The history of the Hampton Heights neighborhood in Spartanburg, SC, reflects the story of inner-city neighborhoods throughout the United States.
 

Hampton Heights was founded in the 1880's and '90's on a tract of farmland about a mile south of the center of Spartanburg. The first residents were upper middle-class business and professional people who built large Victorian homes, including a number in the style that became known as Queen Anne. In the early decades of the twentieth century, these Victorian houses gave way to an explosion of Arts and Crafts bungalows. This was a comfortable neighborhood filled with children who played ball in the empty lots and skated up and down sidewalks lined with oak trees.
 

Fast forward to the late twentieth century. Hampton Heights, now considered an inner-city neighborhood, was struggling with blight and neglect. Then in the early 1980's, refusing to accept pronouncements that the neighborhood was dead, a new generation of homeowners joined with long-time residents to begin the process of renewal.
 

The twenty-first century Hampton Heights is a wonderfully diverse and lively neighborhood with a core of residents who love their homes and who have worked hard to preserve the spirit of this exciting community—and whose children once again skate up and down the tree lined sidewalks.