Newberry, South Carolina

This small town is the home of Newberry College, a liberal-arts Lutheran school. It is located on a ninety-acre campus just north from the center of town on College Street. The crown-jewel of Newberry’s historic downtown is the 1882 Newberry Opera House, with its impressive 130-feet-high French Gothic clock tower. Nearby Lynches Woods is part of the 425-mile-long Palmetto Trail that traverses South Carolina from the mountains to the sea. Newberry has many features that we consider desirable in a small town. These include an abundance of historic masonry structures, brick-paved streets, coffee shops, sidewalk cafes, book stores and antique shops. This small town can be found just south of Interstate 26 in the northwest portion of SC. Its location between Greenville-Spartanburg and Columbia makes Newberry a popular small-town-getaway escape from these metropolitan areas. In 1996, Newberry was recognized in the book The 100 Best Small Towns in America and, in 2001, was nominated by Sweitzer & Fields in their publication The 50 Best Small Southern Towns.