History of Charlotte

[Bikeguy]

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

from my old Charlotte postcard  collection Monday Quiz:  what was this building and where was it located?    Hint it is was uptown. 

and the winner will get 3 pack of the finest doughnuts ever made Krispy Kreme and season tickets to the KJ Burgers UP league games. 

Trade Mart.  Stonewall & College

[KJHburg]

12 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

Trade Mart.  Stonewall & College

We have our winner of your choice of 3 tasty KK doughnuts.

The convention center stands there today

[videtur quam contuor]

It is so ghastly it must be governmental/institutional.

Edited August 20, 2019 by tarhoosier

[DMann]

Was that the Sears store on 11th & Tryon?

 

[Bikeguy]

[videtur quam contuor]

That is an excellent photo from the 60's. The rail line in the left center is our current light rail ROW. There is the curve of rail that went to the downtown Southern station for passenger service that is elevated above Caldwell, all gone shortly after this. Querry-Spivey-McGee is the hardware store cat-a-corner from the Mart and was Diehl law firm and now Ally site. Pritchard church spire, YMCA and Strawn towers housing are visible on South Boulevard upper left. Tryon and South angle toward each other in the top part of the photo. Independence Boulevard, US 74, comes across from Tryon to South and makes an immediate 90º left turn and continues toward Stonewall where, out of this frame, it made a 90º right turn toward the current Midtown area. 277 would traverse this frame in the area nearly without structures in the middle ground. The two small blocks on the left that abut the rail line and have trees surrounding grass show what would have been former housing, I assume Brooklyn. Other than the structures I mention there is little that remains from the time of this photo.

[KJHburg]

3 hours ago, tarhoosier said:

It is so ghastly it must be governmental/institutional.

actually it was a privately built Carolina Trade Mart where salesmen set up little showrooms etc and they had trade shows there.  This photo is from 1975. 

[Bikeguy]

46 minutes ago, tarhoosier said:

That is an excellent photo from the 60's. The rail line in the left center is our current light rail ROW. There is the curve of rail that went to the downtown Southern station for passenger service that is elevated above Caldwell, all gone shortly after this. Querry-Spivey-McGee is the hardware store cat-a-corner from the Mart and was Diehl law firm and now Ally site. Pritchard church spire, YMCA and Strawn towers housing are visible on South Boulevard upper left. Tryon and South angle toward each other in the top part of the photo. Independence Boulevard, US 74, comes across from Tryon to South and makes an immediate 90º left turn and continues toward Stonewall where, out of this frame, it made a 90º right turn toward the current Midtown area. 277 would traverse this frame in the area nearly without structures in the middle ground. The two small blocks on the left that abut the rail line and have trees surrounding grass show what would have been former housing, I assume Brooklyn. Other than the structures I mention there is little that remains from the time of this photo.

Photo taken in late 1970 from the very new Jefferson First Union Tower

[tozmervo]

1 hour ago, tarhoosier said:

That is an excellent photo from the 60's. The rail line in the left center is our current light rail ROW. There is the curve of rail that went to the downtown Southern station for passenger service that is elevated above Caldwell, all gone shortly after this. Querry-Spivey-McGee is the hardware store cat-a-corner from the Mart and was Diehl law firm and now Ally site. Pritchard church spire, YMCA and Strawn towers housing are visible on South Boulevard upper left. Tryon and South angle toward each other in the top part of the photo. Independence Boulevard, US 74, comes across from Tryon to South and makes an immediate 90º left turn and continues toward Stonewall where, out of this frame, it made a 90º right turn toward the current Midtown area. 277 would traverse this frame in the area nearly without structures in the middle ground. The two small blocks on the left that abut the rail line and have trees surrounding grass show what would have been former housing, I assume Brooklyn. Other than the structures I mention there is little that remains from the time of this photo.

This look about right? 

[SgtCampsalot]

3 minutes ago, tozmervo said:

This look about right? 

