20th Century Greenville was like many modern American cities.  The city had electric street cars, and the Ottaray Hotel was built to serve the growing number of industrialists from out of town who were to be visiting Greenville.

Greenville developed during the 20th century primarily thanks to heavy textile production in the area.  The area's fast-moving waters originally powered many of the textile mills and later were used to cool the machinery in the textile mills.  Virtually every town in the Upstate has some relation to the bygone textile industry era.

"Mill towns" were common near every body of water and even in cases where there was no water nearby.  Many of the older homes from the early part of the 20th century were once mill homes.