Heritage Green improvements to honor Max and Trude Heller’s Greenville legacy (Greenville Journal)

Max and Trude Heller were pillars of the Greenville community.

The couple settled in the Upstate after separately fleeing from Austria after the Nazi invasion during World War II. They spent their lives giving back to Greenville, contributing to the city’s revitalization, culture and community.

Known as the “Father of Modern Greenville,” Max Heller sparked the transformation of downtown Greenville as mayor in the 1970s. He passed away in 2011. Trude Heller was a Holocaust educator who shared her story with the community by speaking at schools, churches and local organizations.

A $2.2 million project aims to memorialize the legacy of the Hellers at Heritage Green, an arts and culture campus on College Street in downtown Greenville. Francie Heller, daughter of Max and Trude Heller, said the project will also enhance the campus for visitors and the entities located on Heritage Green.

“It would’ve made my parents feel really happy, I think,” Francie Heller said. “They devoted their lives to public service.”

Project scope
Heller Heritage on the Green is a collaborative initiative that has been years in the making. The project started with the idea of creating an interactive garden at the Children’s Museum of the Upstate in honor of Trude Heller, who passed away in 2021.

During that time, Francie Heller found papers and artifacts from her parents dating back to their time in Austria, their arrival in Greenville and beyond. The Heller family decided to donate the papers to the Upcountry History Museum, which is located at Heritage Green, to create an interactive, digital exhibit.

Letters sent to Trude Heller from children, college students and adults she taught on her Holocaust education tour will also be donated to the Hughes Main Library at Heritage Green. The library will display the letters in an exhibit titled “Dear Mrs. Heller.”

Francie Heller said the family met with the other entities at Heritage Green to learn how they could make the campus more accessible and attractive for visitors. Four museums, a library and a theater are located at Heritage Green.

“I kind of consider the garden and the exhibits sort of the bookends. I didn’t want to leave the pieces out in between,” Francie Heller said.

Site improvements will be completed as part of Heller Heritage on the Green, including a new pedestrian walkway, an enhanced crosswalk, outdoor lighting, new plantings and seating areas. Susan Shi, one of the project’s committee chairs, said the seating areas, referred to as moments for pause, will include engraved quotes from Max Heller.

In addition, the project will add new artistic elements to enhance the campus. For example, the four stairway entryways into Heritage Green from College Street will be redecorated with mosaic tiles, detailing the story of the Hellers and Greenville. Plans also include installing a musical art sculpture near the Sigal Music Museum.

“We are just trying to make (Heritage Green) more recreational, more beautiful and more safe,” Shi said.

Collaborative effort
The entities at Heritage Green, the Heller family, community leaders and local elected officials are working together to carry out Heller Heritage on the Green. The Community Foundation of Greenville is the fiscal agent for the initiative. Shi said approximately $510,000 in cash, pledges and in-kind contributions has been raised so far for the $2.2 million project.

“All the plans are done,” Shi said. “The designs are done. It’s just the money between it and us.”

Some elements are already underway, including creating the Trude Heller Children’s Garden at The Children’s Museum of the Upstate. Adam Schrimmer with Blank Canvas Mural Co. is creating a mural for the project. The garden will also feature an interactive scavenger hunt designed for children to enjoy.

A dedication ceremony for the garden is scheduled to take place in September.

Francie Heller said the donated papers for the Upcountry History Museum have also started to be digitized. The interactive exhibit will be created by Terra Incognita Productions.

Heller Heritage on the Green, including the site enhancements and new exhibits, is expected to be complete by the fall of 2026.

“(My parents) loved Greenville so much,” Francie Heller said. “If I can do something that I know they would’ve been happy with and honor them by making Greenville even better, then I can’t think of anything more fulfilling.”

For more information, visit hellerheritageonthegreen.org.

(This story by Megan Fitzgerald ran in the Greenville Journal on May 18, 2025.)