History of Charlotte

[NCMike1990]

These stories remind me of the time my dad and I were walking around Uptown in the late '90s. I remember being 7 or 8 at the time, so it was either 1997 or 98, respectively. Anyway, we were exploring Uptown and we met an office worker from the BofA CC tower who was on his lunch break. He was very nice and allowed us to go up to his office and take in the view. From my memory, it was probably around the 40th floor. What I remember the most was walking to the window and feeling like I was going to fall down. LOL I believe the windows were floor to ceiling, so it sort of took my breath away. I also remember the office was facing toward South Tryon.  It was a very impressive view. That's one Charlotte memory from my childhood.

[videtur quam contuor]

2 hours ago, tozmervo said:

I think it's not uncommon for state and federal government to provide worker housing. Many UNC campuses provide staff and visiting faculty housing. I know some private colleges do the same: they own houses around their campuses and offer them as part of the deal to remain competitive with institutions that can offer higher salaries. 

Not just college teachers. In the early part of the last century Mecklenburg County, as well as  other counties in North Carolina built and maintained dwellings for public school teachers. Here in Mecklenburg, recall that the county was a separate school system and served the large rural area which made up most of the county. These schools were 1-8 or 1-11 or 1-12, depending on the era, the finances of the community, state law and other parameters. Teachers were recruited to these schools and had an opportunity to be housed in a building for the purpose. Often private or shared sleeping rooms, common eating area and occasionally supervised by the school principal and his spouse or other member of the community. This gave a school an important advantage when teachers were difficult to find and those who would be interested had no auto to commute, a common event. This helped to make ends meet for teachers and also, in some areas, an income to supervising families. A check with your favorite search engine will recover some information about this period.

tl;dr  Schools and teachers were poor and rural, housing was provided at low cost and at mutual benefit.

If you would like to see a remaining teacherage here in Mecklenburg County Long Creek Elementary still remains and was a model for the others that have disappeared. It is a two story, square building. Simple construction, basic function, a step up in living for many from that time. I have been in the Pineville School teacherage, converted to meeting space and storage though it is now gone. There is a lot more to this story but I will leave it there.

For your historic entertainment I offer this anecdote: When I was hired by CMS my principal lived in the Berryhill school area. He had an additional job of supervising the Berryhill School teacherage. He knew I was a young single man and he offered me a room at this building if I were so interested. A private room, parking provided and the cost was the princely sum of one (1) dollar per month.

[KJHburg]

People say there is not much history in uptown Charlotte.  True few commercial historical buildings still stand but there are a few but over here in Fourth Ward plenty of historic homes just blocks from the tallest buildings in the Carolinas.  Today walkabout in 4th Ward.   2nd photo is historic McNinch house now a fine restaurant. 

[C85]

2 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

People say there is not much history in uptown Charlotte.  True few commercial historical buildings still stand but there are a few but over here in Fourth Ward plenty of historic homes just blocks from the tallest buildings in the Carolinas.  Today walkabout in 4th Ward.   2nd photo is historic McNinch house now a fine restaurant.

 

 

 

The houses look like homes you would find in the downtown concord area.

Edited February 6, 2019 by C85

[SgtCampsalot]

2 hours ago, C85 said:

The houses look like homes you would find in the downtown concord area.

*wink wink*

(Because the bigger homes in 4th Ward were trucked in from surrounding towns) 

[Guest]

*wink wink*
(Because the bigger homes in 4th Ward were trucked in from surrounding towns) [emoji185]

Well a lot from the independence Blvd ROW too.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[KJHburg]

Most are from Charlotte they were not really trucked into from other towns they still have them!  Some were moved but they are historic.  

Any homes moved were done in the 1970s and 1980s when Fourth Ward really started taking off.  

[KJHburg]

Just saw WSOCTV report on the 1991 All Star Game out at the Charlotte Coliseum on Tyvola.  They said 9000 people came vs expected 150,000 this weekend.  Even a younger KJ participated by working an event out at the Piedmont US Air hanger for a huge dinner for some event.  My friends roped me into it to earn a few extra bucks.  I do remember the pop up shops and restaurants up and down Tryon St temporary venues to give the illusion of a hopping city.   Well that was 1991 that won't be a problem this time.  The arena is uptown, MORE of everything but plenty of restaurants and bars.   Nicest hotel back then was the Hilton next to 1 Wells Fargo.  Where the Epicenter is was the Charlotte Civic Center with its legacy pyramids.     Nobody who has not been here since 1991 will even recognize the city today!    Maybe Michael Jordan can take them around for he was here back in 91. 

Old photo from KJ's Vault. 

[King of the Queen City]

The Old New Coliseum still stands in Charlotte (on a much smaller scale, lol).

