Charlotte: OLD maps thread

[davidals]

10 years ago, wandering through Downtown Books in Asheville, I ran across a rack of old maps - someone who'd done some travelling had died or cleaned out a house, and they all ended up in the used bookshop for a few buck apiece. I got several 50s-60s-70s Charlotte maps, along with several other cities (Winston, Asheville, Rocky Mount, Thomasville, Monroe and a couple others). They're in bad shape generally, but I'll try to get some scans of things that I know are in public domain now. For now:

BIG images:

Downtown Charlotte, 1954. Centered on Tryon, with buildings and landmarks shown...

Larger view of central Charlotte, same year...original layouts of Greenville and Brooklyn can be seen here.

1950 downtown, centered on Tryon, with buildings. The dotted numbered streets are named alleys, some of which presumably still exist but the names have essentially gone extinct; they are indexed by numbers on this map...

1949, East Charlotte. NC 27 was Central Ave, which became Lawyers Road at the city limits (around Eastway Drive). US 74 ran along 7th St and Monroe Road until Independence Blvd was completed in various stages through the 1950s (Independence ended just past Idlewild Road until several years after that, merging into Monroe Rd across from East Meck HS).

These maps all show some old street names - there were many, many name duplications around the city, so in 1957 and 1958 there was a massive, citywide re-naming project which involved at least a hundred streets around town.

[dubone]

I love how the 1950 map has "Tyron" Street instead of Tryon St.

Those old maps are pretty fun to look at, as you can see how the neighborhoods used to be before the city had to accommodate all those distant suburbanites.

[rockhilljames]

So there was a rail-transfer yard downtown?!

[Mobuchu]

Wow, after looking at those maps.....this city has been torn apart, reworked, rearanged, and divided. Kinda depressing looking at the great grid network we had. Some of it I think was needed, some not...

Also, I have pictures from the basement of the (now) former Duke power building of what was described as a RR tressle, where they would unload. I could never get a defenite answere if this was true or not, but there are tracks on the maps inside the block of 1st, 2nd, church, and mint, so maybe so.

[fortyniner]

Besides Tyron Street, the 1954 map points towards "Albermarle" going east.

Sorry, it's the 1949 map. (Bottom one)

[monsoon]

I note the existence of not one but two train stations downtown. Did both accommodate passengers?

[MZT]

Strange to think that even in 1950 there were parts of Sedgefield that had not been built out. And that reaching Midwood was "entering town".

[davidals]

I note the existence of not one but two train stations downtown. Did both accommodate passengers?

[PlazaMidwoodGuy]

Westmoreland was basically taken to build Independence Blvd. down its path between Chantilly and Plaza Midwood. I still remember the houses that lined both sides of Independence through that area before they made it into a freeway in the 90's. To think all those homes had once been on a quiet residential street (Westmoreland) that by sheer misfortune of location became homes on the city's busiest highway.

It's also interesting that Commonwealth was sliced in two near present day Eastway Drive when they built Independence. I remember wondering years ago why there was a separate section of Commonwealth over off Monroe Rd. in the Oakhurst area, until someone explained to me that when they built Independence in the 1950's it sliced Commonwealth into two sections. Amazing how they just plowed right through the middle of an entirely residential section of the city to build Independence. I wonder if anyone then knew what a horrible monster that road would eventually become.