The Best Things to Do in Greenville, Texas

Established in 1987 and sitting on ten acres, this is the one attraction in Greenville that is worth a detour off Interstate 30 on its own. It runs three subjects at once. Hunt County history, told through the people and industries that built it. The cotton industry, with a gin and the equipment that went with it, back when cotton was the county's largest cash crop. And Audie Murphy, born to a Hunt County sharecropping family in 1925, who became the most decorated American soldier of the Second World War and then made dozens of Hollywood pictures.

Outside are two things the brochures undersell. The Hunt County War Memorial carries a ten foot bronze of Murphy ringed by granite blocks naming the 271 Hunt County soldiers who died at war during the twentieth century. And the Ende-Gillard House, built between 1857 and 1859 and the oldest standing house in Greenville, sits on the grounds with its first floor furnished. It was moved to a city park in 1957 and moved again to the museum in 1996. Its historical marker spells the name Ende-Gaillard, so both spellings are correct depending on what you are reading. The museum has also added a permanent outdoor installation called A Journey Through History, which grew out of an oral history project that interviewed 15 members of Greenville's Black community in 2020.

Greenville's public art program started in 2014, driven by a group of artists and citizens and funded largely by private donations through Hunt County Public Art. Almost all of it sits along Lee Street and Washington Street, which means you can see the whole collection on foot without moving the car. Spectrum, by Cathy Smithey, went up in 2014 at Washington and St. John and uses back-lit metal sculpture against bold color. High Cotton, by Pamela Edwards, followed in 2015 and pulls from the county's prehistoric seabed, its Native American heritage and its cotton farming. Hope, by Brandon Adams and Tex Moton at Stonewall and Lee, was designed for the children walking into the Hunt County Children's Advocacy Center. Find Your Match, by local artist Bob Bird, is dozens of colored blocks with exactly two of each color, and the piece is the puzzle.

Running underneath the art is a second, older tour. The city publishes a self-guided historical walking tour of Main, Lee and Washington that takes in Texas Historical Markers and National Register buildings including the old post office and the Hunt County Courthouse, with trivia markers set into the sidewalk on Main Street.

Built in 1939 as a Roosevelt-era public works project, after an earlier proposal for a hall honoring Hunt County men who served in the First World War never got off the ground. It holds 1,400 theater-style seats and the stage has carried Elvis Presley, Duke Ellington, Van Cliburn and Loretta Lynn.

What makes it more than a preserved building is the programming. Symphony concerts, country shows, plays, musicals and dance recitals run through the year, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra performs here three times a season. The auditorium says Greenville is the only community outside Dallas with that arrangement, which is a genuinely unusual thing for a town this size. Two box office numbers circulate online, so book through the venue's own site rather than dialing a directory listing.

The building goes back to the late 1800s as the King Opera House. Greenville native Barbara Horan bought it in 2010 and spent years turning a dark venue into a working room again. It seats 98, which is the whole point. Texas country acts, blues players, acoustic songwriters and touring stand-ups end up a few steps from the front row.

There is also a free layer to the schedule that visitors miss. The theater runs no-cost midweek events, including a live show on Wednesdays at noon, and the adjoining building holds a coffee shop doing lunch and pastries. Note that the theater has used more than one web address over the years, so check the current calendar rather than an old bookmark.

Landon has been making Texas wine since 2005, and the Greenville room is its biggest production facility rather than a satellite tasting bar. More than 40 Texas wines get poured here across reds, whites, sparkling, dessert and specialty pours, alongside craft beer, cocktails, charcuterie, flatbreads and dip trays. Its 2019 Tempranillo Reserve from the Texas High Plains took a Double Gold and was named Best Tempranillo at the 2022 San Francisco International Wine Competition.

Because the winemaking happens on site, the barrel tasting and tour is a real tour and not a walk past decorative equipment. The building also carries a 2,500 square foot ballroom and smaller meeting rooms, which is why it turns up on wedding and event shortlists as well as drinking ones.

Twenty-one acres in the middle of town doing more work than a park that size usually does. There is an 18 hole disc golf course, the only fenced dog park in Greenville, a sand volleyball court, a half court basketball goal, horseshoe pits, a small splash pad, and a pond with a dock and a bridge that pulls in waterfowl.

The playground is split by age, with shaded structures for small children and a zip line and a three story climbing frame for older ones. A large pavilion with picnic tables and restrooms makes it the easiest free place in town to park a group for an afternoon. The splash pad is seasonal and the city has run it into late September in past years.

The Greenville park in the Splash Kingdom group runs an air patrol theme, and it commits to it. The Jet Stream lazy river is partly shaded and lined with aviation memorabilia, the Dogfight slides and Splash Landing carry the same idea, and there is a full wave pool plus a Splashport kids area with small slides, sprayers and a dumping bucket.

Gate admission has been posted at $27.95 plus tax and fees, with cheaper pricing online, and there is a twilight ticket from 3 p.m. on most days. Hours move around with the season and the weather, so the park's own page and its Facebook feed are the two places that carry the current schedule. Toddler mornings have run earlier than general opening on Tuesdays.

This is the closest state park to Greenville and it is not in Greenville, so plan the drive. The Doctors Creek Unit covers about 715 acres with just over six miles of shoreline on the reservoir that Texas Parks and Wildlife calls Jim Chapman Lake and that everybody local still calls Cooper Lake. The fishing is catfish and crappie plus largemouth, white and hybrid striped bass, from a boat, from the piers or from the bank.

The Liberty Grove camping area has 42 water and electric sites with picnic tables, grills and fire rings, restrooms with showers, and a playground in the middle of the loop. The Lone Pine boat ramp handles launching, kayak rentals cover anyone who arrives without a boat, and there is a nature trail, a sand volleyball court and an outdoor amphitheater. The park's other unit, South Sulphur, is on the far shore near Sulphur Springs.

The park is in Hunt County, the same county as Greenville, even though its address reads Wills Point because the town sits about 11 miles to the south. It covers roughly 376 acres with more than five miles of shoreline, and most people head for the beach on the east side, which is the closest real swimming water to Greenville.

Land side there are nearly five miles of trails. The Spring Point Trail runs about 45 minutes and is the one to walk if you care about birds. Camping, boat access and picnicking all operate, and the state park pass covers entry if you already hold one.

One building, several independent businesses, which makes it the most efficient stop downtown if the weather turns. Fiddle & Fork restaurant is on the ground floor, Cheesebrough & Campbell sells artisan chocolates, Lenore Cole carries candles and handmade goods, and At The Top Art Gallery is upstairs on the second floor.

The gallery, reachable at (903) 461-8477, shows Renee Cooper Francey's photography alongside work from a rotating group of local artists, and it has expanded into art classes taught by those artists. Free parking sits behind the building, reached by turning onto St. John and using the rear entrance.