Download Media Kit - The Montgomery Building

Media Kit
187 north church street, spartanburg, sc 29306
Spartanburg’s most iconic historic building, The Montgomery Building is poised to once again
be the hub of activity in Downtown Spartanburg.
Project Details
ӹӹ 72 apartments. Floors 3 –10 will be residential, occupied by studio, one- and twobedroom apartments ranging in size from 471 to 1,456 SF
ӹӹ Retail spaces range from 921SF to 5,366 SF
ӹӹ Restaurant space is 5,366 SF with 3,902 SF on the Ground Floor and 1,464 SF in the
Basement with Bank Vault
ӹӹ Floor 2 will be comprised of 11,693 SF of office space
ӹӹ 130 off-street parking spaces in the city deck behind the Montgomery Building and 25
on-site spaces for restaurant/retail customers The Montgomery Building is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
ӹӹ 23 co-work spaces available in Basement
The
Montgomery
Building
The Montgomery Building
187 North Church Street, Spartanburg, SC 29306
History of the Building
ӹӹ Built in 1924 by the Montgomery Family.
ӹӹ Because of the type of construction and the date of construction, The Montgomery Building
is the only remaining example of its kind in the entire state of South Carolina.
ӹӹ Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 25, 2011.
For almost a century, The Montgomery Building has been an iconic structure in Spartanburg. When it was
built, Spartanburg County had become one of the two largest counties in the state. By the early 1920s, textiles
and railroads had made Spartanburg the Hub City, a prosperous and forward-looking community in the
Carolina Piedmont. The city’s business leadership recognized that the area’s increasing number of professionals
and businesses needed more good, quality office space. The building took its name from the Montgomery
family, one of the leading families of textile entrepreneurs in the area. It was built on the site of Captain John
Montgomery’s home, which reflects that up to that point, North Church Street between downtown and the
Wofford College campus was largely a residential area. Montgomery had founded the Spartan Mill on the north
side of Spartanburg, and three of his sons wound up in different branches of the family textile business.
The new 10-story building sat at the northern edge of the city’s business district, on its main north-south street,
Church Street. It was only a few blocks from Morgan Square, then as now the city’s principal public gathering
space. Most of the city’s shops and business were only a few minutes’ walk from the building. In the mid-1920s,
before widespread access to cars, Spartanburg was a walking city, with most of the city’s 25,000 residents living
within a mile or so of the central business district. When it opened in 1924, The Montgomery Building was the
tallest building in the city, eclipsing the Andrews Building on Morgan Square by two stories. It held the title of
tallest building until the early 1950s, and was the city’s tallest commercial building until the late 1980s. (The two
taller buildings were apartment buildings.)
One of the building’s first significant tenants was Lockwood Greene, the engineering company that built many
of the area’s textile mills. They were so involved with the Piedmont’s textile growth that they finally moved their
offices to Spartanburg. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Lockwood Greene had designed The Montgomery
Building. A number of local textile companies moved their offices into the new building, including the Pacolet
Manufacturing Company, which was one of the Montgomery family’s companies. Local textile powerhouses
Inman Mills, Arcadia Mills, and the Deering-Milliken Mills all occupied space at some point in The Montgomery
Building, as did the South Carolina Cotton Manufacturers Association.
The Montgomery Building
187 North Church Street, Spartanburg, SC 29306
History Continued
The Montgomery Building was home to more than just mill engineers and mill management. In 1926, shortly
after it opened, its tenants included several physicians, several attorneys, several real estate agents, and a number
of life insurance companies. Other businesses included a cotton broker, the local offices of the Clinchfield
Railroad, and the local offices of a coal mining and sales company. Spartanburg’s Chamber of Commerce, the
Community Chest, and the county tuberculosis association also had offices in the building. On the ground
floor, a ladies’ clothing and hat store, a post office, and the theater were among the tenants. After 1930, South
Carolina’s first AM radio station, WSPA, operated out of The Montgomery Building.
In the 1950s, the building was alive with activity. Some of the tenants included the Ward and Covington Travel
Agency, several real estate companies, several life insurance companies, several attorneys, the Harwood Beebe
Civil Engineering firm, and some physicians and dentists. Future governor Donald Russell had his law office
on the 8th floor. The Spartanburg County Foundation also occupied space on the 4th floor. The ground floor
housed a pharmacy, a flower shop, a barber shop, and a beauty salon, among other shops. Several government
offices had space in the building. The U.S. Department of Agriculture took up large parts of several floors with
its Soil Conservation Service and related offices. The Department of Labor had offices there, as did the South
Carolina Tax Commission. Truly, this was the premier office space in the community.
