Florence, South Carolina Florence, South Carolina Aerial view of Florence Civic Center Aerial view of Florence Civic Center Official logo of Florence, South Carolina Location in Florence County in South Carolina Location in Florence County in South Carolina County Florence Florence / fl r ns/ is a town/city in Florence County, South Carolina, United States. It is the governmental center of county of Florence County and the major city inside the Florence urbane area.
The region forms the core of the historical "Pee Dee" region of South Carolina, which includes the eight counties of northeastern South Carolina, along with sections of southeastern North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the populace of Florence was 37,056, and the estimated populace in 2015 was 38,228. In 1965, Florence was titled an All-American City, presented by the National Civic League. The town/city was established as a barns core and became the junction of three primary barns systems, including the Wilmington and Manchester, the Northeastern, and the Cheraw and Darlington.
As of 2013, the town/city retains its status as a primary hub, both for trade and infrastructure, while establishing itself as a county-wide center for business, medicine, culture and finance.
The City of Florence was chartered in 1871 and incorporated in 1890:7 following the 1888 creation of Florence County.
During the Civil War the town was an meaningful supply and barns repair center for the Confederacy, and the site of the Florence Stockade, which held between 12,000 and 18,000 Union prisoners of war. Over 2,800 of the prisoners died of disease, and the burial ground adjoining to the prison became the Florence National Cemetery after the war.
During the 20th century the economy of Florence came to rely heavily on the healthcare industry, driven by two primary hospitals and a number of pharmaceutical plants. Industry grew, especially after World War II, when Florence became increasingly known for textiles, pharmaceuticals, paper, and manufacturing, in addition to agricultural products.
Florence is positioned in the coastal plain of South Carolina.
It is in the northeastern part of the state and the northern part of Florence County.
Jeffries Creek is a tributary of the Great Pee Dee River and is the chief waterway that flows through the city, passing south of the town/city center.
According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 20.9 square miles (54.2 km2), of which 20.9 square miles (54.1 km2) are territory and 0.04 square miles (0.1 km2), or 0.22%, is water. Florence's summers can be very hot and humid.
The city, like other metros/cities of the Southeast, is apt to inversions, which trap ozone and other pollutants over the area.
Climate data for Florence, South Carolina The town/city of Florence has a council-manager form of government.
Florence holds elections for mayor every four years, alongside nationwide Presidential elections.
The council appoints a town/city manager to serve as chief administrative officer to run the day-to-day company of the town/city and to serve at the pleasure of the council. Current members of the Florence City Council: During the latter part of the 20th century and early 21st century, Florence's economy was transformed from based largely on rail and farming into a diversified economy as the primary commerce, finance, rail and trucking services, community care, and industrialized center of the Eastern Carolinas. There are over 9 foreign affiliated companies and fourteen Fortune 500 companies in the region.
The gross domestic product (GDP) of the Florence urbane statistical region as of 2009 was $6.8 billion, one of the highest among MSAs in the state. Milken Institute 2008 Best Performing Cities Index showed the Florence MSA as the 5th biggest gainer in their evaluation of the top 124 small urbane areas in the United States.
Florence has blossomed into a strong center for medical care, with three primary medical providers Mc - Leod Regional Medical Center, Carolinas Hospital System and Health - South.
With such a strong medical improve a several companies have their global, continental, or nationwide headquarters in Florence, including General Electric Medical Systems manufacturing operations, TRICARE, a supplemental insurance business that serves the US Armed Forces and its civilian employees, and Assurant, a real property and personal insurance company.
Florence also serves as the financial and service core for the Eastern Carolinas, with many financial and experienced management establishments invested heavily inside the city.
Florence has operation command posts for AT&T and Duke Energy Inc.
Florence has benefited being positioned at the intersection of I-95 and I-20, approximately halfway between New York City and Miami, Florida.
The town/city is positioned 80 miles (130 km) east from the state capital Columbia, 70 miles (110 km) west from Myrtle Beach, 120 miles (190 km) North of Charleston, and 110 miles (180 km) southeast of Charlotte, North Carolina.
