A “New” Map

Phillip White, the Society’s president and long-time archeologist in charge of an ancient mound of Cliffside memorabilia, in recent days dug down to a lower, unexamined layer of the collection and found an old, nondescript, flattened wad of paper. Carefully unfolding it, he found it was a map of early Cliffside. Although its date can’t be determined with certainty, it definitely predates the building of the “creek” bridge in 1927.

The town’s street layout was much different in those days. Here are some obvious differences.

 

• There was no Highway Street (“Shelby Highway”). If you wished to go from downtown to Boiling Springs, you’d go up N. Main, turn right onto Third Street East, go over to Church Street and take another right. At some point, possibly at the point it crossed Riddle’s Creek, Church’s name changed to Cliffside Street, which led east toward Fairview.
• Fourth Avenue was also called “Park Avenue.”
• If you were leaving downtown for Chesnee and points south, you would drive down toward the Methodist Church on what was also called “Cliffside Street.” This would dead-end into Goforth Flat. Then you’d turn right to cross the bridge onto Riverside Street.
• There were homes on Laurel Avenue, running along the east side of the river below the bridge. (Today this is the road leading to the water treatment plant.)
• There was no Poplar Street, which later ran parallel to N. Main Street, northwest of the Haynes home.
• And we can finally see where Riverside Street West was located.

We’ve had this map and two others digitally restored,  printed and dry-mounted. They’ll be on display at this year’s Gathering and on Cliffside Day. We’ve hung them in the Society’s office in the Rock Building.

A version of this article appeared in the Spring 2010 issue of The Cliffside Chimes, newsletter of The Cliffside Historical Society.