McPherson Park (Greenville, South Carolina)

In June 1884, Caroline Cleveland Choice (1811-1905), widow of prominent attorney and political activist, William Choice, donated 2.6 acres, from which the city of Greenville created a park by adding to it 5.7 forested acres it had purchased two years before.

[1] In 1911, businessman, former mayor, and state representative William Choice Cleveland (1883-1946), donated additional land including the site of an old tannery.

By the 1920s, the park "had become central to Greenville life," and it was the site of numerous Sunday school and cotton mill picnics, concerts, dances, and family reunions.

[4] From 1935 to 1941, it was renovated by the Works Progress Administration; and in 1941, Sears, Roebuck and Company donated $7,500 toward the building of a stone shelter.

In 2016, the park included walking paths, playgrounds, picnic tables, and shelters, a miniature golf course, lighted tennis courts, a nameless stream crossed by several pedestrian bridges,[8] the Sears Shelter (which hosted dances, public meetings, and community events), and a log cabin, which from 1987 to 2010 served as a consignment shop for the sale of handicrafts made by retirees.