TK Gregg Recreation Center
Dr. Theodore K. Gregg’s untimely death in 1939 followed a remarkable ten years in Spartanburg in which he helped to improve medical services for Black people substantially. Dr. Gregg was born in Lester, SC and graduated from Claflin College in 1925, and after completing his medical degree in Nashville, TN in 1930, he relocated to Spartanburg to begin his medical practice. Before his death, Dr. Gregg worked from the Negro Annex of the Spartanburg General Hospital to address the medical needs of Spartanburg’s Black residents. He also led multiple efforts to improve Black life in other ways. As early as 1935, Dr. Gregg and Dr. J.B. Walker formed a “civic group” of Black leaders to “purchase a suitable park and playground” for Black youth (Spartanburg Herald, 8/17/1935).
The civic group – identified as the Colored Civic League in a 1936 Spartanburg Herald article – worked to establish funding for a new recreation center and park to be located at the end of Evins Street behind Wofford College on land donated by the E.E Gentry Estate and Henry Cleveland (Herald 6/29/37). The Civic League raised a little under $600 by fall of 1937 toward a goal of $1000, which was to be matched 2:1 by the National Youth Association to get closer to the $6000 estimated for the new center’s total construction costs. Work would be
coordinated and staffed by WPA contractors (Herald 8/8/37). Dr. Gregg and Dr. Walker secured the funding through active solicitation of Spartanburg residents and special events, like the “Spiritual Program” held December 20, 1936 at the Carolina Theater (Herald 12/20/36).
Progress had already been made on the new center and park by the end of 1937, so that by Dr. Gregg’s death in 1939, the community was able to memorialize his contributions by giving the building his name. Dr. TK Gregg Recreation Center served the Black population of Spartanburg for decades with after school programs, athletic and educational events, social activities and much more. Former residents recall weekly Sock Hop dances held at the center under decorative streamers and lights, innumerable football, basketball and baseball games, home economics education, and committed leadership and instruction given by directors and staff. Doris Posey remembers the “joyful” environment there: “we learned to participate in the games regardless of the outcome,” to “learn how to work together” and be “part of a larger group.”
As the Evins Street center aged, city officials decided to build a new recreation center on Oakland Street in what was once called the “Gas Bottom” area of town. The area was deemed blighted by city officials in the late 1950s and was completely razed in 1960-1961 as part of the urban renewal project that was implemented in Spartanburg during the 1960s. Urban Renewal in Spartanburg devastated the Black community living in the Southside of town. By 1974, when the new recreation center was opened – called The Brotherhood Recreation Center – much of the Southside was gone. The Brotherhood Recreation Center was renamed in the 1980s to honor Dr. TK Gregg, and a new facility – the Dr. TK Gregg Community Center – was opened in 2020 on Howard Street in the city’s Northside neighborhood.