Best Moving Company in Greenville

(WSPA) – Over the last three years Philip Collins, better known to his neighbors as “Captain Phil” has made it his life’s work to share the unique history and culture of Cedar Key.

Born and raised in Greenville, Collins moved to the small island off the Florida coast a few years ago. He said he was drawn there by the area’s natural beauty and deep history. He took over a small business, Tidewater Tours, which takes hundreds of visitors on boat tours of the island chain.

“I get to show them an hour and a half tour, give the history and tour of each island here. We have 13 islands in our national wildlife refuge,” said Collins on Friday. “The history goes back into the 1850’s, and each island has a specific history.”

And he was good at it, too.

Tidewater Tours, boasts a near-perfect rating on tripadvisor.com, with reviewers often complimenting Collin’s friendly nature and wealth of knowledge about the area.

His passions might have been washed away this week by the floodwaters of Hurricane Idalia. The storm, Collins said, was his first experience with a major hurricane. As part of the tiny community’s volunteer fire department, he remained on the island as the storm washed over the area, bringing 100-plus-mile-per-hour winds and storm surges of 11 feet.

“We have a lot to be thankful for. This could have been much worse here,” said Collins.

It took 24 hours for waters to recede enough for Collins to fully asses the damage done to his home and business. The former, he said, survived the storms intact. When he got to the dock which once held his business, however, Collins said he was brought to tears.

“My business location was in a rubbish pile in the parking lot. It’s totally gone,” he said. “It was heartbreaking. I love this community and my business was a big part of tourism here. I am the only true touristy thing to do, and love what I do.”

Collins said his business was not insured, and he is not able to afford the cost of rebuilding the dock and building the place on his own.

“With that location gone, I don’t know if I will be able to continue to operate the business,” he said.

Brandon Grant, Collins’s nephew, has created a gofundme to help raise money to aid in the effort to rebuild the business.

Collins doesn’t know what the future holds for himself or Cedar Key, but the support the tiny island community has received already has been heartwarming, he said.

The way this community and the whole country is wanting to come in and clean up and grab a shovel, get the mud out of these homes and businesses and try to help…that outpouring of love and support from people who have been to Cedar Key is overwhelming,” he said. “But this will be a long road to recovery.”

The Greenville Symphony begins a new era as it opens its 76th season in September.

For the first time in 25 years, the orchestra’s podium will not be regularly occupied by conductor Edvard Tchivzhel, who became music director emeritus after last season. Tchivzhel will return for orchestra’s Holiday at Peace concerts in December.

The spotlight this season will be on six guest conductors, all vying for the position of music director.

Geoffrey Robson, music director of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, leads the opening program, “Quest and Destiny,” Sept. 9-10 at the Peace Center. Robson, 41, will conduct works by Richard Strauss, Florence Price and Johannes Brahms.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to direct the Greenville Symphony,” Robson said. “Everyone I talk to raves about the quality of the orchestra and the amazing venue of the Peace Center.”

Robson is particularly pleased to lead the orchestra in Florence Price’s “Ethiopia’s Shadow in America,” a 1932 work reflecting on the Black experience. In the early 20th century, Price established herself as an important voice in American classical music, but many of her works were neglected or lost after her death in 1953.

In 2009, several of Price’s works were rediscovered in the attic of Price’s abandoned summer home near Chicago. That led to a major reassessment.

“Orchestras have realized that there are a number of first-class American composers that history has neglected due to their gender or ethnicity,” Robson said. “So, they’ve rallied around this body of work. You see Price’s work coming up in programs all over the country and the world.”

Classical cornerstones

The program also includes two cornerstones of the classical repertoire. Strauss’ “Don Juan” is a tone poem that portrays the legendary lover as a restless hero, searching for the ideal.

“It’s a masterfully constructed work, a virtuosic piece with glorious music,” Robson said.

Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2, with Andrius Žlabys as piano soloist, traverses an expansive emotional soundscape from dramatic fervor to heartfelt lyricism and episodes that sparkle with joy — all the while offering considerable challenges to a piano virtuoso.

