Greenville SC Trivia
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95 free Greenville SC trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
52 free Greenville SC trivia questions with answers. Greenville, South Carolina went from Cherokee hunting ground to a Loyalist's plantation, from a village called Pleasantburg to the 'Textile Center of the South', and then, after the mills closed, into one of the most admired downtown revivals in the country. This quiz covers all of it: Vardry McBee and the founding, the 19 mills, the Poinsett Hotel and the 1820 stone bridge, the Camperdown Bridge coming down and the Liberty Bridge going up, the Swamp Rabbit Trail, Unity Park and the zoo. It also takes in the teams (the Drive, the Swamp Rabbits, the Triumph), the employers that remade the Upstate (Michelin, BMW, the F-16 line), the colleges, and the people who came from here, from Shoeless Joe Jackson and Jesse Jackson to Kevin Garnett, Charles Townes, Joanne Woodward and Peabo Bryson. Easy questions open it and the later ones will test people who have lived here for decades, so it works for a bar quiz on Main Street, a classroom or a newcomer's welcome night. Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia entry on the place, team or person, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 95 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01At the 2020 census, which of these South Carolina cities had more residents than Greenville?
North Charleston
North Charleston was one of five South Carolina cities ahead of Greenville in 2020, which ranked only sixth even though its metropolitan area was the largest in the state.
Q 02Union cavalry who raided Greenville in 1865 were hunting which fleeing Confederate leader?
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis had fled south from Richmond, and the cavalry on his trail looted homes and businesses in Greenville, the only action the town saw in the whole war.
Q 03Before colonists arrived, the land that became Greenville was the hunting ground of which Native nation?
Cherokee
The Cherokee hunted this land; in the 1777 Treaty of DeWitt's Corner they ceded nearly all their South Carolina territory, including present-day Greenville, to the state.
Q 04What was the village established in 1797 by Lemuel J. Alston called before it took the name Greenville?
Pleasantburg
Pleasantburg was the name Alston gave the village he laid out on his land in 1797; he later sold his 11,000 acres and left for Alabama, and the village took the county's name instead.
Q 05Who is called the 'father of Greenville' for giving land for its early churches and academies?
Vardry McBee
Vardry McBee bought most of today's downtown in 1815, gave land for its churches and academies, and championed the railroad from Columbia that finally reached Greenville in 1853.
Q 06Which university moved to Greenville from near Winnsboro in 1851?
Furman
Furman came to Greenville in 1851 after years near Winnsboro; its theology department broke away in 1859 to become the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which later left for Louisville.
Q 07Which nickname belongs to the mountainous north of Greenville County, long notorious for its moonshiners?
The Dark Corner
The Dark Corner, the remote hill country at the county's northern edge, kept to itself: through the 1800s it was a haven for moonshiners and for dissenters from the state's politics.
Q 08Which 1882 mill was restored as part of Greenville's Peace Center?
Huguenot Mill
The Huguenot Mill, built in 1882 to weave plaids, ran on coal even though it stood beside a river; the Peace Center restored it a century later as offices and event space.
Q 09Which downtown hotel replaced Greenville's Mansion House in 1925?
Westin Poinsett
The Westin Poinsett opened in 1925 as the Poinsett Hotel on the site of the 1824 Mansion House; shut in 1987 over fire-code violations, it stood empty for a decade before reopening in 2000.
Q 10An 1820 stone bridge near Greenville, thought to be South Carolina's oldest, may be the work of which Charleston-born architect?
Robert Mills
Robert Mills, later architect of the Washington Monument, may have designed it, but the credit is unsettled; the bridge is named for Joel Poinsett, who headed the state's public works board as its road was built.
Q 11What exploded at Greenville's Ideal Laundry in 1946 in a deadly blast felt dozens of miles away?
Propane
Propane had replaced coal in the laundry's boilers only that month, partly to cut smoke; a worker spotted vapor escaping from the tank and the alarm was raised, but the gas ignited minutes later.
Q 12Bob Jones University moved to Greenville in 1947 from which city?
Cleveland, Tennessee
Cleveland, Tennessee, was the school's second home: Bob Jones College opened in Florida in 1927, moved in 1933 when the Depression nearly bankrupted it, and became a university on reaching Greenville in 1947.
Q 13Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport opened in 1962 near which town?
Greer
Q 21Bon Secours Wellness Arena opened in 1998 carrying the name of which grocery chain?
