Carlisle Street
The Preservation Trust's Carlisle Street Initiative involves ongoing restoration of Carlisle Street and promotion of the entire neighborhood as the only residential historic district in the city, the only neighborhood within walking distance of the newly restored historic Morgan Square and downtown district, and the link to Spartanburg’s newest restoration project, Hub-Bub – a nearby artist community featuring a performance venue, a proposed restaurant, gallery space and artist’s lot apartments with studio space.
A traditional historic district built between the 1880’s to the 1920’s, Hampton Heights started as a thriving, downtown community for the upper-middle class. Over time, the neighborhood suffered as families moved from the city core to newer developments thus resulting in a neighborhood prime for investors, turnover, and crime.
In the past fifteen (15) years, much of Hampton Heights has experienced a rebirth. However, Carlisle Street, a street designed in the 1920’s as a residential haven, became disconnected from the neighborhood due to a road project that dramatically increased unnecessary traffic. The traffic, numbering 1900 cars a day, resulted in further weakening of the street as homeowners moved away and crime became more prevalent.
The decline of Carlisle Street led to the creation of the Carlisle Street Initiative, a strategic plan to improve the quality of life on Carlisle Street by restoring the housing stock and attracting homeowners to the vacant, desolate street. This initiative focuses on the restoration of an important neglected area. When this Trust project began, there were four (4) homeowners and eight (8) renters on the twenty-six (26) property street. The remaining homes were in various stages of condemnation, foreclosure, and vacancy. In 2005, the Trust created their strategic plan: to acquire, restore, market, and sell eleven (11) properties on the street. Phase One of the Trust’s initiative added six (6) additional homeowners, and Phase Two added five (5) more. The eleven (11) single-family homes on Carlisle Street were acquired and restored utilizing HOME funds and a bank line of credit.
Thus far, the Preservation Trust has used many volunteers from the community to work on this project. The board of directors and neighborhood volunteers have dedicated countless hours to the planning of the initiative and other projects such as beautification efforts and marketing campaigns.
The Trust has spent several semesters with the students from the Wofford College Success Initiative Program. The Trust has also worked alongside a group of horticulture design students from Spartanburg Community College to work on landscape designs for the yards in the area.
Carlisle Vision Statement
Only ONE house left on Carlisle Street: PROPERTIES FOR SALE
A Spot of Pride replaced temporary barriers at the intersection of Carlisle Street and Daniel Morgan Avenue, closing the street permanently to create an urban passive park. This park also holds signage for the Hampton Heights Historic District and acts as a gateway into the downtown business district. Funding from an anonymous donor, Denny’s Corporation, and City of Spartanburg helped to make this vision a reality. The Groundbreaking took place inApril of 2007 and completed in July 2007. The official dedication was on Sunday, September 23, 2007 at 2pm.
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