“It’s really like a symphony for piano and orchestra,” Robson said. “It’s one of those 19th century works that just keeps giving and giving every time you come back to it.”

Surrounded by music

Born in Northport, Michigan, Robson grew up near Utica, New York, in a home surrounded by music.

“My parents listened to all sorts of music,” he said. “The first music I remember listening to was The Beatles. But I soon fell in love with the sound of a symphony orchestra. I remember listening over and over to the great classical records of the Chicago Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra.”

Growing up, Robson played an array of instruments: violin, piano, saxophone, trumpet and percussion. He even sang in his high school choir. Perhaps it was inevitable that Robson would eventually want to lead an entire orchestra.

Robson earned degrees in violin performance at Yale University and Michigan State University. Later, he studied orchestral conducting at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. He currently lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, maintaining a busy schedule as a violinist, music director of the Arkansas Symphony and guest conductor with other orchestras.

If you go

What: Greenville Symphony Orchestra: Quest and Destiny, with Geoffrey Robson (conductor) and Andrius Žlabys (pianist)

When: Sept. 9, 7:30 p.m. and Sept. 10, 3 p.m.

Where: Peace Center Concert Hall

Tickets: $20 to $75

Info: peacecenter.org/events or 864-467-3000

The American Cigar Co., led by James B. Duke, owned Greenville’s cigar factory on East Court Street from its opening in 1903. Five years later, the tobacco industry faced a major shake up when the American Tobacco Co., also owned by James B. Duke, was indicted by the Department of Justice for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.

That same year, in 1908, the American Cigar factories in Greenville and Columbia – as well as in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Camden and Trenton in New Jersey — were bought by Seidenberg & Co.

Greenville’s facility reached the height of its production and staffing size in 1910 when The Greenville News reported the biggest cigar order in South Carolina history with 60,000 “Knapsack” cigars shipped to New York and New Jersey. Over 400 were employed with an output around 15 million cigars per year. By 1916, Greenville boasted the largest cigar factory in South Carolina and Georgia. Brands made in Greenville expanded to include Robinhood, Lady Churchill and Class cigars, as well as an effort to introduce Cubanolas.

Insights into Greenville’s cigar factory, part 2: Glimpses of Greenville

With the increased success, Greenville got on the radar of others looking to make cigars. In October 1916, Louis Alvarez Nava from Tampa, Florida — the cigar capital of the world at the time — visited Greenville looking for prospects to open a cigar factory and store. Within a few months, Nava & Melendi Co. was operating in the opera house at the intersection of North Laurens, West Coffee and Buncombe. It later moved to the third floor of the Lewis & Hartzog building. Local drug stores carried its Greenville Smoker and Supremo brand cigars made of clear Havana tobacco.

Additional production came in 1919 when R.R. Dickerson of Greensboro, North Carolina, leased the upper floor of a new building erected by J.J. McSwain near the Southern Railway station on West Washington Street. Five years later, the F.C. Kirschner Cigar Co. opened a factory at 115 Whitsett St. in the Pettigru neighborhood. Lipscomb-Russell Co. distributed El Producto cigars locally. Even with Greenville now having three cigar-production facilities, it paled to Tampa’s yearly output of 425 million cigars from over 200 factories. Big shipments of Tampa-made Hav-A-Tampa cigars were handled by the Vance-Clardy Co. at 121 Laurens St.

The rise of cigarette-tobacco popularity, cigar-rolling automation and then the onset of the Great Depression spelled the demise for Greenville’s cigar factory. In October 1930, the 27-year run of large-scale cigar production ended, putting 200 girls out of work and ending a $2,500 weekly payroll into the Greenville economy. The Greenville News reported that machinery was moved to the Charleston cigar factory where cigars would no longer be hand-rolled. Instead, automatic rolling machines operated by four workers could turn out 4,000 cigars a day in contrast to the peak of 1,000 a day made by a team of three girls. This equated to the savings of about $5 per thousand cigars because of the mechanization.

