Greer peaches and a Taylors ramble

I do confess: I love peaches! So yesterday, I took advantage of the season to buy a peck of locally grown peaches at Taylor's Orchard peach shed, a long-time fixture in Greer operated by Fisher's Orchard since 1997. While I was out and about I decided to take advantage of some free time to take photos of some of the small changes I've noticed in Taylors in the past few months. Update: The peach shed is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

A few weeks ago, I noticed CSX railroad workers removed some of the cross-ties and have yet to replace them. I thought I'd be neat to take a photo before work on the bridge has been completed.

I parked at nearby Covenant Community Church on East Main Street and walked the short distance to the viaduct. No services or other activities were being held that day, otherwise I would have parked farther away to stay out of their way.

At one time, this building was home to Stephenson Memorial United Methodist Church until declining membership led the members to sell the building in 1983 to Community Baptist Church. The members would go on to found Covenant United Methodist Church in 1986. In 1998, Community Baptist Church moved (to a nearby place on Suber Road?) and sold the building to Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. When the seminary moved to its current location a few hundred feet away in 2007, Covenant Community Orthodox Presbyterian Church bought the building in 2008, keeping the building in the family shall we say.

I also stopped by the current location of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, formerly occupied by Taylors School from 1880 to 1981, then vacant until the seminary bought and renovated the building. The current building dates from 1936.

The building has been nicely renovated, judging only by the outside, while keeping the character of the building intact. One of these days, I must check out the inside. Our Upstate Ancestry has an interesting section on the building's school years with a historical timeline and old photos, although the information about the renovation is now dated.

The building's been around in its renovated form about 5 years now, but a few months ago an attractive sign was added.

After taking the second picture, I had to a closer look at the masonry between the two stairs.

Whatever sign that used to be there is now long gone. The stone edging continues down to the intersection with Mill Street, the former entrance to the Southern Bleachery mill.

Across the street is the latest business to occupy that building, the Taylors Flea Market ... or something. I'm not quite sure what the name of this business is supposed to be now. Click on the picture and you figure it out.

Within the past few years, the building was used as a grocery and produce store, a restaurant (and a successful one too), a flea market, and as of the past week or so sells used furniture and appliances.

I dropped by the old Southern Bleachery site for a quick visit. A variety of companies occupy the site now, and I kept my distance to stay out of the way of the traffic going up and down the narrow street.

I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to photograph, and it was getting hot anyway, so I took my sure-to-be delicious bounty of peaches home.

A made a map of the locations I visited:

View Greer peaches and a Taylors ramble in a larger map