Seneca is a city located in Oconee County in Upstate South Carolina. The population was 7,652 at the 2000 census and in 2007 was 8,105.The Democratic Vice-presidential candidate for 2004 and former US senator from NC, John Edwards was born in Seneca. The city is the current home of US Senator Lindsey Graham. It was named for the Cherokee town of Isuniga which the English called Seneca Town. The city cover about 7 square miles. Seneca recently adopted the motto "City of Smiles, City with Style."
Seneca was originally called Seneca City and named for a nearby Native American village and the Seneca River. The town was located at the intersection of the Blue Ridge Railroad and the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railroad. They are now part of the Norfolk Southern Railway. Modern Seneca was founded by Confederate veterans Col. Joseph Norton and Col. Robert Thompson, who were locating engineers for the Air Line Railroad and purchased the land from a Col. Brown of Anderson. An auction was held in 1873 to sell lots. The town was given a charter by the state in 1874. In 1908, the name was changed to Seneca.
Seneca developed with cotton as its focus. Wagons would bring cotton to the railroad station. A passenger terminal, several hotels, and a park were built nearby. Recently, a park was named the Norton-Thompson Park to honor the founding fathers.
The first school was built in 1874. The community was the home of the Seneca Institute / Seneca Junior College, which was an African-American school from 1899 to 1939.
Textile mills came in to the area with the construction of a plant-and-mill village by the Courtenay Manufacturing Company in Newry on the Little River in 1893. W.L. Jordon built another textile plant and mill village east of Seneca. This village has been called Jordania, Londsdale, and Utica depending on who owned the mill. The J. P. Stevens Plant, which was later called the Westpoint Stevens Plant, was a large integrated textile mill built on Lake Hartwell, which is now being redeveloped into a lake front community of excellent quality and charcter. Many other textile mills came to the area. These plants were the main industry for Seneca for the first half of the twentieth century. Nearly all these textile plants have been closed.
With the construction of Lake Hartwell in 1963, Lake Keowee in 1971 and Lake Jocassee in 1974, Seneca and Oconee county saw major changes to both the landscape and the local economy. The Oconee Nuclear Plant was built on Lake Keowee and uses its water for cooling the reactors. The recreation provided by the lakes and other attractions such as nearby Clemson University has brought many retirees from other parts of the country. Many wonderful retirement and lake communities have sprung up all over the area.
Ram Cat Alley was the original Main Street of Seneca. It was established in 1873 and named because of the throngs of cats lured to the fish and meat carts that traveled from the railroad depot to Main Street grocers two blocks away. Locals at the time would say that there were so many cats that "you couldn't ram another cat into the alley."
In the mid-90's that the original Main Street was officially renamed. At that point in time the old Main Street had become a ghost town, with many buildings in disrepair or used for storage. But Mayor Johnny Fields had a vision, and soon after the buildings were pressure washed and the street repaved, others could start to see what the mayor already could - that Ram Cat Alley was filled with historic charm.
More than ten years later, retail shops, restaurants, and businesses have flooded Ram Cat Alley with a new, vibrant spirit that manages to embrace the beauty of Ram Cat Alley's past while keeping an eye squarely on the future.
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