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Downtown

Since the city was originally chartered in 1840, the downtown area has faced some hardships, including four major fires and a disastrous tornado in 1884. The post World War II economic boom and the growth in suburbia probably had the most negative effect on downtown, though.

For about 20 years - from the late 1960s until the 1980s - a number of downtown buildings became vacant and fell into a state of disrepair, due largely to the growth in popularity of air-conditioned malls and other shopping centers.

A number of downtown improvement projects - many by individual merchants - have been completed since the mid-1980s. Business owners have always taken the lead by investing their own money to revitalize downtown properties.

But the significant downtown improvement project was the city-sponsored streetscape project of 1996. Completed with the help of substantial grant awards, this project cost roughly $1.8 million.

As part of this project, utility lines were buried, street and sidewalks were paved, decorative streetlights were added, the traffic pattern was re-routed, and a new park area was completed. This park area is called Monument Square and features a Confederate monument, a Civil War cannon, the Aaron Burr Rock and a 19th century cistern.

The renovated downtown area project has been so successful that groups of visitors from other towns in the Carolinas have come here to get inspiration for downtown projects of their own. The downtown continues to be a popular spot for community events, like the festivals HILLarity and Flowers! Flowers!, and annual parades. The rehabilitation of old buildings is also continuing in the city of Chester, honored last year as the Best Hometown in the state.