In light of the devastating loss of local jobs, the Greenville Chamber of Commerce sent T.C. Gower and Alester Furman to New York to negotiate with the cigar company to provide funds for family relief as necessary. Fred Symmes — president of Nuckasee Manufacturing and namesake for the Symmes Chapel, aka Pretty Place — led a citizens advisory committee to administer the funds for needy families.

John M. Nolan is owner of Greenville History Tours (greenvillehistorytours.com) and author of “A Guide to Historic Greenville, SC” and “Lost Restaurants of Greenville, SC.”

Here’s a novel career path for you: earn your bachelor’s degree in English literature, land your first job out of the University of Virginia as a CNN news writer, move to Greenville, then launch a real estate career and notch $400 million in sales over a decade.

Now Joan Herlong will be a published nonfiction author. On Sept. 26, Forbes Books will release her debut, “As Is: An Insider’s Guide to Real Estate,” which is billed as a “funny and informative book that will empower you with everything you need to know about real estate.”

Before starting as a Realtor in 1993, three years after arriving in Greenville, Herlong thought the business was boring because her mother, Martha, was a Realtor.

Since then, she has learned the flipside of helping make homeownership dreams come true. Like the time she showed one residence featuring a picture of the bikini-clad owner in every room. Or another home with only a drum kit in it. She’ll explain why she uses Van Morrison to help sell a house, and what appearing on HGTV’s reality show “House Hunters” is really like.

“Whether you’re a buyer, a seller, an agent, or aspiring agent, you’ll find insights and strategies that will help you become better informed, to get the most out of your experience,” Herlong said.

Herlong is CEO and owner of Joan Herlong & Associates Sotheby’s International Realty, which she opened in 2017 and includes her husband, William, the COO and broker-in-charge, and son Jackson, CSO and broker-in-charge.

Jim Sobeck, managing member of New South Real Estate Partners, has known Herlong for more than 20 years.

“This book reflects her experience as well as her wit and savvy,” Sobeck said.

Quotable

“This book is my effort to raise the bar, hopefully inspiring more dedicated, full-time real estate professionals who will treat this high-stakes business with the seriousness that buyers and sellers deserve.” — Joan Herlong

Where to find the book

Available Tuesday, Sept. 26, via Forbes Books, with preorders available now at www.joanherlong.com.

Greenville Swamp Rabbits defenseman Sam Jardine(Greenville Swamp Rabbits)

GREENVILLE, S.C. - The Greenville Swamp Rabbits, ECHL affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings, announced today that the club has signed veteran defenseman Sam Jardine to an ECHL contract ahead of the 2023-24 Season presented by Bon Secours.

Jardine, 30, returns to Greenville for a second stint with the club, having appeared in 67 games for the Navy and Orange during the 2020-21 season that saw the Rabbits appear in the Eastern Conference Finals. During that season, Jardine recorded 44 points (3g, 41a) in the regular season before added an additional goal in the postseason.

A native of Lacombe, Alberta, Jardine spent the last two seasons overseas in Europe, most recently making a second debut for he and Head Coach/General Manager Andrew Lord's former club the Cardiff Devils in the United Kingdom's Elite Ice Hockey League. Last season, Jardine posted 12 points (4g, 8a) in 33 games for Cardiff. During the 2021-22 season, the defenseman split time between the Bratislava Capitals of the ICEHL and the HIFK of Liiga.

Jardine, a 2011 sixth round (#169) pick by the Chicago Blackhawks, enters his return season with the Rabbits having already amassed 270 professional games in North American professional hockey, earning him ECHL Veteran status. During his 270 games, 199 of which have come in the ECHL, Jardine has captured two Kelly Cup Championships as a member of the 2016-17 Colorado Eagles and the 2018-19 Newfoundland Growlers.

Before turning professional, Jardine spent three seasons as an Ohio State Buckeye, appearing in 97 games over his collegiate career.

The Swamp Rabbits will open the 2023-24 Season presented by Bon Secours on Saturday, October 21, at Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

Swamp Rabbits Single-Game tickets, Full Season, and Half Season Tickets for the 2023-24 season are on sale now at SwampRabbits.com or by calling (864) 674-7825.

Check out the Greenville Swamp Rabbits Statistics

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