32 replies to this topic

[krazeeboi]

Which cities in your state have at one point or another held the title of the state's largest city? For South Carolina, only two cities could make that claim: Charleston (from our state's founding to sometime in the mid-20th century) and Columbia (from mid-20th century onward).

[DruidCity]

Mobile was Alabama's largest until around 1900, and Birmingham has been the largest ever since.

[lammius]

In my home state of Virginia:

1607-1620s Jamestown
mid 1600s-early 1700s Williamsburg
mid 1700s Norfolk
late 1700s-1950s Richmond
1950s-1980 Norfolk
1980-present Virginia Beach

[Rardy]

This is a hard one!  Cities are apparently reticent to say "yeah, we were the largest, but then we stopped growing and now we're number 27..."

I compared historical figures for Memphis & Nashville:

Memphis  --  Nashville
1830:   663  --  5,566
1840:   1,799  --  7,868
1850:   8,841  --  10,165
1860:   22,623  --  18,015
1870:   40,226  --  25,865
1880:   33,592  --  51,017
1890:   64,495  --  76,168
1900:   102,320  --  80,865
1910:   131,105  --  110,364
1920:   162,351  --  118,342
1930:   253,140  --  153,866
1940:   292,942  --  167,402
1950:   396,000  --  174,307
1960:   497,524  --  170,874
1970:   623,520  --  448,003
1980:  646,356  --  455,651
1990:  610,337  --  488,374
2000:  650,100  --  569,891
2005:  680,768  --  575,261

So it looks like Nashville was the largest 1830 - 1850.  Memphis became largest 1860 - 1870, then back to Nashville 1880-1890.  Since 1900 Memphis has been the largest city in Tennessee, although note Nashville's consolidation in the 1960's.

[suburban george3]

I looked at the historical records, and this is what shows in NC from 1820-present.

1820-New Bern town, NC.................. 3,663
1830-New Bern town, NC.................. 3,796
1840-Wilmington town, NC................ 5,335
1850-Wilmington town, NC................ 7,264
1860-Wilmington town, NC................ 9,552
1870-Wilmington town, NC................ 13,446
1880-Wilmington town, NC................ 17,350
1890-Wilmington town, NC................ 20,056
1900-Wilmington town, NC................ 20,976
1910-Charlotte city, NC.................... 34,014
1920-Winston-Salem city, NC............ 48,395
1930-Charlotte city, NC.................... 82,675
1940-Charlotte city, NC.................... 112,986
1950-Charlotte city, NC.................... 134,042
1960-Charlotte city, NC.................... 200,882
1970-Charlotte city, NC.................... 241,178
1980-Charlotte city, NC.................... 314,447
1990-Charlotte city, NC.................... 395,934
2000-Charlotte city, NC.................... 540,828

[erm1981]

Dang. so in 1920 Winston-Salem was almost as big as current 2006 Greenville, SC city.  Pretty Amazing.

[krazeeboi]

^In terms of municipal population.

I thought Winston-Salem initially snagged the title from Wilmington, and then Charlotte grabbed it, but apparently Charlotte slipped a little in the 1910's then recovered. Interesting.

[suburban george3]

krazeeboi, on Nov 29 2006, 09:54 PM, said:

^In terms of municipal population.

I thought Winston-Salem initially snagged the title from Wilmington, and then Charlotte grabbed it, but apparently Charlotte slipped a little in the 1910's then recovered. Interesting.

Charlotte still grew quite rapidly during the 1910's, it's 1920 pop. was 46,338; just a little over 2,000 residents behind W-S.  Winston town and Salem town merged in 1913 and the combined pop. in the 1910 census would have had W-S at 22,700.  Winston-Salem wasn't far behind Charlotte in 1930 with a pop. of 75,274.  

BTW, Wilmington's 1910 population was 25,748

Edited by suburban george3, 29 November 2006 - 09:18 PM.

[mcheiss]

Little Rock has always been the largest in the state of Arkansas.

Pine Bluff used to be second, but Ft. Smith passed it up a while ago. Pine Bluff is now about 6th in the state.

1. Little Rock (185,000ish)
2. Ft. Smith (81,000)
3. Fayetteville (70,000ish)
4. Springdale (65,000)
5. North Little Rock (61,000)
6. Pine Bluff (55,085)
7. Jonesboro (56,000ish)
8. Conway (51,000-55,000ish)
9. Rogers (50,000)

[gsupstate]

suburban george3, on Nov 29 2006, 09:17 PM, said:

I looked at the historical records, and this is what shows in NC from 1820-present.

