morning, actually is named after an inn that served stagecoach travelers, which had a fountain in front that was fed by a spring. A historical marker on the north side of town tells the story. Something else to note is that Greenville County is enormous, and some of these towns grew and thrived simply because it was too much of a burden to travel all day just to go to Greenville. When your needs could be served better by only traveling a couple of hours to someplace like Greer, Travelers Rest or Fountain Inn, you did so.
At any rate, here's Fountain Inn.
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I love ghost signs.
Did I mention I love ghost signs?
Your guess is as good as mine.
This man was quite literally the proverbial one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest -- and he won. He was a tap dancer, and performed all over the country.
No idea, but it's my understanding he's responsible for the monument to Eve.
Fountain Inn's train station has been repurposed as the Chamber of Commerce, and also hosts the farmer's market.
Fountain Inn, with its cohesive center, also boasts several blocks of pretty historic houses.
This house is for sale.
And what's more, it's absolutely lovely.
The old Fountain Inn High School, now a performing arts center and private elementary school.
The Fountain Inn branch of the Greenville County Library System is next door.
And then it was off to lunch and a toxic swamp!