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History

Charlotte is called “The Queen City” in the Old South.

King George III was still controlling the Colonies when European settlers established the town in 1768. The new hamlet was named after the King’s wife, Queen Charlotte, and the neighboring county, Mecklenburg, after Her Majesty’s birthplace in Germany.

Uptown’s Beginnings

If you look at a map of Charlotte today, you’ll notice the grid of square blocks that dates back to the city’s colonial era. Tryon Street, the city’s principal thoroughfare, is still named for North Carolina’s Colonial governor, William Tryon.

Intriguingly, unlike many Colonial towns, Tryon Street does not line with the compass. Instead, it follows a low, diagonally slanted ridgeline. This is due to the fact that it predates European colonization. Tyron Street parallels the Nations Path, the Catawba and other Native American nations’ main commerce route that extended from Georgia to the Chesapeake Bay. That same path is followed by Interstate 85 today.

The Tryon Street ridgeline is the reason Charlotte’s downtown is referred to as “Uptown.” Make your way to Independence Square in the heart of the city; no matter which direction you approach it, you’ll be slowly rising.

Meck Dec

The American Revolution inspired the name “Independence Square.” Charlotte issued its own declaration of defiance against Britain in May 1775, more than a year before Patriot leaders wrote the Declaration of Independence. The “power of the King or Parliament” was proclaimed “null and invalid” by the Mecklenburg Resolves on May 31, 1775.

On May 20, 1775, there was even a full-fledged Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, according to legend. However, there are no copies of the document, and it never appeared in any Colonial publications or documents. Although there is no tangible evidence of its existence, the Meck Dec is commemorated every year on May 20.

In June 1775, a local tavern keeper called James Jack served as a courier to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delivering vital papers. It’s unclear if the documents were the Resolves or the “Meck Dec.” Locals and visitors may see a statue of Jack riding on horseback along Little Sugar Creek Greenway, just east of Uptown, in his honor.

Hornets’ Nest of Rebellion

A local tavern keeper called James Jack served as a messenger to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in June 1775. It’s possible that the documents were the Resolves or the “Meck Dec,” but it’s uncertain. Locals and visitors may see a statue of Jack riding on horseback along Little Sugar Creek Greenway, just east of Uptown, in his honor.

Cornwallis is reported to have written in his journal as he left Charlotte that it was a “hornet’s nest of revolt.” The hornet and hornet’s nest are now well-known civic emblems. They’re on cops’ uniforms and the NBA Charlotte Hornets’ uniforms, among other locations throughout town.

The First U.S. Gold Rush

Following the Revolution, a completely unexpected occurrence catapulted Charlotte into the financial map. Conrad Reed scooped up a 17-pound glittering rock while playing in a brook 25 miles east of the city in 1799. His parents used it as a doorstop until they were paid $3.50 for it by a sharp-eyed shopkeeper. It was the world’s first gold discovery in North America.

Following the Revolution, Charlotte was propelled into the financial spotlight by an entirely unexpected event. In 1799, while playing in a creek 25 miles east of the city, Conrad Reed scooped up a 17-pound gleaming rock. His parents used it as a doorstop until a sharp-eyed merchant paid $3.50 for it. It was the first gold find in North America in history.

The Mint Museum of Art, North Carolina’s first art museum, opened in 1936 after being purchased in 1933 and disassembled, relocated, and restored on Randolph Road. The Mint Museum is currently known simply as the Mint Museum, despite the fact that it is still located in the same location. In the meanwhile, ancient mine shafts may still be found beneath Uptown. Explore the Reed family’s real mineshafts and pan for gold yourself at the Reed Gold Mine near Albemarle, North Carolina.

The Rise of Railroads

Although Charlotte’s gold past is romantic, railways had a bigger economic influence on the city. Local investors in Charlotte and upstate North Carolina were successful in building the first rail line into the Carolinas in 1852. It connected Charlotte to Columbia, North Carolina, where existing rail lines delivered commodities to Charleston’s harbor. The North Carolina state government quickly approved the building of a second line between Charlotte and Raleigh.

Charlotte was a hotspot during the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, because of its railroad crossroads. Confederate President Jefferson Davis escaped south via the rail lines when Richmond, Virginia, surrendered in the last days of combat, conducting a final full meeting of his cabinet in a home on Tryon Street.

