Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

You are here

Home

History Timeline

1891 - Cherry Neighborhood

Plans are underway for a new neighborhood called Cherry. Black families who want to move away from crowded rental housing downtown can now buy or rent cottages with enough land to plant gardens. In later years, some people will believe Cherry was built to house the servants who worked for white homeowners in Myers Park. But the truth is that Cherry was designed first, by at least a decade.Cherry Neighborhood

Date of Event:

1882 - First School for African Americans

The first school for 253 black students opens in the basement of the black community's Episcopal Church. An important advocate for blacks arrives: Dr. J.T. Williams, a renowned doctor and educator.

Date of Event:

1912 - Bright Lights, Small City

Some civic leaders decide they want downtown Charlotte to resemble the brightly lit avenues of New York City. Charlotte removes the trees that grace its downtown streets. But no amount of artificial light can replace what has been lost.

Date of Event:

1905 - Cornelius

Joe Cornelius never actually lived in the town named for him. As a resident of neighboring Davidson, he lent money in 1903 to the people who built the mill in the north Mecklenburg town that would bear his name. By next year, there will be a school in Cornelius.

Date of Event:

1897 - Elizabeth Neighborhood

Other suburbs spring up around Charlotte's center city. Elizabeth is named for Ann Elizabeth Watts, whose husband was a Durham tobacco executive. Western Heights grows near the school that will one day become Johnson C. Smith University.Elizabeth College

Date of Event:

1887 - Home for Children

A failed school becomes home to 100 neglected or orphaned children. Thompson's Orphanage, organized by St. Peter's Episcopal Church, is only the second such facility in North Carolina. Cattle graze on 40 acres of pasture that surround the home. In later years the valuable land will be developed as Charlottetown Mall.

Date of Event:

1891 - First Suburb

May 18, 1891 - The old horse-drawn trolley cars of downtown Charlotte have been replaced. Now, there is a street railway unlike anything seen before in the Queen City. The trolley is powered by electricity! The new lines stretch all the way from downtown to a new neighborhood, called Dilworth, Charlotte's first suburb.Dilworth Neighborhood

Date of Event:

1908 - First Skyscraper

Charlotte's first steel-frame skyscraper is the tallest building in the state. The Independence Building towers 12 floors above the intersection of Charlotte's Trade and Tryon streets, called the Square. With its impressive marble lobby, the Independence Building is home to the Charlotte National Bank, the Woodall and Shepherd drugstore, and office space.

Date of Event:

1902 - I'll have a Coke.

April 15, 1902 - The first Coca-Cola bottled in the Carolinas is sold in Charlotte. Sales of the carbonated soft drink are modest. Three years later the sale of liquor is outlawed in Charlotte, and statewide prohibition follows in 1909. Coke's popularity increases and will remain strong into future decades, even after prohibition is repealed. 

Date of Event:

1893 - Textile Empire

D.A. Thompkins has designed textile mills -- the Alpha, the Ada and the Victor -- for other owners. Now, he opens one of his own. The Atherton Mill on South Boulevard at Tremont Avenue is the first Charlotte mill to be located beyond the boundaries of downtown.

Date of Event: