Charlotte, North Carolina

Charlotte, the seat of North Carolina's Mecklenburg County, has been engaged in trade since its founding. It is now the largest city in North Carolina, with an estimated population of more than 897,720 in 2022, and is the third largest banking center in the United States. The city's wealth and financial institutions make it an attractive headquarters for a diverse range of businesses. Since the time of the American Revolution, the citizens of Charlotte, while participating vigorously and effectively in national and world events, have taken pride in their city and their way of life.

Landscape

Charlotte is located in the central or Piedmont area of North Carolina, not far from the South Carolina border. The city lies east of the Catawba River, which was dammed by Duke Power Company in the 1960s, forming the 32-acre Lake Norman. On clear days, residents see mountains beyond the city skyscrapers. Charlotte is 750 feet above sea level and enjoys four seasons with normal fluctuations in weather. Its streets and parks are lined with handsome native willow oaks and other trees. Unfortunately, smog has been a problem in the city, with Charlotte ranked by the American Lung Association among the ten smoggiest cities in the United States in 2010 and 2011; however, smog levels have improved since then in response to state and federal measures, and the city did not appear on the list of twenty-five most polluted citities in 2023.

Three interstate highways bring motorists to Charlotte. Interstate 77 runs straight through the city from north to south; I-277 circles it; and the east-west I-85 connects with I-77 just outside the city limits. The Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, east of the city, is easily accessible by four routes, including I-77 and I-85.

The oldest and most important section of the city is called Uptown. Trade Street (running southeast to northwest) crosses Tryon Street (running southwest to northeast) at a right angle, forming one side of The Square, the historic center of Uptown. These streets are home to the main civic buildings and institutions of Charlotte, the major banks, and centers of arts and entertainment.

Other notable parts of Charlotte are the historic Fourth Ward and the South End. Post–Civil War Charlotte was divided into four voting districts, or wards. The northwest ward, called Fourth Ward, is an intact Victorian neighborhood of seventy-five houses restored in the 1970s, accessible and well marked. The South End features boulevards, antebellum and postbellum mansions, and the former US Mint, which has been transformed into an art museum.

People

The first known inhabitants of what is now Charlotte were people from the Catawba tribes, and the first European settlers were Scotch-Irish and Germans moving from Pennsylvania. As wealth came to early Charlotte, slavery came also—the city has had a significant African American population for more than 200 years. After slavery was abolished, there were essentially two parallel societies in Charlotte, with separate working, business, and professional classes, separate schools, and separate residential sections, such as the traditionally African American Grier Heights and Cherry neighborhoods.

More than half of Charlotte residents attend church, mostly Protestant denominations. Charlotte is a major center for the denominations that make up Southern Presbyterianism, and it is home to the headquarters of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, the Advent Christian Church, and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.

Before the Civil War, there were only nine Jewish families living in Charlotte, but the 1890s brought an influx of Eastern European Jews. The first Jewish congregation was formed in the city, and the new arrivals began to integrate into the city's businesses and neighborhoods. Today, Shalom Park, a 54-acre site in southeast Charlotte, is home to a remarkable assortment of Jewish institutions: the Conservative Temple Israel, the Reform Temple Beth El, Jewish Family Services, the Jewish Federation, and the Levine Jewish Community Center.

Economy

Charlotte's economy is robust. Ranked behind only New York and San Francisco as a financial center as of 2024, Charlotte is home to several major banks, including Bank of America. In 2022, the Bank of America controlled $2.44 trillion in assets. However, banking is not the city's only business: the Charlotte metropolitan area is also home to other Fortune 500 companies, such as Lowe's, steel producer Nucor, and Sonic Automotive. Food companies such as Chiquita, Harris Teeter, and Carolina Foods are also located there, as are multiple offices of NASCAR.

Located midway between Atlanta and Washington, Charlotte is an important transportation hub for both air and rail freight. Charlotte Douglas International Airport is one of the busiest in the nation, and in 2014 construction was completed on a $92 million intermodal complex at the airport run by Norfolk Southern Railway, which transfers freight between trucks and trains. The Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) provides public transportation in the city through the Sprinter bus rapid transit system, the LYNX Blue Line light rail system, and the CityLYNX Gold Line streetcar line.