New South Reinventions

Cotton Fields-turned Skyscrapers

Despite the fact that most families were affected by the war’s tragedies, Charlotte emerged from the conflict stronger than ever. The railroad to Columbia had been severed by troops, but it was swiftly repaired. African Americans, who made up 40% of the population of Mecklenburg, were now free. During the 1860s, Charlotte’s population more than quadrupled, reaching 4,473 in 1870.

Leaders in Charlotte and the rest of the postwar South talked of forming a New South with zeal. Slavery and farming would no longer be a part of the region’s economy; instead, like the North, it would embrace industries and urbanization.

Charlotte is still defined by the New South ethos of reinvention. It’s no surprise that the city is home to the Levine Museum of the New South, whose nationally acclaimed displays depict the region’s reinventions, from cotton fields to industries and banking, as well as the path from slavery to segregation and, eventually, the Civil Rights Movement.

Textile Times

Charlotte sat astride the Southern Railway mainline (the “main street of the South”), which ran from Atlanta, Georgia to Washington, D.C. by the 1880s. Cotton was carried in by farmers from miles around to the Uptown railroad station, where today’s EpiCentre (aptly called!) bustles with activity. Local entrepreneurs began constructing textile mills, beginning with the 1881 Charlotte Cotton Mill, which is still standing at Graham and 5th streets.

By the 1920s, this region of the Carolinas—from Greenville and Spartanburg in North Carolina to Winston-Salem and Durham in North Carolina—had replaced New England as the country’s leading cotton manufacturing sector. Charlotte grew as a major trading center for the region. By 1940, the city’s population had grown from fewer than 20,000 at the turn of the century to more than 100,000.

In Charlotte’s NoDa area, a cluster of old mill villages resurrected as an eclectic arts district replete with pedestrian-friendly shops, nightlife, eating, and music venues, you can witness that history in action. Look no farther than Pineville, Cornelius, Kannapolis, Belmont, Mount Holly, and Gastonia, where large brick mill buildings have been transformed into restaurants, entertainment centres, companies, and stores.

Cotton brokers’ offices were located adjacent to Brevard Court in Uptown, where employees of Center City firms today throng to restaurants and shops during the lunch hour. In the 1910s, famous Boston, Massachusetts, landscape planner John Nolen added elegant greenways and winding, oak-shaded roadways to Myers Park, which was designed for mill owners, bankers, and utility executives. In North Carolina, Lake Wylie originated as a hydroelectric project run by James Buchanan Duke, who supplied electricity to textile industries.

Duke Energy, one of the major electric power corporations in the United States with headquarters in Charlotte, is a name you’ll remember. The Duke Mansion, one of the city’s most popular bed-and-breakfasts, venues, and historic sites, is named after Duke. Duke, having been at the helm of many of the mansion’s renovations, was its most famous owner.

Small Businesses-turned National Brands

Charlotte was never a one-industry town; its central position served as a sales and distribution base for a variety of commodities across the Carolinas. The Belk family founded the South’s most prestigious department store company, with its headquarters in Charlotte. Leon Levine founded the first Family Dollar discount store on Central Avenue, which today has locations all across the country. W.T. Harris, across the street, had a food shop that grew into the regional grocer Harris Teeter.

Philip L. Lance, a Charlotte food salesman, transformed a botched raw peanuts trade into the ever-popular Lance crackers (now Snyder’s-Lance) brand. A small hardware business in neighboring Wilkesboro, North Carolina, evolved into the giant retailer that is today known as Lowe’s. Other noteworthy locally born products, such as Cheerwine and Bojangles’ Famous Chicken n’ Biscuits, were also developed by local entrepreneurs.

Campus Life 

The affluence of the New South enhanced educational possibilities. Following the Civil War, Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) was established just west of Uptown to train African-American “preachers and instructors.” Queens College (now Queen’s University of Charlotte) was founded in Myers Park by Presbyterians as a school for educated, young white women. Davidson College, located north of the city, was founded to give a liberal arts education to young white males. Bonnie Cone founded the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1946, which united these specialized colleges.

