821 Area Code 🌍☎️

Greenwood is the county seat of Greenwood County in South Carolina with a 2020 population of 22,545. Founded in 1823 as a summerhouse called "Green Wood" by John McGehee and his wife Charlotte, the village was officially incorporated in 1857 and grew significantly after the Greenville & Columbia Railroad was built in 1852. The city transitioned from agriculture to textile manufacturing after William L. Durst opened the Greenwood Cotton Mill in 1890, and it became home to Lander University in 1904 and Piedmont Technical College in 1966. Greenwood covers 16.3 square miles and is located 51 miles south of Greenville and 63 miles north of Augusta, Georgia, with nearby Lake Greenwood offering 212 miles of shoreline and recreational activities that have made the region known as the "Lakelands." Laurens is a city in upstate South Carolina and the county seat of Laurens County, with a population of 9,335 according to the 2020 census, located within the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley metropolitan area. Named after Henry Laurens, a wealthy Continental Congress delegate and second president who was a major slave trader and rice planter, the city was established by the South Carolina General Assembly on March 15, 1785, as a commercial center created from the Old Ninety-Six District. Originally inhabited by Cherokee Indians, the area later attracted Scottish and Irish immigrants before the American Revolution and developed into a major colonial commerce hub, with future President Andrew Johnson working as a tailor there from 1824 to 1826. The city's economy evolved from cotton production and slavery to textile and manufacturing industries in the postwar years, with notable facilities including Lauren Cotton Mill (founded 1895), Watts Mill (1902), and Laurens Glass Company (established 1910, a major southeastern glass producer for over 80 years). Today, Laurens's economy is supported by diverse industries including a Walmart distribution center near Interstate 385, corporations like International Paper and Milliken & Company, and a new transmission production facility by German manufacturer ZF Group. Greenville, South Carolina is the sixth-most populous city in the state with a population of 70,720 at the 2020 census and serves as the county seat of Greenville County, while its metropolitan area of approximately 997,000 residents represents the largest metro area in South Carolina. Located halfway between Atlanta and Charlotte along I-85 in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Greenville anchors Upstate South Carolina, an economic and cultural region with an estimated 1.63 million residents. Established in 1797 and incorporated in 1831, the city originally developed as an industrial hub through cotton mills and rail infrastructure, including the Greenville & Columbia Railroad funded in 1853, before transitioning to advanced manufacturing and automotive production in recent decades. Major employers include Michelin, Prisma Health, Bon Secours, and Duke Energy, while cultural attractions encompass the Peace Center, Greenville County Museum of Art, and Falls Park on the Reedy in Downtown Greenville. The city's founding is attributed to Vardry McBee, who purchased the area in 1816 and is credited as the father of Greenville for donating land for churches, academies, mills, and Furman University, which he helped relocate from Winnsboro in 1851.