Unity Park's Honor Tower Turns One This Veterans Day, and Mayberry Street Still Isn't Finished

When the Greenville Journal previewed the observation deck rising over Unity Park last fall, it summed the moment up in one line: the long-awaited tower represents the final planned element for Unity Park. That was the story in November 2025. Walk the same block today and the word "final" feels premature. Ten months after Thomas and Vivian A. Wong Honor Tower opened to the public, the street it sits on is closed off in sections, ringed with cones, and getting rebuilt from the sidewalk up.

Both things are true at once. The tower is finished. Mayberry Street is not. If you live near Unity Park and haven't been back since spring, here's what's actually changed, and what you'll be walking or driving into if you go this fall.

What opened, and what it actually gets you

Honor Tower had its grand opening on Veterans Day, November 11, 2025, closing out a project the city had been sketching since the park's earliest renderings. The tower rises ten stories above Unity Park, and the observation deck at the top, named the Prisma Health Observation Deck, gives visitors a 360-degree view that takes in downtown Greenville's skyline on one side and the Blue Ridge Mountains on the other.

Getting up there costs nothing. Admission is free, and you have a choice: a glass-walled elevator or 176 stairs. Visits at the top are capped at 30 minutes.

The tower's design leans on Greenville's industrial past rather than ignoring it. Architect Paul Endres, working with California firm Endrestudio, drew on the shapes of old textile mill smokestacks that once anchored this part of West Greenville, back when the land under the park was still Mayberry and Meadowbrook, two mill-era ballfields. The tower sits between what's now Mayberry Field, a restored historic diamond, and Meadowbrook Green, and it doubles as a tribute space for military veterans, police officers, firefighters and other first responders, with a memorial plaza at its base.

None of that came cheap. The tower cost close to $11 million, split between public and private money: $3.5 million from the city's local accommodations tax, $1 million from hospitality tax funds, and $5.63 million raised privately, including a $1 million gift from Thomas and Vivian Wong themselves, whose names the tower carries.

The street you'll actually be walking on

Here's the part that hasn't made it into most of the park guides written since opening day. On September 21, 2026, the city started an infrastructure project on Mayberry Street, the same street Honor Tower fronts. The work covers sidewalk repairs, parking area upgrades, a new crosswalk, and a new concrete median, and it's expected to run about two months, putting the likely wrap-up somewhere around mid to late November.

City officials say they don't expect major traffic backups, but they're asking drivers and pedestrians in the area to watch for posted signage and use caution. If your usual route to the tower is parking along Mayberry Street and walking straight up, plan on some rerouting for the next several weeks. The two paved lots off Welborn Street are your more reliable bet right now, and if you're already inclined to bike or walk in on the Swamp Rabbit Trail, that approach sidesteps the construction zone almost entirely since the trail feeds into the park from the Reedy River side rather than off Mayberry Street itself.

Why the block across the street still isn't settled

There's a second piece to this that the construction crews only hint at. The city owns a sizable stretch of land across Mayberry Street from the park, and it has sat undeveloped through the entire life of the project so far. When Honor Tower opened last November, Mayor Knox White told reporters that city officials planned to look at the future of that property within the coming year.

That timeline lines up almost exactly with what's happening on Mayberry Street this fall. Whether the sidewalk and parking work now underway is the first visible step toward whatever comes next for that parcel, or simply a standalone infrastructure fix, isn't something the city has said outright. What's clear is that the block facing Unity Park's newest landmark is still an open question, not a settled one, even as the tower itself approaches its first anniversary.

What a fall visit actually looks like right now

The splash pad crowd is gone for the season, which changes the rhythm of a visit more than people expect. Summer at Unity Park means claiming shade near the water feature and timing your trip around the heat. Fall means the playgrounds thin out on weekday afternoons, the light hits the tower differently by late day, and you can actually get a walk-up slot at the observation deck without circling the base waiting for a group to finish its 30 minutes.

The Commons, the food hall built into the park's old mill buildings, and Pangaea Brewing next door are both unaffected by the street work and still make an easy stop before or after a tower visit. If you're coming from downtown, the short stroll in on the Swamp Rabbit Trail, less than a mile from most central parking, remains the simplest way to arrive without thinking about the construction at all.

A few things worth knowing before you go:

• Admission to Honor Tower is free, but each visit to the top is capped at 30 minutes.
• You can take the glass elevator or climb 176 stairs to the observation deck.
• Mayberry Street construction started September 21, 2026, and is expected to last about two months, likely into mid or late November.
• Parking off Welborn Street or arriving via the Swamp Rabbit Trail avoids the work zone.
• The Commons and Pangaea Brewing remain open and unaffected by the street project.

What this says about the neighborhood

A park that opened with a "final element" still standing next to a torn-up street and an undecided parcel isn't a contradiction. It's what a fast-growing part of Greenville actually looks like at ground level right now. West Greenville has spent the last several years being rebuilt block by block, and Unity Park has been the anchor for most of it. The tower being finished doesn't mean the surrounding blocks are done changing. If anything, the timing of this construction so close to the tower's first anniversary suggests the city is still actively shaping what the rest of this corridor becomes.

If you've lived near Unity Park since before the tower went up, this fall is worth a return trip even with the cones out front. And if you're the kind of person who likes watching a neighborhood's next move before it's finished, keep an eye on that parcel across the street. It's rare to get a specific timeline on when a city plans to decide something, and Greenville just gave one.

I keep half an eye on projects like this because they tell you where a neighborhood is headed before the listings do. If you're curious what a corner of Greenville like this one means for property values, timing, or just whether it's the right fit for what you're looking for, Jason Boozer is always glad to talk it through.