Arcadia is a census-designated community just west of the Spartanburg city limits, with about 3,246 residents in 2020. It grew up around Arcadia Mill No. 1, which Spartanburg pharmacist and banker Dr. Henry Arthur Ligon started in the early 1900s, and a second mill that went into operation in 1923. The company later became Mayfair Mills, and both mill buildings have since been turned into apartments.
The mill village around them, roughly 300 houses at its height, is what most Arcadia homes still are: small frame houses on crawlspaces, built when indoor plumbing was new and changed many times since. Mill villages across Spartanburg County were sold off to their residents in the 1950s and 1960s, so every house has its own history of owners and repairs.
Arcadia is unincorporated, so plumbing and gas permits come from Spartanburg County Building Codes. Water comes from Spartanburg Water, and most of the village is on public sewer through the Spartanburg Sanitary Sewer District. Arcadia is inside the Gas Guys service area, and the phone is answered 24 hours a day.
Arcadia at a glance
- Natural gas
- Piedmont Natural Gas. Piedmont Natural Gas serves the Spartanburg area around Arcadia; whether a main runs on your street is something your bill or Piedmont can confirm.
- Water
- Spartanburg Water
- Sewer
- Spartanburg Sanitary Sewer District (most of the village)
- Permits
- Spartanburg County Building Codes
- Housing
- Early 1900s mill village houses built for Arcadia Mills, the converted mill lofts, and later infill and rental homes.
Plumbing and gas in Arcadia: what to know
Galvanized lines in small houses
Many Arcadia mill houses still have some galvanized steel supply pipe, often in the walls or under the floor where a past remodel did not reach. Galvanized pipe rusts from the inside, so the signs come on slowly: weak flow at one faucet, brown water after the house sits, then a pinhole leak at a threaded joint. Replacing the remaining runs with PEX or copper usually beats chasing leaks one at a time.
Cast iron under the floor
Drain lines in a mill-era house are usually cast iron running through the crawlspace to the sewer lateral. After a century, cast iron cracks along the bottom where water sits, and the first sign may be a sewer smell under the house rather than a backup. A camera inspection shows how much of the line is sound before anyone starts cutting.
Water heaters in tight spaces
Small mill houses were not built with a utility room, so water heaters ended up in closets, on back porches or in the crawlspace. A replacement has to fit where the old one sat and still meet code: a relief valve line piped to a safe spot, a drain pan where a leak would do damage and, for a gas unit, correct venting and combustion air. Sometimes a tankless unit on an outside wall solves the space problem.
Rentals and the landlord question
A good share of Arcadia houses are rentals. If you rent, repairs generally go through your landlord, so call them first unless water is pouring or you smell gas. If you own a rental here, a water heater or sewer line that fails on a weekend is exactly the kind of call our 24/7 line is for.