This has allowed Florence to remain competing and bringing in and sustaining primary manufacturers such as Honda, QVC Distribution Center and Otis Elevator.
The Florence Public School District One is the governing body of the enhance schools in the area.
As of 2010, the precinct has an active enrollment of 14,500 students, attending a total of 18 schools, including 12 elementary schools, three middle schools, and three high schools serving the City of Florence, Effingham and Quinby areas. The school fitness also supports an alternative school for middle and/or high school students, a vocational longterm position center, and an adult learning center.
Florence Christian School Montessori School of Florence Facilities of college studies in and around Florence include Francis Marion University and Florence Darlington Technical College.
Francis Marion University is a enhance college located in Florence, while Florence Darlington Technical College, positioned in Florence, also operates satellite campuses in Hartsville, Lake City and Mullins.
Mc - Leod Regional Medical Center is a 453-bed non-profit medical center positioned on a 75-acre (300,000 m2) ground in downtown Florence.
The hospital complex in downtown contains the Cardiovascular Institute, the Center for Advanced Surgery, the Cancer Center, and the only specialised paediatrics unit in the northeastern portion of South Carolina.
It encompasses acute care facilities, such as Mc - Leod Regional Medical Center in Florence, Mc - Leod Medical Center in Dillon, Mc - Leod Medical Center in Darlington, and also operates campuses all over the Pee Dee region of South Carolina.
Carolinas Hospital System, a dominant county-wide healthcare facility with 420-beds, serves eight counties in northeastern South Carolina.
Regency Hospital opened its doors in Florence, in July 2001.
Mc - Leod Regional Medical Center and Carolinas Hospital System are the first and third biggest employers in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. I-20 is a four-lane interstate highway, which enters the town/city from the west and has a end in Florence as (David Mc - Leod Blvd I-20 Bus.).
US 76 enters the town/city from the west at Interstate 95, then merges with David Mc - Leod Blvd at Palmetto Street, and finally exits east of the town/city at the junction with Freedom Blvd.
US 301 offers another northeast to southwest route through Florence.
Entering the town/city consolidated with US 52 as South Irby Street, it then forms a crescent-shaped bypass around the downtown region as Freedom Boulevard.
US 301 then merges with US 76 east of downtown Florence, and exits as such.
The Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority (PDRTA), is the principal agency responsible for operating mass transit in greater Florencea region including Darlington, Marion, Chesterfield, Dillon, and the Lake City area, PDRTA also operates routes to Columbia, Myrtle Beach and Sumter.
PDRTA operates express shuttles, and bus service serving Florence and its immediate surrounds areas.
PDRTA began operations serving the six-county Pee Dee region of Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Marion, and Marlboro Counties.
The town/city and its surroundings are served by Florence Regional Airport (IATA:FLO; ICAO:KFLO), which is positioned 2 miles (3.2 km) east of downtown Florence on US 76.
Amtrak's The Palmetto trains 89, 90 and the Silver Meteor trains 97, 98 connect Florence with the metros/cities of New York, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore, Washington, Jacksonville, Tampa and Miami.
Greyhound Lines and Southeastern Stages operates a station on Irby Street, in the southern part of downtown, providing Florence with intercity bus transportation.
In 2010, the town/city of Florence began a massive redevelopment of Downtown Florence.
The Downtown Redevelopment District was originally a seventy square block region encompassing some 500 acres (2.0 km2) in the heart of the City of Florence, but now has added over 100 more acres of the Timrod Park region with its historic homes.
The redevelopment of Florence has even created a new branding accomplishment, to include new town/city department logos (not to be confused with the town/city seal) way finding signs and repainting of water towers. Bruce and Lee Foundation Library, and today now has the new Florence Little Theater, some 60 new apartements and the Francis Marion University Performing Arts Center which opened in September 2011, as well the new Florence Museum Of Art, Science & History which opened October 11, 2014.
Special accomplishments are being aimed at the downtown area, which was once the center of the city's activeness but remains dormant after retailers and shoppers left for suburban malls.
Florence is the central town/city of a urbane region with a total populace of 205,566 (2010 US census), including the entire populations of Florence and Darlington counties.