1820-New Bern town, NC.................. 3,663
1830-New Bern town, NC.................. 3,796
1840-Wilmington town, NC................ 5,335
1850-Wilmington town, NC................ 7,264
1860-Wilmington town, NC................ 9,552
1870-Wilmington town, NC................ 13,446
1880-Wilmington town, NC................ 17,350
1890-Wilmington town, NC................ 20,056
1900-Wilmington town, NC................ 20,976
1910-Charlotte city, NC.................... 34,014
1920-Winston-Salem city, NC............ 48,395
1930-Charlotte city, NC.................... 82,675
1940-Charlotte city, NC.................... 112,986
1950-Charlotte city, NC.................... 134,042
1960-Charlotte city, NC.................... 200,882
1970-Charlotte city, NC.................... 241,178
1980-Charlotte city, NC.................... 314,447
1990-Charlotte city, NC.................... 395,934
2000-Charlotte city, NC.................... 540,828

What I find amazing about this is the difference in Charlotte population in just 50 years.  Look at 1950 and look at 2000....more than double.  I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and in the 50's (though that was before my time) Birmingham was somewhere around 350,000, the city now is lucky to count 225,000 or 230,000.....don't have the exact figures, yet it's metro has exploded and doing very well.

Edited by gsupstate, 30 November 2006 - 12:51 PM.

[kayman]

gsupstate, on Nov 30 2006, 12:47 PM, said:

What I find amazing about this is the difference in Charlotte population in just 50 years.  Look at 1950 and look at 2000....more than double.  I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and in the 50's (though that was before my time) Birmingham was somewhere around 350,000, the city now is lucky to count 225,000 or 230,000.....don't have the exact figures, yet it's metro has exploded and doing very well.

Yeah, Birmingham has always been the "Detroit of the South", but with a potential of a "Pittsburgh comeback", IMO.   It has people that have squandered on the city's potential for their own personal gain.  It can bounce back, but only with good, strong leadership.

Edited by Leonard23, 30 November 2006 - 01:39 PM.

[gsupstate]

Leonard23, on Nov 30 2006, 02:32 PM, said:

Yeah, Birmingham has always been the "Detroit of the South" IMO.   It has people that have squandered on the city's potential for their own personal gain.  It can bounce back, but only with good, strong leadership.

Birmingham has a really good infrastructure and solid core of great buildings within city center.  To have a metro the size it has, it's core should really be much more dense.  It has all the tools there.  The buildings, the freeways, the grid pattern of streets, etc, etc.

[krazeeboi]

gsupstate, on Nov 30 2006, 01:47 PM, said:

What I find amazing about this is the difference in Charlotte population in just 50 years.  Look at 1950 and look at 2000....more than double.  I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and in the 50's (though that was before my time) Birmingham was somewhere around 350,000, the city now is lucky to count 225,000 or 230,000.....don't have the exact figures, yet it's metro has exploded and doing very well.

Charlotte's growth is a good example of true growth plus really liberal state annexation laws.

[NCB]

New Orleans has been the largest city in Louisiana for at least 250 years, but I'll have to find some official numbers for city populations in Louisiana in the late 1600's and the early 1700's.

[Rardy]

NCB, on Nov 30 2006, 06:46 PM, said:

New Orleans has been the largest city in Louisiana for at least 250 years, but I'll have to find some official numbers for city populations in Louisiana in the late 1600's and the early 1700's.

Natchitoches, LA is the oldest city in the Louisiana Purchase, established in 1714.  I guess that means at one time it was larger than New Orleans...

[Aporkalypse]

Galveston was the largest city in Texas until 1900 when a hurricane largely destroyed it.  After that Houston replaced it in prominence and is the largest city today, followed by Dallas and San Antonio as distant 2nd and 3rd.

In Arkansas, Little Rock has been the largest city since the 1830s.

[Spartan]

krazeeboi, on Nov 30 2006, 07:35 PM, said:

Charlotte's growth is a good example of true growth plus really liberal state annexation laws.

I think that is very imortant to consider in this discussion because 1) Annexation laws vary from state to state and 2) do these cities have to compete with their suburbs for population growth?

[NCB]

Rardy, on Dec 1 2006, 09:08 AM, said:

Natchitoches, LA is the oldest city in the Louisiana Purchase, established in 1714.  I guess that means at one time it was larger than New Orleans...

Well, Natchitoches isn't actually older than New Orleans, it was just founded before New Orleans. New Orleans was founded in 1718, but it was first settled and established about 25 years earlier, in the early 1690's.

[lammius]

More research into Virginia yilded this breakdown:

1790 - Richmond - 3,761
1800 - Norfolk - 6,926
1810 - Richmond - 9,735
1850 - Richmond - 27,570
1900 - Richmond - 85,050
1950 - Richmond - 230,310
1960 - Norfolk - 305,872
1970 - Norfolk - 307,951
1980 - Norfolk - 266,979
1990 - Virginia Beach - 393,069
2000 - Virginia Beach - 425,257

[krazeeboi]

Virginia's cities have a fascinating history due to the "independent city" status of its cities.