[KJHburg]

My cousins were there the day before the scoreboard fell and Billy Graham talked about that incident for years afterwards. 

From 1988 

https://apnews.com/1607250fc2db6da706e4ed55a820bd37

[King of the Queen City]

8 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

My cousins were there the day before the scoreboard fell and Billy Graham talked about that incident for years afterwards. 

From 1988 

https://apnews.com/1607250fc2db6da706e4ed55a820bd37

Now he is buried across the Billy Graham parkway from it. Too bad it couldn’t have become part of a conference center for the BGEA or something. Hard to believe that site once held the 1991 NBA All Star Game (the same year MJ won his first NBA Finals Title) and 1994 Final Four (where then-President Bill Clinton watched his Arkansas Razorbacks best the Duke Blue Devils in the title game).

[KJHburg]

The Johnston Building built in 1924 for $600,000!  Today what great details at the top.  Remaining historical high rises are lost in our very tall skyline.

 

[Crucial_Infra]

Dee Brown was First in Pump. 

[QCxpat]

Making Modern Charlotte - an ACBJ film will be released on PBS Charlotte (WTVI) this Friday, February 22nd at 9:00 P.M.   It'll also be posted on CBJ's YouTube channel at 10:00 P.M. on Friday.      

"If you're not in the top 25 in this country, nobody cares about you."  ...  "You go back a couple generations and they were already thinking about it.  They wanted to be a city!"  Jim Hynes, Hynes Sales Company

Jen Wilson at CBJ reports:  

“It’s an important history that tells the story in their own words of the business people who built modern Charlotte — what drove them and how they made it happen as they transformed the small quiet place of the 1970s into the dynamic, major-league city it is today....”  "Featured in the film are Hugh McColl, Jr., Harvey Gantt, Johnny Harris, Smoky Bissell, George Shinn ... and many others." ...  "The origin of Making Modern Charlotte was 30-plus hours of interviews conducted over a year with 24 of the most visible business and civic leaders of the era — roughly the last quarter of the 20th century.   Combine that with archival art from 29 sources, reduce it to 57 minutes and 22 seconds, and you have Making Modern Charlotte."

CBJ Link:  https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2019/02/20/acbjs-making-modern-charlotte-to-premiere-on-wtvi.html   (includes 3 min. promo for the film)

 

 

The skyline of Uptown Charlotte as seen from Plaza Midwood neighborhood in Feb. 2019 - photo by Jen Wilson

Edited February 21, 2019 by QCxpat
Photo credit - Jen Wilson

[KJHburg]

^^ I want to see that and then it will be online according the Business Journal.  Charlotte boosterism is legendary over the years.  

Edited February 21, 2019 by KJHburg

[KJHburg]

When I visited other cities including other regional cities people on their UP sites will say Charlotte doesn't have character and this and that.  BUT what they don't understand this city did not boom into this major city until late 70s early 1980s.    Case in point lets look at population on Charlotte Nashville Richmond over the years.  (Raleigh was even smaller)

All stats from Wikipedia and look at the growth and population    Who were cities in 1900 not Charlotte?  in 1900 we were the size of Harrisburg today!  Look at the sizes in 1970 then looked what happened!   (and I well aware Richmond can not extend its boundaries like Charlotte but their metro area is smaller than Raleigh's is today) Put up a Raleigh and Richmond comparison and it is even more stark and shows how NC's largest cities have grown way faster than others in the region)

Charlotte

1900	18,091		56.5%
1910	34,014		88.0%
1920	46,338		36.2%
1930	82,675		78.4%
1940	100,899		22.0%
1950	134,042		32.8%
1960	201,564		50.4%
1970	241,420		19.8%
1980	315,474		30.7%
1990	395,934		25.5%
2000	540,828		36.6%
2010	731,424		35.2%
Est. 2017	859,035	[2]	17.4%

Richmond (where I read on their UP how Charlotte has no soul look at their size comparison back in the day)

1900	85,050		4.5%
1910	127,628		50.1%
1920	171,667		34.5%
1930	182,929		6.6%
1940	193,042		5.5%
1950	230,310		19.3%
1960	219,958		−4.5%
1970	249,621		13.5%
1980	219,214		−12.2%
1990	203,056		−7.4%
2000	197,790		−2.6%
2010	204,214		3.2%
Est. 2016	223,170	[52]	9.3%

 

and finally Nashville 

1900	80,865		6.2%
1910	110,364		36.5%
1920	118,342		7.2%
1930	153,866		30.0%
1940	167,402		8.8%
1950	174,307		4.1%
1960	170,874		−2.0%
1970	448,003		162.2%
1980	477,811		6.7%
1990	510,784		6.9%
2000	569,891		11.6%
2010	626,681		10.0%
Est. 2017	691,243	[4]	10.3%

