City of Greenville

Greenville

As a rural agricultural community, Greenville remained relatively small until the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Extensions Railway arrived in the fall of 1880. Soon five different railway lines ran through town, and Greenville became a leading cotton marketing location. In 1913 a group of local business owners and county officials, along with the Booster Club, pitched in to pave the major entrances to the city, encouraging automobile traffic. The Bankhead Highway’s designation through Greenville followed soon after, when the 1917 Good Roads meeting in Mineral Wells laid out the highway’s “all-Texas” route. Traffic congestion became a problem by the 1940s, so the Bankhead was rerouted from the downtown commercial district to a four-lane divided expressway bypassing the town, the first of its kind along this road. When in town, stop at the Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum to learn more about Greenville and its most decorated World War II veteran.