Toz, thank you!

Hm, does the 74-Caldwell alignment explain this little elbow of Caldwell just outside 277 today?

 

[tozmervo]

28 minutes ago, SgtCampsalot said:

Toz, thank you!

Hm, does the 74-Caldwell alignment explain this little elbow of Caldwell just outside 277 today?

Apparently this is how I'm spending time at work today. As I understand it, the black lines follow the original hwy 74 route from Wilkinson to Independence. I think the only hint of this routing left today is that Carson, that part of Stonewall, and Charlottetowne are all paved with concrete. 

[archiham04]

3 hours ago, SgtCampsalot said:

Toz, thank you!

Hm, does the 74-Caldwell alignment explain this little elbow of Caldwell just outside 277 today?

 

To answer more directly, no the curve in Caldwell is different.  The Caldwell curve was the result of another vestige of the era of urban renewal: public housing projects

[videtur quam contuor]

toz: Well done. Yes, you are correct on both plots provided. I cannot say if the 277 plan was already in place and the empty area was reserved for future highway use at the time of this photo. 

[videtur quam contuor]

Many are aware that the streets east of Tryon are B-C-D, Brevard, Caldwell and Davidson. Between Tryon and Brevard there once was A Street. My guess is that it was to fit into the alphabetical range long after the historical names were applied. A street is visible on this map between Tryon and Brevard at Morehead from 1935. I recall A street before 277 when the American Cleaners company had a plant and shop at Morehead and A. That company is now at 1806 Graham and serving Charlotte for 98 years (so far).

https://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ncmaps/id/9432

American Cleaners history: https://americandrycleaners.net/about/

 

 

Edited August 20, 2019 by tarhoosier

[lit]

20 hours ago, tozmervo said:

Apparently this is how I'm spending time at work today. As I understand it, the black lines follow the original hwy 74 route from Wilkinson to Independence. I think the only hint of this routing left today is that Carson, that part of Stonewall, and Charlottetowne are all paved with concrete. 

There are a few more clues. The old bridge at I-77 near Wilkinson still exists. I saw some pics online a few years ago and haven’t been able to unsee them. Every time I’m over that way, that one bridge catches my eye.

This is the site where I saw the pics: http://www.gribblenation.org/2016/08/independence-boulevard-charlottes-first.html?m=1

[archiham04]

20 hours ago, tozmervo said:

Apparently this is how I'm spending time at work today. As I understand it, the black lines follow the original hwy 74 route from Wilkinson to Independence. I think the only hint of this routing left today is that Carson, that part of Stonewall, and Charlottetowne are all paved with concrete. 

This is great.  Only issue is I think the section between carson and stonewall is currently called South Blvd. It doesn't change to Caldwell until it gets to Stonewall.  Does anyone have good photos of the Independence/South/Morehead intersection ca2000?  This was grade separated originally and I recall pieces of the intersection still being in place when I moved to town in 2000, but I can't confirm.

[nakers2]

6 hours ago, lit said:

There are a few more clues. The old bridge at I-77 near Wilkinson still exists. I saw some pics online a few years ago and haven’t been able to unsee them. Every time I’m over that way, that one bridge catches my eye.

This is the site where I saw the pics: http://www.gribblenation.org/2016/08/independence-boulevard-charlottes-first.html?m=1

Wasn't that bridge recently replaced? I recall them doing some work on this exit a few months ago. 

Either way, I love "dead highways" or parts of highways. There's another dead ramp where the Encore Cadence apartments are near the Music Factory. It was abandoned well before they were constructed but would've gone right through the site if it existed today.

Edited August 21, 2019 by nakers2

[King of the Queen City]

[Spartan]

On 8/20/2019 at 1:13 PM, SgtCampsalot said:

Toz, thank you!

Hm, does the 74-Caldwell alignment explain this little elbow of Caldwell just outside 277 today?

 

 

 

On 8/20/2019 at 4:54 PM, archiham04 said:

To answer more directly, no the curve in Caldwell is different.  The Caldwell curve was the result of another vestige of the era of urban renewal: public housing projects

 

Responding to both: The slight curve in Caldwell is due to the realignment of the street. Before Independence, Brevard used to line up with South Blvd. Independence sliced everything up, and that particular dogleg of Indy lined up better with Caldwell. That's why there is a remnant segment of Caldwell just to the southeast of South Blvd in Dilworth. So, when I-277 was built, they converted Caldwell and Brevard into to a one way pair: Caldwell going north and Brevard going South between South Blvd and 12th St (and eventually tying into Parkwood in the 80s). IN 2004/5, Brevard was truncated as a through route in uptown due to the arena.  In 2007 or so, the interchange was reconfigured  to make Caldwell (mostly) 2 way in order to reconnect southbound Brevard traffic (from north of the arena) to South Blvd, and the onramp to 277 from Brevard was removed and the interchange reconfigured into its current arrangement - freeing up lots of land for development along Stonewall after the recession ended.

Side note, there's still a plan to remove the rest of the one way pair in the Center City Transportation Plan.

[nicholas]

On 8/21/2019 at 10:01 AM, lit said:

There are a few more clues. The old bridge at I-77 near Wilkinson still exists. I saw some pics online a few years ago and haven’t been able to unsee them. Every time I’m over that way, that one bridge catches my eye.

This is the site where I saw the pics: http://www.gribblenation.org/2016/08/independence-boulevard-charlottes-first.html?m=1

These are the bridges that are still in use from the original Independence Blvd routing, shown in the article.

This is the exit ramp from east-bound Wilkinson onto 77 south.  It uses the old bridge over the creek, but grass has somewhat disguised the unused part of it.

This is the exit ramp from 277 onto Carson over the train tracks.

Edited August 24, 2019 by nicholas

[Scribe]

I stuck my phone through a cutout in the plywood at the Carolina Theater construction site and this is the first picture that I snapped.

The plaque gives some cool history of the address 220 N Tryon St, thought I would share...

[videtur quam contuor]

Thinking about the textile heritage of our city and decided to list here the remaining mill buildings from the glory era of late 1800's to early 1900's.

These mills remain and are in some state of renovation or reuse:

Savona, Atherton, Charlotte (Speizman), Alpha, Optimist, Chadbourn, Highland, Johnston, Mecklenburg-(just north of Johnston), Hoskins

Ada Mill-Does this stand? It was 630 W 11th, in the triangle of Brookshire and the Brookshire entrance ramp.

Here is a list of the cotton mills in Charlotte : http://www.cmhpf.org/essays/cottonmills.html

Can you believe that investors built twelve of these structures, with campuses and villages in some cases, in just 15 years? Others outside that leap of construction.  Population went from 11,500 in 1890 to 34,000 in 1910. Tripled the population, nearly completely because of these industrial investments. Our city is hot now but Holy Moly nothing like then.

 

[videtur quam contuor]

In addition, the people in Charlotte at that time saw electricity and light bulbs for the first time, electric trolleys, automobiles, the earliest telephones and many other devices and inventions that were awe inspiring at the time though we accept them as unremarkable today. What a time.

My grandparents lived through this time (not in this state) and change was difficult for them. All four of my grandparents, b. 1869-1881,  never drove a car. My country grandfather drove only a tractor. 

[KJHburg]

Charlotte and this region has a done a great job preserving our old mills and factories (save for Kannapolis) but every ring city or ring town and the big QC itself has examples of textile mills.  One of my favorite outside Charlotte is the Loray Mill in Gastonia.

Plus Camp North End is saving the only auto plant ever operated in region. 

[NCMike1990]

Found this documentary on NoDa from the 90s. Talks about the changes happening and rebirth in the neighborhood after the decline in the area. The documentary is heavy on interviews but it does show how NoDa looked in 1997. Very interesting stuff.