Cost of Living
Click to see the difference in prices of various items from 1903 compared to the cost of the same items in 2017.
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Turn of the 20th Century: Life in Charlotte 1900 - 1910
Ice and Coal Advertisement
The availability of ice was highly prized by families living in warm climates like Charlotte. It helped preserve food longer. Businesses that sold ice also sold coal during the winter months. Coal was the major fuel source in the early part of the 20th century. It heated both stoves and furnaces.
School Clothes
Children's clothes varied in fabric but not in design. Girls usually wore an apron or pinafore over their dresses to keep the latter clean. Boys wore knickers or shorts. All wore thick, heavy wool stockings.
Another class posing with their school teacher.
New Words
These words are added to the Oxford Dictionary prior to 1910:
Chassis
Club Sandwich
Gamma Ray Orthodontist
Peanut Butter
Rainforest
Speedway
Tractor
Icebox Instead of Refrigerators
Refrigerators in homes would not be seen until around 1913, and only in homes where the owner could afford one. Most people relied on an icebox to keep their food cold. Kept in the kitchen, an icebox resembled a piece of furniture. A block of ice was placed in the lower compartment to cool the food above. The melted ice collected in a tray underneath the icebox. Everyday, someone in the house would empty the tray. Once a week or when neccessary, the iceman would deliver a block of ice to the house.
High School Graduates
The senior class of Charlotte High School of 1900 posed together. with Superintendent Alexander Graham. Young women wore lacy, white summer dresses with high collars.
Rural Life
According to the 1900 United States Census, 55,628 reside in Mecklenburg County. Of these, only 18,091 live in Charlotte. There are 4,190 farms in the county, and that’s where most people live. A farm laborer earns approximately $14.64 a month.
1900 Residential Rents
Take a look at how inexpensive it was to rent a house a hundred years ago. This is a copy of an advertisement from the 1903 Charlotte Observer. A family could rent a seven-room house in uptown Charlotte for $25.00 a month in the early 1900s. In one hundred years, the rent for this same house will be $2000.00
Shoes
Different shoe styles are not the norm in 1903. Based on this 1910 advertisement, women had some choices when it came to shoes, but not as many as we do today. The laced up boots seen here were in vogue in 1903 until the late 1900s. To fasten the buttons a hook was designed to help accomplish this arduous, daily task.
Realities in 1900
This is a picture of the Atherton Mill on East Boulevard. Today the building houses condominiums. Until 1901, children under the age of 12 could work in textile mills. After the law changed, children had to attend school. However, this did not apply to children of widowed mothers, who worked to provide support for the family. There are 676 children working in Mecklenburg County in 1900. Their average annual salary is $99.00.
Other realities that would seem harsh include: