Belton, chartered in 1855 as a child of the railroad, grew from a junction created when Judge John "Belton" O'Neal and other South Carolina leaders organized the Columbia and Greenville Railroad Company, and a spur from Anderson connected with the main line at Sugar Hill on land owned by Dr. George Brown, who also donated land for the depot and town square. The railroad brought strong economic and social growth, with people coming from miles around to see the trains, eat at the local hotel, and gather on its porch, which became the town's social hub. Built in 1906, the depot once served two rail lines, and today it houses the South Carolina Tennis Hall of Fame and the Ruth Drake Museum. Belton's tennis history reaches back more than 110 years to a court near the railroad tracks in 1892, and the sport grew especially between the two world wars, when local youth produced many state high school champions and the girls' high school team went undefeated for 14 straight years. With the Belton Tennis Association and numerous public and private courts, the town became home to the Palmetto Tennis Championships in 1957; Belton girls won many titles in the 1950s and 1960s, and the girls' high school team won nine straight state championships between 1958 and 1967. In the 1970s the Palmetto Championship became South Carolina's national junior qualifying tournament, and in the 1980s the South Carolina Tennis Hall of Fame was added in the Belton Depot. Tennis continued to flourish with the Hall of Fame Classic beginning in 1987, expansion of the Belton Tennis Center in the early 1990s, and continuing championship success by local players and teams. Belton's historic square also preserves reminders of its past, including part of the old Geer Hotel in Horton's Pharmacy, the 1877 brick building whose upper floors became Stringer's Hall opera house, the Pastime Theater, the First Baptist Church completed in its first phase on October 11, 1861, and the standpipe water tower built in 1908, while bluegrass concerts, the annual Standpipe Festival, and local art on the square continue the town's living traditions.