History of Charlotte

[Bikeguy]

[videtur quam contuor]

Top photo is Independence Boulevard angling across the right side toward CharlotteTowne Mall with Charlotte Memorial Hospital in the top center distance. The large one story buildings are car dealers. Young Ford in center right and Arnold Palmer Cadillac or its predecessor, name unremembered. Second Ward High School is the buildings in the grassy block closer to the center top. Second Street under construction with Brevard and Caldwell crossing. 1960's.

[Bikeguy]

Bottom photo is the steelwork for the new ( now demolished) Carolina Trade Mart.  In the background is the newly completed NCNB computer center..  

[JRNYP2C]

Took me a few seconds to put into perspective where and when that first photo was taken.  Pretty cool!

[SydneyCarton]

Not the history of Charlotte per se, but....

 

[King of the Queen City]

1 hour ago, SydneyCarton said:

Not the history of Charlotte per se, but....

 

I’m just going to go ahead and claim that Charlotte invented Christmas, just like we invented independence!

[KJHburg]

7 hours ago, King of the Queen City said:

I’m just going to go ahead and claim that Charlotte invented Christmas, just like we invented independence!

this is why Charlotte should have the tallest Christmas tree in the country.  If we can afford a billon dollar this and billon dollar that lets put one up on top of the Truist Tower that is another 300-400 feet tall and at the very top a huge T that could be a cross on it. 

Edited December 9, 2020 by KJHburg

[JRNYP2C]

8 hours ago, KJHburg said:

this is why Charlotte should have the tallest Christmas tree in the country.  If we can afford a billon dollar this and billon dollar that lets put one up on top of the Truist Tower that is another 300-400 feet tall and at the very top a huge T that could be a cross on it. 

We should be able to outdo Rockefeller Center in NYC.  Just think, the cost of shipping it would be so much less to here than Manhattan!!

[KJHburg]

some say this sign from the Charlotte Coliseum in the 1960s says it all,  about Charlotte.   (Now the BoPlex)   Quite a busy month that month. 

 

Edited December 10, 2020 by KJHburg

[Bikeguy]

2 hours ago, KJHburg said:

some say this sign from the Charlotte Coliseum in the 1960s says it all,  about Charlotte.   (Now the BoPlex)   Quite a busy month that month. 

 

Borrowing.... if ya don't mind.

 

[KJHburg]

1 minute ago, Bikeguy said:

Borrowing.... if ya don't mind.

 

I "borrowed" from Billy Graham Library so go for it. 

[King of the Queen City]

[JRCLT]

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=91463488

I think this is the coolest thing ever and I’m glad I found it again. It’s a timeline of the buildings built in Charlotte.

[tozmervo]

I can't figure out what the distinction is between blue and gray on the "Built" row

[Yo Diaz!]

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=91463488

I think this is the coolest thing ever and I’m glad I found it again. It’s a timeline of the buildings built in Charlotte.

Skyscraper Page is the first site like this I ever came across!
I check it for many cities from time to time. Charlotte needs some serious updating with all the construction of the past 10 years. They’ve added BoAT but don’t have Barings on there and Barings was done before BoAT started. Many others to add as well.
I also know of Emporis and Skyscraper City. Skyscraper City is how I found Urban Planet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ertley]

49 minutes ago, tozmervo said:

I can't figure out what the distinction is between blue and gray on the "Built" row

It *looks* to me as if it's merely a simple distinction between years. 

What this timeline made more evident to me is that clearly Charlotte has specific "boom" periods, early '20s (predictable) and, perhaps most significantly, the early '70s. It's crazy how many buildings that are still significant and recognizable date from the early '70s...and then the OPEC crisis and recession hit.

If I could cross-tabulate, something like this would be a fun option for a greenway trail,  perhaps separate from Charlotte history (maybe on linking trails), and a visible way of not only putting Charlotte's growth in perspective, but 'memorializing' those structures that have been torn down, and perhaps, just perhaps, engendering an appreciation for architecture and urban design in general.  

[kermit]

Back to the Future of Charlotte unrealized transit past. Here is a 1912 letter from the President of the Charlotte Rapid Transit Company to the regional president of the Southern Railroad. In the letter they propose leasing passenger rights so they can operate inter-urban service between Charlotte and Rock Hill (part of which would have run over the current Blue Line route). They proposed battery-operated cars!

 

Read more about the Charlotte Rapid Transit Company here: https://www.carolana.com/NC/Transportation/railroads/nc_street_railways_charlotte.html

(they only lasted 7 years and provided service to Chantilly and "Chatham Estates" (Country Club Heights?).

Worth noting who the general council of the company was, Cameron Morrison.

Edited December 16, 2020 by kermit

[Windsurfer]

Amazing footnote!  

Note Cameron Morris, General Council.  Despite being one of the higher-ups in The Klan, it's amazing how many things he was involved with. 

[archiham04]

21 hours ago, kermit said:

 

(they only lasted 7 years and provided service to Chantilly and "Chatham Estates" (Country Club Heights?).

 

"Chatham estates" refers to the subdivision that includes Pecan, Thomas , Plaza and Nassau.  Plaza-Midwood is actually a neighborhood name for three real estate subdivisions: Country Club Acres, Midwood Estates, and Chatham Estates... it has grown recently to include Plaza Hills.

[KJHburg]

This is personal family history in Charlotte.  Snippet from upcoming book  at the publisher Family History book all 350 pages of it. 

""This day in history in 1956, my mom and dad went on a blind date to the most exciting new thing in Charlotte....Park Road Shopping Center.  After checking out the new shopping center, the two rode through Myers Park to see all the houses decorated in full (one of the few places in Charlotte you could see such decorations).  The following October, my dad proposed to my mom in front of the Manor Theater. ""

My mom told me that at the time she first went to Park Road Shopping Center it was so unusual as first suburban shopping center in the QC  and first major shopping area outside of uptown with all its department stores and shops.   She said it was so crazy to see SO MANY stores in one place.   Couple years later Charlottetowne Mall would open (now where Metropolitan in midtown is) 

 My mom has lived long enough to see the birth of malls now to the decline of malls.  Mom loved Eastland Mall and in northern VA outside DC Springfield and Fair Oaks Malls.   Springfield Mall up there was torn down and redeveloped and Fair Oaks is still standing.    In other mall news Gwinnett County GA just bought the Gwinnett Place mall and likely will be torn down and redeveloped. 

This day in KJ family history was brought to you by Krispy Kreme providing tasty doughnuts to North Carolinians and the world since 1937. 

Edited December 17, 2020 by KJHburg

[rancenc]

Not sure if this video has been posted since it was uploaded in 2017, but here is a view of Charlotte from 1991.  The city's skyline has changed significantly in the last 30 years to say the least!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVmcF7qS3Vs

 

 

[King of the Queen City]

Part IV: Marty McFly visits 1950s era Charlotte

[NCMike1990]

Driving around uptown in 1996. At the start of the vid, check out how small the skyline is from I-77, which happened to be a construction zone. Youtube is the best for finding cool vids like this.

 

[King of the Queen City]

16 minutes ago, NCMike1990 said:

I-77, which happened to be a construction zone.

Some things never change...

[KJHburg]

^^^ I remember that Charlotte as I was taking my MBA classes at Cityflop I mean Cityfair uptown where the Truist/Hearst tower stands today on N College.  I am surprised I did not see my white Isuzu Trooper nicknamed the Refrigerator around town that very day. 

looked like this (not the actual vehicle of course)