The History of Slater Hall

About the Property | About the Building | How Do We Get There

In 1927 H.N. Slater purchased 466 acres of property in Northern Greenville county to build a textile mill and “village”. This village consisted of homes, a Fire Dept., General Store, Barber shop, Post Office and the hub of all social activity, the Slater Hall Community Center. The mill, still in operation, has a rich history, including a role in producing the fabric used for the Apollo 11 spacesuits that “walked on the moon”.

This large, two story building, situated on 3.83 acres of property at the heart of the Slater/Marietta area. The bottom floor provide a large gym, stage, and auditorium area where the mill hosted community wide events including movies, dances, and holiday celebrations. The second and third floors provide additional meeting space used for a wide variety of purposes from children’s activities like scouting to senior citizens’ gatherings.

In 1945 ownership of the hall passed to the Slater Community Association and continued to function as a community gathering spot into the 70’s. Without funding the Slater Community Association was unable to maintain the building and eventually it fell to a state of disrepair—no longer safe to house community events. In 1984 the Slater Community Association gifted the property to the Greenville County Recreation District.—the current owners.

The GCRD has installed a new Senior Action Center on the property, and is actively supportive of the committees goal to restore the original structure.

About the Property

Focus on the Slater Hall in recent years has driven a lot of improvements. Since 2005 the focus has been on the property itself. Beautiful new landscaping and a 1/4 mile walking path along with several picnic areas have been installed across the property. A wonderful new playground, dedicated May of 2006, has already become an active gathering spot for the younger local residents (pictured lower right).

Additional improvements slated for the summer of 2009 will include a beautiful new “hardscape” including new basketball courts.

The playground will see an expansion of the toddler equipment with the installation of “Space Shuttle Rockers” installed to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing and pay homage to the role the Slater Mill and the community played in that endeavor.

The use of the Senior Action Building has expanded to include a Library Annex serving the entire Northern Greenville county community.

About the Building

Since the inception of the Slater Hall Citizen’s Committee over $160,000 in government funding has been allocated to the Greenville County Recreation District for the restoration of the building. These funds have been deposited in the Bank of Travelers Rest. The GCRD, working in conjunction with the SHCC has put those funds to work with the primary goal of reopening the Hall for inside events.

Structural work on the building began in the summer 2007 with the replacement of the roof and gutter system to protect the structure from further weather damage. In 2008 the building was equipped with a state of the art electrical system including two sets of event panels to support outside activities on the property. The next focus will be plumbing and handicap accessibility so that building can be made available for public use.

This will allow the facility to once again function as a community center and provide for expanded fund raising events to reach our ultimate goal of historic restoration and total revitalization. Slater Hall is not just a building, it is a community resource, and reopening it will provide Northern Greenville county with a venue to reinstate some of the traditions so valuable to “village” and to establish new opportunities for cultural growth and development.

How Do We Get There

The work has just begun. Although we hope to have the building open by then end of 2009, it is estimated that we will need an additional $600,000 to fully restore the building.

This goal will only be met through:

• Community Support
• Fund-Raising
• Corporate Sponsorship
• Government Funding