Greenville is the anchor city of Upstate South Carolina, an economic and cultural region with an estimated population of 1.59 million as of 2023.

Numerous companies have offices within the city such as Michelin, Prisma Health, Bon Secours, and Duke Energy.

A wealthy settler from Virginia named Richard Pearis arrived in South Carolina around 1754 and established relations with the Cherokee.

Pearis established a plantation on the Reedy River called the Great Plains in present-day downtown Greenville.

[9] The Treaty of Dewitt's Corner in 1777 ceded almost all Cherokee land, including present-day Greenville, to South Carolina.

[13] Considered to be the father of Greenville, McBee donated land for many structures such as churches, academies, and a cotton mill.

Greenville boomed to around 1,000 in the 1850s due to the growth of McBee's donations and the attraction of the town as a summer resort for visitors.

Greenville saw no action from the war until 1865 when Union troops came through the town looking for President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy who had fled south from Richmond, Virginia.

In June 1865, President Andrew Johnson appointed Greenville County native Benjamin Franklin Perry as Governor of South Carolina.

Thirty-one white men were jointly tried for the crime; most of the accused signed confessions, many of them naming Roosevelt Carlos Hurd as the lynch mob leader and the person who ultimately killed Earle with the shotgun.

[17][18] After World War II, Greenville's economy surged with the establishment of new stores and the expansion of the city limits.

Mayor Max Heller then began a revitalization with the Greenville County Museum of Art and the Hughes Main Library.

Sassafras Mountain, the highest point in South Carolina, is in northern Pickens County, less than 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Greenville.

Greenville, like much of the Piedmont region of the southeastern United States, has a mild version of a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa), with four distinct seasons; the city is part of USDA Hardiness zone 8a/8b.

More frequent ice storms and sleet mixed in with rain occur in the Greenville area; seasonal snowfall has historically ranged from trace amounts as recently as 2011–12 to 21.4 in (54 cm) in 1935–36.

[29] These storms can have a major impact on the area, as they often pull tree limbs down on power lines and make driving hazardous.

The city is the North American headquarters for Michelin, Synnex, United Community Bank, AVX Corporation, NCEES, Ameco, Southern Tide, Confluence Outdoor, Concentrix, JTEKT, Cleva North America, Spinx, Current Lighting Solutions, Prisma Health, and Scansource.

The Center for Emerging Technologies in mobility and energy was opened in 2011, hosting a number of companies in leading edge R&D and the headquarters for Sage Automotive.

When the former Donaldson Air Force Base closed in 1963, the land became the South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center (SCTAC).

The New York Times included Greenville among 52 places in the world to visit in 2023, highlighting the city's wide variety of restaurants.

[40] The Bon Secours Wellness Arena brings national tours of many popular bands to downtown, and the Peace Center for the Performing Arts provides a venue for orchestras and Broadway shows.

A planned multimillion-dollar renovation to the center's main concert hall lobby and riverside amphitheatre began in the spring of 2011.

CBT presents four performances annually as the resident professional dance company of the Peace Center with their largest as the holiday classic, "The Nutcracker, Once Upon A Time in Greenville."

The theaters offer a variety of performances including well-known works, such as Death of a Salesman and Grease, and plays written by local playwrights.

The box below lists the local radio stations: Greenville is part of the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson-Asheville DMA, which is the nation's 36th largest television market.

See the box below for the local television stations: Greenville is located on the Interstate 85 (I-85) corridor, approximately halfway between Atlanta and Charlotte.

The largest in the region, Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP), is the second busiest in the state and is served by most major airlines.

SCTAC (formerly Donaldson Air Base) has undergone significant modernization and is the site of multiple industries, as well as the International Transportation and Innovation Center (ITIC), and the South Carolina Army National Guard Aviation Support Facility.

Additionally, Greenville is included in the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor, which is proposed to run from Washington, D.C. to Jacksonville, Florida.

[129] Greenville's Shriners Hospital for Children treats pediatric orthopedic patients exclusively, free of charge.