If you want to paint this college town, use orange. It’s one of the team colors (along with Regalia purple) of the Clemson University Tigers. You’ll see orange all over this place, starting with the tiger paws painted on the streets.
Clemson, the city, makes the most of a thriving town-and-gown relationship with Clemson, the university, and many a merchant specializes in the Tiger trade downtown along College Avenue.
The campus energizes the community with an exciting schedule of sporting events — including football games at Death Valley, as the stadium is known — along with a wealth of cultural offerings. Clemson University’s Brooks Center for the Performing Arts stages professional dance, theater and musical performances in its main hall, while presenting student acts in an intimate black-box theater. Discover acclaimed visual artists on campus at the Rudolph E. Lee Gallery in the Center for Visual Arts, which also weaves public art into the campus. Off campus, Moe Joe Coffee and Music House is a hot spot for local and regional acoustic acts on weekends.
Explore 295 acres of natural beauty at the South Carolina Botanical Garden, which encompasses miles of trails and specialty gardens, plus an arboretum. Also on the grounds, the Bob Campbell Geology Museum contains a collection of minerals, rocks and fossils, while area history is preserved at the 1716 Hanover House and the 1825 Hunt Cabin. Access more than 100 miles of trails —via foot, bike or horse — within the Clemson Experimental Forest.
Eat and Drink
Calhoun Corners serves continental cuisine, specializing in prime rib, steaks and seafood, in an 1893 house.
Feed your inner coed at Loose Change, Tiger Town Tavern, Study Hall or TD’s of Clemson.
A must-go on game days, the Esso Club boasts a bevy of memorabilia and fantastic fried pickles.
Evolve Kitchen & Table specializes in craft cocktails and locally sourced dishes.
Palmetto’s Smokehouse & Oyster Bar serves up Carolina cooking in a building that predates the first automobile.
The Patrick Square town center offers date-night options Clemson Wine Bar and Rick Erwin’s Clemson. The Clemson Farmers Market is held here on Thursday afternoons from May through September.
Pixie & Bill’s has been a local fine-dining favorite since 1971.
Shop
The Fizz Boutique stocks an array of women’s fashions, jewelry and home accessories.
The floor creaks at Judge Keller’s, lest you forget the long legacy of this dry-goods store, founded in 1899.
Open for half a century in Clemson, M.H. Frank Ltd. caters to the well-dressed man.
Tiger Sports Shop has been the place for Clemson gifts and gear for 50 years.