However, in the more specified 2000 Enumeration data, only about 54% of this metro was urbanized, consisting of the urban areas Florence (2000 pop.: 67,314), Hartsville (14,907), Darlington (12,066), and Lake City (8,728).
The remainder of the Florence metro is considered rural.
Like other midsize metros/cities in the southern United States, Florence's populace is largely dominated by Protestantism, the biggest being the Southern Baptists, followed by the Methodists.
There are two Reform Judaism Jewish churchs in Florence Beth Israel Congregation.
It is also the home of the Florence Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
Baseball has a long history in Florence, dating back to the 1920s when the Florence Swamp Foxes were founded.
The Toronto Blue Jays had a minor league team that played in Florence from 1981 to 1986.
Major league players Pat Borders, Jimmy Key, Cecil Fielder and Fred Mc - Griff made stops in Florence amid their minor league careers.
Florence's Post 1 American Legion baseball team is one of the longest tenured squads in the state, beginning in 1932.
Drawing the best high school talent from all over the Pee Dee region each summer, Post 1 has had over 30 players move on the experienced ranks, including Reggie Sanders.
In 2012, Post 1 won the South Carolina state tournament and the Southeast Regional and participated in the American Legion World Series in Shelby, North Carolina.
As of 1998, Florence was home to the Coastal Plain League Florence Red Wolves summer baseball team.
The Florence Red Wolves play at the 3,500-seat Sparrow Stadium at Francis Marion University. The stadium is also home to the Florence Darlington Technical College.
Post 1 plays its home games at Legion Stadium, adjoining to Memorial Stadium, where Florence's 3 enhance high schools play their home football games.
Until 2009, Florence was home to the American Indoor Football league's Florence Phantoms, which debuted in the league in 2006.
The Phantoms played in the Florence Civic Center.
Florence Memorial Stadium is a 7,000 seat football stadium 5 miles (8.0 km) to the east of the city.
It is the home stadium for West Florence, Wilson, and South Florence high schools.
Florence was also home to the Southern Professional Hockey League's now-Twin City Cyclones, who played from 2005 to 2007.
The building was also the home of the South Carolina Fire Ants of Major League Roller Hockey in 1998. Florence and Grand Strand share a common defined market by Nielsen Media Research in Horry, Marion, Dillon, Darlington, Marlboro, Scotland, Robeson, and Florence counties.
WBTW, WPDE and WWMB tv stations are licensed to the town/city of Florence whereas WMBF and WFXB tv stations are licensed to the town/city of Myrtle Beach.
Florence, along with The Pee Dee Region, makes up the 217th biggest radio market in the United States.
The Florence Morning News is the biggest daily paper presented in the Pee Dee, with a subscribers base extending from Cheraw, South Carolina, Marion South Carolina, Darlington, South Carolina to Williamsburg, South Carolina.
Florence Civic Center Florence Public Library Florence Regional Airport Florence Stockade The town/city of Florence is a retail core of the Pee Dee region of South Carolina.
Shoppers come from not only Florence and Darlington counties but from all over the Pee Dee region to Florence for a wider range of shopping and dining that includes many of the biggest and well known county-wide and nationwide chains.
Florence Mall is the other primary shopping center in the town/city of Florence.
Florence Mall was advanced as an open-air mall in the 1960s and now looks more like a shopping plaza.
"Table 2: Population Estimates for the 100 Most Populous Metropolitan Statistical Areas Based on July 1, 2006 Population Estimates: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2006".
"Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (G001): Florence city, South Carolina".
"Florence, South Carolina Great American Stations (Amtrak)".
"Florence Business Climate".
Florence School District One.
"Florence County Economic Development Partnership: Largest Employers".
"Florence Airport Stats".
"Florence Downtown Revitalization".
Media related to Florence, South Carolina at Wikimedia Commons Municipalities and communities of Florence County, South Carolina, United States Radio stations in the Florence, South Carolina market Television stations in the Pee Dee region, including Myrtle Beach and Florence, South Carolina
Categories:
Florence, South Carolina - Cities in South Carolina - County seats in South Carolina - Florence, South Carolina urbane region - Cities in Florence County, South Carolina
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