Anderson

About Anderson

Anderson is a city of about 30,000 people in the Upstate of South Carolina, near the Georgia line and the shores of Lake Hartwell. It is known as the Electric City because in 1895 it became one of the first places in the South to receive electricity carried over long-distance lines, from a hydroelectric plant on the Rocky River, which powered its cotton mills.

Downtown Anderson centers on Main Street, with restored buildings, local restaurants and shops, and the Anderson County Museum, which covers regional history from the Cherokee to the mill era. Carolina Wren Park, the downtown green, hosts concerts, a farmers market and seasonal events. The Anderson Arts Center fills a restored railroad warehouse, and Anderson University, with its historic columned Merritt Administration Building, sits just north of downtown. The city's leafy older neighborhoods have handsome Greek Revival and early 20th-century homes.

Lake Hartwell, a 56,000-acre reservoir on the Savannah River, is the region's big draw, with Green Pond Landing hosting national fishing tournaments and Sadlers Creek State Park offering lakeside camping and trails. Clemson University is about 20 minutes away, and the Blue Ridge foothills, with waterfalls and hiking, are within an hour's drive.