Glendale is a tiny census-designated place, 244 people in 2020, set around the shoals of Lawson's Fork Creek east of Spartanburg. The site was an iron works before the Revolution. Dr. James Bivings built one of the first large cotton mills in the Spartanburg District here in the 1830s, and the village, first called Bivingsville, took the name Glendale around 1878 under owner Dexter Converse.
The mill village had 158 houses and about 800 residents by 1946, and the company sold the houses to their occupants in the early 1950s. The mill closed in 1961, and most of what remained burned in 2004. The shoals are now Glendale Shoals Preserve, managed by the Spartanburg Area Conservancy, and Wofford College owns the old mill office.
Glendale has no town government, so Spartanburg County Building Codes issues plumbing and gas permits. Many village houses have been privately owned for seventy years, and each owner has updated the plumbing in their own way. Glendale is within the Gas Guys service area, and we answer around the clock.
Glendale at a glance
- Natural gas
- Piedmont Natural Gas (where mains reach). Piedmont Natural Gas serves much of the county around Glendale; we could not confirm service on every street, so check your bill or ask Piedmont before planning a gas appliance.
- Water
- Spartanburg Water (most homes; confirm on your bill)
- Sewer
- Mixed: public sewer in parts, septic elsewhere
- Permits
- Spartanburg County Building Codes
- Housing
- Mill village houses sold to their residents in the early 1950s, plus scattered rural and newer homes.
Plumbing and gas in Glendale: what to know
Seventy years of private repairs
Since the houses were sold off in the early 1950s, every Glendale mill house has had its own string of owners and repairs, usually with no record of what is in the walls. Before replacing anything, we look at the whole path from the meter to the fixture, because an old section upstream can undo a new repair downstream.
Low ground near the creek
Houses close to Lawson's Fork sit on lower, wetter ground. Crawlspaces there stay damp, which speeds corrosion on steel pipe and fittings and rots wood around leaking drains. A vapor barrier and prompt repair of small drips go a long way under a damp house.
Sewer or septic, check first
Public sewer does not reach every house around Glendale, and some homes are on septic tanks. Your water bill shows a sewer charge if you are connected. That answer changes what a backup means and who you call, so know it before trouble starts.
Cold air in the creek valley
Cold air settles into the creek valley on clear winter nights, and exposed lines in vented crawlspaces freeze faster than they would on high ground. Insulate supply lines near the vents, let vulnerable faucets drip on the coldest nights, and make sure outside hose bibs are shut off or frost-free.