Edited February 21, 2019 by KJHburg

[KJHburg]

^^^ Note above to Nashville's big pop in 1970 they merged the city with Davidson county

[archiham04]

19 hours ago, KJHburg said:

When I visited other cities including other regional cities people on their UP sites will say Charlotte doesn't have character and this and that.  BUT what they don't understand this city did not boom into this major city until late 70s early 1980s.    Case in point lets look at population on Charlotte Nashville Richmond over the years.  (Raleigh was even smaller)

All stats from Wikipedia and look at the growth and population    Who were cities in 1900 not Charlotte?  in 1900 we were the size of Harrisburg today!  Look at the sizes in 1970 then looked what happened!   (and I well aware Richmond can not extend its boundaries like Charlotte but their metro area is smaller than Raleigh's is today) Put up a Raleigh and Richmond comparison and it is even more stark and shows how NC's largest cities have grown way faster than others in the region)

I think that if someone were to tally the total number of structures demolished in Charlotte to the total number demolished in those cities, Charlotte would be far fewer.  We never had much to preserve.

[KJHburg]

11 minutes ago, archiham04 said:

I think that if someone were to tally the total number of structures demolished in Charlotte to the total number demolished in those cities, Charlotte would be far fewer.  We never had much to preserve.

Exactly the point I was making. Nashville and Richmond have more historical buildings in their downtowns than we do as they were bigger cities way before we were.  Of course we did tear down a few too many but we do have some great ones left uptown that are swallowed up in our very tall skyline.   Our historical mills have been largely saved as most of our historical neighborhoods.  Mostly.  

[KJHburg]

Here is the NC Medical College building (1907) turned into and added on and is now condos.  Great historical preservation uptown.  and 1st United Presbyterian Church 

http://www.cmhpf.org/S&Rs Alphabetical Order/surveys&rncmedical.htm

Church is from 1894 https://fupcc.org/about-us/our-history

from my above post in 1900 Charlotte was population 18,000 and by 1910 34,000 people lived here 

[HighRiseHillbilly]

1 minute ago, KJHburg said:

Here is the NC Medical College building (1907) turned into and added on and is now condos.  Great historical preservation uptown.  and 1st United Presbyterian Church 

http://www.cmhpf.org/S&Rs Alphabetical Order/surveys&rncmedical.htm

Church is from 1894 https://fupcc.org/about-us/our-history

from my above post in 1900 Charlotte was population 18,000 and by 1910 34,000 people lived here 

I heard that jazz series there wasn't bad. Dinner and a concert for 20 bucks. 

[Boricua]

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

Here is the NC Medical College building (1907) turned into and added on and is now condos.  Great historical preservation uptown.  and 1st United Presbyterian Church 

http://www.cmhpf.org/S&Rs Alphabetical Order/surveys&rncmedical.htm

Church is from 1894 https://fupcc.org/about-us/our-history

from my above post in 1900 Charlotte was population 18,000 and by 1910 34,000 people lived here 

So Charlotte had a medical school back in the day? What happened?

[KJHburg]

31 minutes ago, Boricua said:

So Charlotte had a medical school back in the day? What happened?

The school unfortunately only lasted 21 years.  Here is a brief history.  I would say money would have been the issue plus state support of the UNC medical school. 

https://www.cmstory.org/exhibits/robinson-spangler-north-carolina-room-image-collection-mecklenburg-image-collection/north

[King of the Queen City]

Not all old buildings are truly historic and not all old buildings have a lot of character.  Charlotte’s boom has been more recent and 1980s-Present is part of Charlotte history. All of the buildings in Uptown will one day be considered historic, as we are living in a truly historic era for this city. Charlotte has always been a city that looked more to the future than to the past, and I think that is mostly a good thing. We definitely should not forget the past and we have certainly demolished more history than we should have, but we are making history right now.

[QCxpat]

Making Modern Charlotte, a film produced by American City Business Journals, premiered on Friday 02/22/2019 on PBS Charlotte (WTVI). 

“It’s an important history that tells the story in their own words of the business people who built modern Charlotte ... How did Charlotte go from a sleepy small town in the 70’s to a major league city today? Hear the stories of how it happened and who made it happen. It’s a remarkable story of how a city with no seashore or mountain vistas created itself into a nationally recognized and sought-after destination."

FULL FEATURE: Making Modern Charlotte - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXXcOK7xBCo

▶ 57:28

7 hours ago - Uploaded by Charlotte Business Journal

"Making Modern Charlotte," an ACBJ production, tells the story of the people who transformed the Queen City ...