Charlotte 240 is a digital history project composed of a broad collection of short essays that explore local history written by a variety of local historians and authors. We will continue to add entries to the database.
The borders of Mecklenburg County were formed over a period of 80 years, started in 1762 and finalized in 1842 when the southeastern portion was split off to create Union County. Although maps of various parts of the county were…
When thinking of financial centers, cities like New York and London immediately come to mind, as do names like Citibank and Goldman Sachs. However, another city and another name should also come to mind – Charlotte and Bank of America. …
The Biddleville neighborhood emerged two miles northwest of center Charlotte in 1871 on land purchased by the Reverend Stephen Mattoon, first president of what was then called Biddle University. The university was founded in 1867 by white Presbyterian ministers as…
WBT Radio began operations in Charlotte, NC in 1920. By 1933, the wattage of WBT Radio increased to 50,000 watts, making it one of the most powerful radio stations in the United States. That same year, announcer Charles Crutchfield joined the…
Whether you believe that the people of Mecklenburg made a full-throated declaration of independence on 20 May 1775 or merely anti-British resolutions of less importance on 31 May 1775, what is not in dispute is that in the summer of…
The Catawba Indian Nation is one of the indigenous Indian tribes that settled the Carolina Piedmont over 10,000 years ago. They hunted and farmed their ancestral lands in the Piedmont area of North Carolina and South Carolina. The Catawba were…
How did Charlotte, a small southern city become the second largest financial center in the United States? The answer is found in a mix history, industry and legal quirks. Charlotte’s earliest financial boom started with gold. In 1799, just outside…
The mid-nineteenth century saw potters migrating from South Carolina to North Carolina. Thomas Gay arrived in Union County in the 1850s and probably trained his brother-in-law Nimrod Broom. Broom then trained his brother-in-law William Franklin Outen, who moved from South…
The beginnings of the Confederate Navy Yard in Charlotte started in 1860 when a foundry was established at the intersection of East Trade Street and the North Carolina Railroad. John Wilkes, a prominent Charlotte citizen, owned a majority of the…
On Charlottetowne Avenue in Charlotte, North Carolina, along what used to be a dirt road, sits the second oldest blues music venue in the United States. Since 1973, the Double Door Inn has hosted some of the best and most…
In the mid-eighteenth-century, numerous Europeans immigrated to the area of the Carolina Piedmont that became Mecklenburg County. Most of these settlers were Scots-Irish and Germans. The Scots-Irish originated from the Scottish Lowlands, the area between England and the Scottish Highlands.…
The single biggest piece of evidence against the existence of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence – or put differently, the lack of evidence in its favor – is the fact that no original copy of the document exists. The original…
The decisive piece of evidence that would settle the Mecklenburg Controversy once and for all – an original copy of the declaration itself – has never been produced, as all the originals were lost in a fire in 1800. Therefore,…
In 1934, Billy Graham, the son of Charlotte dairy farmers, answered the altar call at a tent revival in Charlotte put on by traveling evangelist Mordecai Ham. Improbably, he grew up to be one of the world’s most famous religious…
The Florence Crittenton Home in Charlotte has beginnings in New York City, where in 1833 a rescue home was established to help “poor and unfortunate girls” leave their lives of sin. The work being done in New York soon spread…
In the colony of North Carolina, new counties developed as more and more settlers moved into unoccupied western parts. The area that is now Mecklenburg County was originally Bladen County, which was formed out of New Hanover in 1734. As…
Charlotte, a landlocked, mid-sized southern city, is an unlikely candidate for a world-class financial center. However, despite these hurdles, Charlotte is the second largest banking center in the United States, largely because of the First Union National Bank. First Union’s…
Good Samaritan Hospital was the first private hospital in North Carolina built exclusively for the treatment of Charlotte’s black citizens, and is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. Located in Charlotte’s Third Ward neighborhood between…
This year the Charlotte Museum of History is celebrating the 240th year of the Hezekiah Alexander Home Site. To celebrate these 240 years, The Charlotte Museum of History is launching Charlotte 240, a multi-media exhibit exploring the Charlotte- Mecklenburg Region’s…