Bi-Lo
Bi-Lo, an Upstate grocery chain, bought the naming rights, so the arena opened in 1998 as the Bi-Lo Center; the name came down in 2013, and the chain itself disappeared in 2021.
Q 22Falls Park was founded in 1967 when which group reclaimed 26 acres of old mill land?
Carolina Foothills Garden Club
The Carolina Foothills Garden Club bought the land in 1967 and, working with the city, spent decades cleaning up the polluted river and its banks before the park's 2004 makeover.
Q 23What is structurally unusual about the Liberty Bridge in Falls Park?
Greer sits midway between the two cities, which had competed with separate airports until businessmen Charles Daniel and Roger Milliken pushed for a shared one; the field now bears Milliken's name.
Q 14In 2024 GSP was South Carolina's third-busiest airport, behind Charleston and which other?
Myrtle Beach International
Myrtle Beach International, gateway to the Grand Strand's beaches, ranks second, so GSP, serving the state's largest metro area, comes only third behind it and Charleston.
Q 15Which tire maker moved its North American headquarters to Greenville in the 1980s?
Michelin
Michelin built its first Greenville tire factory in 1975, and ten years later the French company moved its US headquarters there from New York.
Q 16Which BMW roadster went into production at the Spartanburg plant in 1995?
Z3
The Z3 followed the 318i sedans that opened BMW's Spartanburg plant in 1994, and James Bond drove one in GoldenEye the year production began.
Q 17Which BMW SUV, the company's first, went into production at Spartanburg in 1999?
X5
The X5 began rolling out of Spartanburg in 1999 as BMW's first SUV, though the company pushed the label 'Sports Activity Vehicle' for it instead.
Q 18The former Donaldson Air Force Base, now a technology park, hosts production of which warplane?
F-16 Fighting Falcon
F-16 Fighting Falcon production left Fort Worth, Texas, to make room for the F-35, and Lockheed Martin restarted the line in Greenville, where the first jets rolled out in 2023.
Q 19The Peace Center, opened in 1990, takes its name from what?
A local family who gave $10 million
A local family who gave $10 million: the Peace family's gift helped pay for a center that rose among derelict riverside factory buildings, an old coach factory included.
Q 20Which mayonnaise brand was created in Greenville in 1917 by a woman selling sandwiches to soldiers?
Duke's
Duke's began when Eugenia Duke sold sandwiches to soldiers training at Camp Sevier; they kept asking for the mayonnaise itself, so she bottled it, and in 1929 sold the recipe to the C.F. Sauer Company.
Its cables are on one side only
Its cables are on one side only: a single suspension cable and two leaning towers hold the curved deck from the side away from the falls, leaving the view of the water clear.
Q 24Which structure hid Greenville's downtown waterfall for decades until the city tore it down?
Camperdown Bridge
The Camperdown Bridge carried traffic right over the falls until the city demolished it, which let Greenville build the Liberty Bridge and open up the view.
Q 25Who became mayor of Greenville in December 1995?
Knox White
Knox White, a city councilman for a decade before, became mayor in December 1995 and went on to win eight terms, championing the Liberty Bridge and the Swamp Rabbit Trail along the way.
Q 26The Swamp Rabbit Trail follows the bed of which defunct railroad?
Greenville & Northern Railway
The Greenville & Northern Railway began in the 1880s as a line aimed at Knoxville that never got beyond northern Greenville County; trains stopped in 1998 and the county bought the roadbed.
Q 27The Swamp Rabbit Trail runs north from downtown Greenville to which town?
Travelers Rest
Travelers Rest sits where the old rail line ended; the county bought the disused track in 1999, and the trail laid on it has since been credited with turning the town into a thriving community.
Q 28The Greenville Drive's 2006 stadium replicates the dimensions of which major-league ballpark?
Fenway Park
Fenway Park is copied at Fluor Field because the Drive is a Red Sox farm club: a 30-foot Green Monster in left (Boston's is 37), a manual scoreboard and a Pesky's Pole in right.
Q 29Which name for the team that became the Greenville Drive was vetoed by Major League Baseball?
The Joes
'The Joes' would have honored Shoeless Joe Jackson, but Major League Baseball objected because of his lifetime ban after the 1919 Black Sox scandal; 'Drive' nods to the area's auto industry.
Q 30The Greenville Drive's mascot is a frog with what name?
Reedy Rip'it
Reedy Rip'it is the frog who works the crowd at Fluor Field, the Drive's home since 2006, a ballpark built in part with bricks reclaimed from local mills.