Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
Greenville, North Carolina
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==History== ===Founding=== Greenville formed in 1771 as "Martinsborough", named after the Royal Governor [[Josiah Martin]]. In 1774 the town was moved to its present location on the south bank of the [[Tar River]], {{convert|3|mi|km|spell=in}} west of its original site. In 1786, the name was changed to Greenesville in honor of General [[Nathanael Greene]], the [[American Revolutionary War]] hero. It was later shortened to Greenville.<ref name="City of Greenville, NC">{{cite web|url=http://www.greenvillenc.gov/about_greenville/default.aspx?id=63 |title=City of Greenville, NC |publisher=Greenvillenc.gov |date=July 26, 2010 |access-date=December 9, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527223809/http://www.greenvillenc.gov/about_greenville/default.aspx?id=63 |archive-date=May 27, 2010 }}</ref> ===19th century=== During Greenville's early years, the [[Tar River]] was a navigable waterway, and by the 1860s there were several established steamboat lines transporting passengers and goods on the river. [[Cotton]] was the leading agricultural crop, and Greenville became a major cotton export center. Before the turn of the century, however, [[tobacco]] surpassed cotton and became the leading money crop. Greenville became one of the state's leading tobacco marketing and warehouse centers.<ref name="City of Greenville, NC"/> ===20th century=== For over a century, Greenville was recognized only as an important [[tobacco]] market and the home of a small state-supported college, chartered by the Legislature in March 1907 and named East Carolina Teacher's Training School, a co-ed institution. By the mid 1960s, East Carolina College had become the third-largest state-supported college, and enrollment approached 8,000 students — twice the 1960 enrollment figure. In 1967, it became [[East Carolina University]]. [[The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University|ECU Medical School]] admitted its first four-year class in 1977. At the turn of the century, enrollment at ECU topped the 18,000 mark, and now exceeds 29,000 students.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usjournal.com/en/students/campuses/ecu.html |title=East Carolina University, North Carolina |publisher=Usjournal.com |access-date=December 9, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717180403/http://www.usjournal.com/en/students/campuses/ecu.html |archive-date=July 17, 2011 }}</ref> Greenville's current economic development began in 1963 when Empire Brush was recruited to the new Greenville Industrial Park, established by Greenville Industries, Inc. (a for-profit land holding company) in partnership with the Pitt County Development Commission (established by a voter referendum in 1957) and Greenville Utilities Commission. One of the community's greatest successes came in 1968 when [[GlaxoWellcome|Burroughs Wellcome]], a major pharmaceutical research and manufacturing firm, located a pharmaceutical development/manufacturing facility near the city. The site is now owned by [[Patheon]], a Thermo Fisher Scientific company, which employs approximately 1,200 people.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.witn.com/home/headlines/Governor-coming-to-Greenville-for-economic-announcement-278006591.html?ref=591 |title=Hundreds of new jobs coming to Pitt County |publisher=WITN.com |access-date=October 3, 2014 |archive-date=December 4, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141204072321/http://www.witn.com/home/headlines/Governor-coming-to-Greenville-for-economic-announcement-278006591.html?ref=591 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The city and Pitt County have also become home to many other major industries and businesses including [[Catalent]], Attindas, Grady-White Boats, and Hyster-Yale Materials Handling.<ref name="City of Greenville, NC"/> ====Hurricane Floyd==== {{Main|Hurricane Floyd}} [[Image:Floyd Tar River Flooding.jpg|thumb|[[Tar River]] flooding homes after [[Hurricane Floyd]]]] In September 1999, [[Hurricane Floyd]] made landfall in eastern North Carolina, dropping nearly {{convert|17|in|mm}} of rain during the hours of its passage. Many residents were not aware of the flooding until the water came into their homes. Most localized flooding happened overnight, and the [[Tar River]] suffered the worst flooding, exceeding 500-year flood levels along its lower stretches.<ref>{{cite web|last=Bales|first=Jerad D. |url=http://pubs.usgs.gov/wri/wri004093/summary.html |title=USGS: 1999 North Carolina Flooding: Summary |publisher=Pubs.usgs.gov |access-date=December 9, 2010}}</ref> An additional 20+ inches of rain had fallen prior in the month from the two passes of [[Hurricane Dennis (1999)|Hurricane Dennis]]. Damages in [[Pitt County]], alone were estimated at $1.6 billion (1999 USD, $1.87 billion 2006 USD).<ref>{{cite web |author=Tom Ross & Neal Lott |url=http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/extremes/1999/september/extremes0999.html |title=NCDC: Climate-Watch, September 1999 |publisher=Lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov |access-date=December 9, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011024130238/http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/extremes/1999/september/extremes0999.html |archive-date=October 24, 2001 }}</ref> Some residents in Greenville had to swim six feet underwater to reach the front doors of their homes and apartments. Due to the heavy flooding in downtown Greenville, the [[East Carolina Pirates]] were forced to relocate their football game against #9 [[University of Miami|Miami]] to [[NC State Wolfpack|N.C. State]]'s [[Carter–Finley Stadium]] in [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]], where they beat the Hurricanes, 27–23.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/college/news/1999/09/29/ecu_flood/ |publisher=CNN |title=Pirates' big win helps city cope with aftermath of Floyd |date=September 29, 1999 |access-date=May 4, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090607030058/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/college/news/1999/09/29/ecu_flood/ |archive-date=June 7, 2009 }}</ref> ===21st century=== In 2017, Greenville signed an agreement with [[Yeonsu District]] in South Korea to become [[sister cities]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-06-06 |title=Greenville officials sign sister city pact with South Korea city |url=https://www.witn.com/content/news/Greenville-officials-sign-friendship-pact-with-South-Korea-city--426658011.html |access-date=2024-11-25 |website=witn.com |language=en}}</ref>
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
Greenville, North Carolina
(section)
Add topic