Hugh MacRae Morton (1921 – 2006) looms large in recent North Carolina history. Over the course of his life, he took on many roles in his native Old North State – owner and commercial developer of Grandfather Mountain, conservationist, tourism…
James C. Hemphill, Jr. is remembered by the architectural community as a pioneer in the practice of architecture not only for the significant buildings for which he was responsible, but also for mentoring other architects and for shaping fundamental guidelines…
Jane Renwick Smedburg, Jeanie to close friends and family, was born 22 November 1827 in New York City. No one in her social circle imagined that the sixth child of Charles Gustavus and Isabella, a prominent merchant family, would eventually reside in…
When Charlotteans think of the most prominent male figures in their city’s early beginnings, names such as Hezekiah Alexander, Ephraim Brevard, Andrew B. Springs and Edward D. Latta immediately come to mind. Along with those stately figures of the Queen…
King Hagler (ca. 1749-1763), as the English called the tribal Catawba chieftain, was a powerful ally to the English and much respected among the Piedmont tribes along the Catawba River. He was wisely courted by the early Colonial officials in…
Latin American Contemporary Art Projects, or LaCa, opened in Charlotte, North Carolina in March 2013 in the FreeMoreWest neighborhood, a rapidly growing and transforming area just west of Uptown. LaCa has a bold vision to become an international resource for…
Which city was home to a revolution in U.S. steelmaking? Most people would likely answer Pittsburgh, but they would be wrong. The revolution occurred from the unlikeliest of places – the Cotswold Building on Randolph Road in Charlotte. This is…
The story of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence could have quietly faded away, becoming at best a local curiosity, except for some incredible developments around 1819. Around that time, Dr. Joseph Alexander, son of John McKnitt Alexander, found among his…
The influx of craft beer brewers in Charlotte, North Carolina, in recent years has become a true delight for the area’s beer drinkers. Numerous local breweries offer up their own take on common beer styles such as ales, lagers, pilsners…
Nov. 2 is birthday of James K. Polk, born in 1795 in a log cabin in what is now Pineville. The first of 10 children of Samuel and Jane Knox Polk, he would go on to become governor of Tennessee…
Born Randolph Crane on Jan. 23, 1898, the actor Randolph Scott was born to a very prestigious family in the Queen City. Scott’s father George was a city alderman, Chairman of Charlotte’s Finance Committee, and CEO of an accounting firm…
By the time Elvis performed in the Charlotte Coliseum in 1956, the seeds of Rock & Roll were already planted in the Queen City. Nappy Brown, a Charlotte native, hit the national Rhythm & Blues (R&B) charts in 1954 with…
Sonia Handelman Meyer worked alongside the greats of photography during the 1940s, creating quiet masterpieces. As the lone employee of the Photo League, Meyer was on the front lines for the cultural upheaval sweeping through America during the late 1940s. When the…
Health care facilities are commonplace in modern day Charlotte. However, in the early days of the Queen City, medical services were not as prevalent. Rather than going to a hospital, townspeople accessed medical care through doctors’ house calls. The predecessor…
At the end of 1778, the British Army was back in New York City, in essentially the same strategic position it held in 1776. The war in the northern states had reached a stalemate. In addition, Britain was at war…
The Battle of Kings Mountain on 7 October 1780 was a hard-fought victory for patriot militiamen from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Thomas Jefferson later called that battle “the joyful annunciation of the turn of the tide of…
In part 1, Coming Together, we learned militia from South and North Carolina, along with some from Virginia and Georgia, joined forces to prepare for battle with the British forces. American militia leaders developed a strategy for attack and after…
Among the earliest settlers in Anson County, in what is now Mecklenburg County, was the Spratt family. Around 1750, Thomas Spratt (1685-1757), along with James, Andrew and Samuel – probably his brothers – and their families came down from Pennsylvania…
William Richardson Davie was one of North Carolina’s most influential citizens. He fought bravely during the American Revolution, helped start the first state university, was elected governor and rose to national prominence as a statesman who helped the United States…