A Music Mecca

WBT, the first radio station in the South, drew a diverse group of country music and gospel artists who performed live on the airways. RCA Victor and other record labels paid frequent visits. Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass Music, made his first discs in 1936, according to a South Tryon sidewalk plaque. More records were manufactured here in the late 1930s than in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Newest New South

Civil Rights Reform

In the late twentieth century, Charlotte’s rate of reinvention began to pick up. Before the Civil War, the city had been a backwoods farming town and a regional textile center in the early decades of the New South, but it had now begun to assume its position on the national stage.

With the civil rights struggle, a new age dawned. In the mid-1950s, the city’s African-American leaders were successful in desegregating Revolution Park and the city’s new airport. Students at JCSU staged one of the largest sit-ins in the South in 1960. Following their protests, all lunch counters were opened to the public.

However, until a spectacular set of events in May of 1963, elite restaurants still refused to serve African Americans. Dr. Reginald Hawkins, a crusading dentist, led a march from JCSU to City Hall demanding complete desegregation. In other parts of the South, such pleas were met by police dogs and fire hoses. Charlotte, according to the-Mayor Stan Brookshire, would be different. He called Chamber of Commerce representatives and secretly arranged for white-black pairings to eat lunch together at each restaurant, therefore integrating the establishments. The measure, which occurred a year before the 1964 Civil Rights Act, mandated integration in all public venues and received widespread attention.

A friendly image paid well at an era when national firms were eager to expand south. Charlotte’s progressive image was cemented in 1971 when it became the first African-American mayor of a majority-white U.S. city, and again in 1983 when Harvey Gantt was elected as the first African-American mayor of a majority-white U.S. city. Charlotte’s population increased by more than 50% from the early 1960s and the early 1980s.

A Banking Empire

Charlotte’s next frontier of development was banking. Because of a North Carolina statute that allowed for statewide branches, the city already had strong local banks. Hugh McColl, a banker with North Carolina National Bank (NCNB), found out how to purchase a tiny out-of-state bank in 1982. The breakthrough prompted a significant rewrite of banking rules across the country.

NCNB (later called NationsBank) and local rival First Union (later became Wachovia, then purchased by San Francisco, California-based Wells Fargo) rode the crest of the interstate banking wave, quickly establishing themselves as two of the country’s greatest financial companies. In 1998, McColl bought the old Bank of America in San Francisco and relocated its headquarters to the Queen City, establishing the United States’ first coast-to-coast bank. Charlotte is now the nation’s second-largest banking city, after only New York City.

Along Tryon Street, in the center of Uptown, a new skyline arose. Should it be referred to as downtown? Longtime businesses maintained it had always been Uptown, and City Council formally designated it thus in a resolution dated Sept. 23, 1974. A few years later, local officials picked another region being changed by new development to be named after a historical figure. The highway connecting Charlotte Douglas International Airport to Interstates 77 and 85 was named after Charlotte-born Billy Graham, a country kid turned global preacher, when the new terminal opened in 1982.

A Sports Stronghold

Major league sports arrived as Charlotte rose through the rankings of the top 20 U.S. cities. The renowned Charlotte Hornets introduced professional basketball to an area known for its passion for collegiate basketball (due in part to North Carolina’s legendary Duke University – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill rivalry, as well as Michael Jordan’s Tar Heel State background). The Carolina Panthers football team was founded in 1993 by Jerry Richardson, a former NFL player who later became a Hardee’s restaurant franchisee. Selling personal seat licenses (PSLs), which ensured season ticket availability, was one of his ideas. In the same year, the Charlotte Knights minor league baseball club debuted, relocating from a smaller ballpark in Rock Hill, North Carolina, to the vast BB&T Ballpark in Uptown.

Charlotte has long been a major player in auto racing, having hosted NASCAR’s first-ever professional stock car race at the historic Charlotte Speedway in 1949. However, as the sport got more complex, most race teams’ high-tech engineering departments converged at the massive Charlotte Motor Speedway. The NASCAR Hall of Fame debuted in 2010 in a gleaming Uptown structure built by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, an internationally famous firm led by renowned architect I.M. Pei. The Grand Louvre in Paris, France, the Palazzo Lombardia in Milan, Italy, the Four Seasons Hotel in New York, New York, and a slew of other notable structures are all the work of PCF&P.

HERE CHARLOTTE

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