Even in the mid-1960s, the building remained relatively full, with the same complement of insurance agents,
physicians, dentists, and real estate agents. Many of the city’s leading attorneys (one of whom was the mayor in
that decade) had their offices in the building, drawn no doubt to the proximity of the Spartanburg County and
federal courthouses. Most of the federal government offices were gone, though Governor Donald Russell still
had a law office there. Lockwood Greene had taken over the entire 10th floor, and the ground floor still had a
collection of barber and beauty shops, a pharmacy, and a branch of the post office. Interestingly enough, a local
labor union also had an office there, as did the local offices of the Clinchfield Railroad and Atlantic Coast Line
Railroad.
In the decades after World War II, the city of Spartanburg continued to grow, and the community’s prosperity
led the city’s boundaries to expand. In the years before World War II, Spartanburg had been a compact, walkable
city. But the city’s expansion, along with greater ownership of cars, led many Spartans to move further away
from downtown. New neighborhoods on the city’s east and west sides drew young families, and new shopping
centers pulled attention away from the historic downtown.
The Montgomery Building
187 North Church Street, Spartanburg, SC 29306
History Continued
The neighborhoods close to downtown entered a period of steady decline. By the 1970s, the city saw a growing
number of vacant buildings and storefronts around downtown. In a well-meaning but ultimately wrong decision,
the city decided to brick over two blocks of Main Street, turning it into a pedestrianized Main Street Mall. That
move took a struggling downtown and ended its reign as the city’s premier shopping and office district.
The Montgomery Building suffered to some extent along with downtown. The building’s Carolina Theater,
which took up much of the lower floors, closed. By 1980, the building still had a few loyal tenants. A sandwich
shop, barber shop, and a few random offices occupied the ground floor, along with WFBC TV Channel 4, the
Greenville NBC affiliate, which had moved its Spartanburg office into the building. Several attorneys had stayed,
no doubt because access to the courthouse outweighed any desire to have newer offices. Southern Bell had taken
over the top two floors, and Lockwood Greene continued to have offices on the 6th floor and in various other
parts of the building. A few other professionals continued to work there. But by 1992, much of the building
was vacant, with offices clustered on the first, fourth, and fifth floors. Channel 4 remained on the ground floor,
and The Paper, a local weekly newspaper, had offices on the 5th floor. As late as the early 2000s, the Palmetto
Conservation Foundation and the Hub City Writers Project had space in the building.
Throughout its storied history, The Montgomery has stood at the crossroads not only of two major highways –
both carrying U.S. highway designation – but metaphorically, of downtown. Just blocks from Morgan Square,
it continues to sit on a prominent corner within walking distance of the city’s cultural center, the regional state
university’s business school, a new co-op grocery store, the nine-story downtown Marriott, and the courthouse.
The neighborhoods near downtown have experienced their own revitalization, and downtown has seen tens of
millions of dollars in investment in the past decade. Built during the early 1920s, a boom decade in Spartanburg’s
history, The Montgomery Building stands poised to take advantage of and contribute to a new boom decade in
the early 21st century.
The Montgomery Building, which remains the third tallest downtown, is still an iconic structure, reminding
residents of and visitors to the city of its past successes, recent challenges, and future possibilities.
Phillip Stone, Ph.D.
Archivist and historian, Wofford College
Chair, Board of Architectural Design and Historic Review, City of Spartanburg
The Montgomery Building
187 North Church Street, Spartanburg, SC 29306
Project Partners
ӹӹ Developer: BF Spartanburg, LLC
ӹӹ Architect: McMillan Pazdan Smith
ӹӹ Construction: Harper Corporation
ӹӹ Commercial Leasing: Belk | Lucy
ӹӹ Marketing: A-LINE Interactive
The Montgomery Building
187 North Church Street, Spartanburg, SC 29306
Key Contacts
ӹӹ Chris Dion, Leasing Broker
864-918-0409
[email protected]
ӹӹ Sterling Draper, Media Contact
864-404-8475
[email protected]
Files
ӹӹ The Montgomery Building Logos
ӹӹ Renderings
The Montgomery Building
187 North Church Street, Spartanburg, SC 29306