Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

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Industrial South 1879-1913

1907 - Expanding Healthcare

Charlotte Sanitorium opens in a five-story building at the corner of Seventh and Church Streets. The hospital can accommodate 100 patients. It is privately owned by a group of 30 physicians and surgeons. Charlotte Sanitorium will operate only until 1942, but will earn the respect of doctors and patients alike. 

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1901 - Birth of a Banking Giant

A group of real estate developers form a bank called the Southern States Trust. Its president is George Stephens. Through joining, or merging with other financial institutions, the bank's name will change several times. It will be the American Trust Company, American Commercial Bank, and North Carolina National Bank. Finally, it will emerge as a nation-wide leader: NationsBank then, after 1998, Bank of America.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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