About Us
Our purpose is to build a maker-driven community that creates a richer, more vibrant, and prosperous Greenville.
Who We Are
Heddle Hill is a community in Greenville, South Carolina within the former textile crescent along Rutherford Road on the doorstep of Taylors between Greenville and Greer. It’s a place for artisans, entrepreneurs, creatives, and collaborators to thrive. With workspaces, shops, and entertainment, it captures the hardworking spirit of past Greenvillians. Heddle Hill brings together the past and present to celebrate the art and business of making. It creates spaces and a community that fosters a vibrant environment.
Our History
In 1917, at the height of World War I, Camp Sevier was established here as a training ground for the U.S. Army’s 30th Infantry Division. Over the next year, more than 30,000 men passed through these fields, drilling, marching, and shipping out to fight in France. Many of them never returned. While few physical traces of the camp remain today, its impact endures. For a brief but intense moment, this land was part of a global struggle—and part of the legacy of sacrifice that shaped our nation.
After the war, the land shifted from military to manufacturing. In the 1920s, a Philadelphia-based company called Steel Heddle began expanding south, seeking proximity to the booming textile mills of the Carolinas. The company specialized in making the intricate metal parts—heddles, drop wires, reeds—that kept looms running in mills across the Southeast. In 1942, as World War II drove industrial growth, Steel Heddle opened a sprawling 50-acre campus right here on Rutherford Road, on the very grounds where troops once trained.
For decades, the Steel Heddle Manufacturing Company stood as one of Greenville’s proudest employers. At its height in the 1980s, nearly 1,000 jobs were tied to this site, with workers producing components essential to the textile industry’s success. The towering brick facades and expansive warehouses weren’t just structures—they were symbols of a thriving industrial economy and the families it supported.
But as global markets shifted and American textile production declined, Steel Heddle faced mounting challenges. After a series of ownership changes and financial struggles, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2001. What followed was a long period of uncertainty. The once-bustling complex fell into disrepair—vacant, weathered by time, and emblematic of the broader industrial downturn that touched so many Southern towns.
In 2014, a group of local investors saw potential where others saw a relic. They acquired the property with a focus on restoring its value through industrial leasing, breathing new life into the aging infrastructure by attracting small businesses and manufacturers. This effort stabilized the site, but the deeper transformation was yet to come.
That turning point arrived in December 2021, when UCP Heddle Greenville, LLC stepped in with a broader vision. Committing to significant improvements—renovating infrastructure, restoring facades, and modernizing the campus—they began laying the groundwork for something more ambitious than a business park. What emerged was Heddle Hill: a plan to honor the site’s layered history while opening it up as a community-centered, mixed-use destination.