Tens of thousands of students attend the city's universities: University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Queens University, Johnson C. Smith University, Johnson & Wales University, and Central Piedmont Community College. A strong cultural community supports the Charlotte Symphony, the Charlotte Philharmonic Orchestra, Opera Carolina, the Charlotte Repertory Theatre, the Charlotte Dance Theatre and the Children's Theatre of Charlotte. All but the Children's Theatre are resident companies of the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center.

Charlotte is home to several professional sports teams, including the NFL's Carolina Panthers, the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats (renamed the Hornets in 2014), the AHL's Charlotte Checkers, and the Charlotte Knights, an AAA affiliate for the Chicago White Sox. Golf courses abound in Charlotte, including the Tournament Players Club, where the World Senior Invitational is held each May. Charlotte is also a hub for NASCAR racing enthusiasts, with the Lowe's Motor Speedway located 12 miles north of town.

Landmarks

The Square itself, in Uptown Charlotte, is a landmark, with Raymond Kaskey's bronze sculptures at its corners, each symbolizing a facet of Charlotte's history. Nearby is the Old Settler's cemetery, the interactive Levine Museum of the New South, and the state-of-the-art science museum Discovery Place. The modern Mint Museum of Craft Design is found on Tryon Street, at the former site of the US Mint. The original Greek-Revival Mint building was moved to Randolph Road where it houses the Mint Museum of Art, with collections centering on art of the Americas.

Historic homes include one owned by a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Hezekiah Alexander, whose eight-acre homestead is part of the Charlotte Museum of History. Another is Rosedale, an 1815 manor home and plantation that figures prominently on guided tours.

History

In 1758, restless Scottish and Irish settlers journeyed southwest from Philadelphia into the wilderness and chose, for a new settlement, a crossroads where two Indian trading posts were already flourishing. They named the roads "Trade Street," for the trading posts and their own hopes for the future, and "Tryon Street" for William Tryon, then the Royal Governor of North Carolina. (These names remain, and the two original roads still shape "Uptown" Charlotte after 250 years.) German immigrants soon joined the original settlers, and in 1761, the year King George III of Great Britain married Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, it seemed appropriate and politic to name the new crossroads town to commemorate this event. (In further celebration, the county became "Mecklenburg.")

When the American Revolution began, however, the citizens of Charlotte were no longer supporters of King George or his government; they had become radical American patriots. In 1975, delegates from throughout North Carolina gathered in Charlotte and, on May 31, signed the "Mecklenberg Resolves," a formal list of the British government's offenses against the liberty of free men in its colonies and a declaration of American independence from Britain. They sent the signed document to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia hoping to provoke a similar declaration. Unfortunately, no one kept a copy of the document, and the influence of the Mecklenberg Resolves on the language of the Declaration of Independence signed in Philadelphia one year later remains in dispute among historians. However, the loyalties of the citizens of Charlotte were never in dispute. In 1780, when the fortunes of war brought the British commander Lord Cornwallis to North Carolina, he characterized Charlotte under occupation as "a hornets' nest of rebellion."

In 1799, news spread throughout the United States and Europe that a 17-pound nugget of gold had been discovered in Mecklenberg County, North Carolina. North America's first gold rush followed. Charlotte, the county seat, filled rapidly with fortune-seekers. Although few found gold, many stayed in Charlotte and added to the small city's prosperity by other means. When in 1837 Charlotte was chosen as headquarters of the southern branch of the United States Mint, an already thriving commercial city received national recognition.

The outbreak of the Civil War, however, and North Carolina's secession from the Union, brought dramatic change to Charlotte. Trade was limited by boycotts and the war, and the US Mint building became a hospital for wounded Confederate soldiers. As war destroyed or crippled the major cities of the Confederacy to the east, west, and south, Charlotte remained intact. In 1865, as defeat loomed, the final meeting of Confederate President Jefferson Davis's cabinet took place in Charlotte.

After the Civil War, Charlotte retained and reinforced its position as a railroad hub and a distribution point for trade between the Mid-Atlantic states and the southeast. The city's colleges and universities expanded along with its workforce. During the twentieth century, raw and manufactured goods of all kinds passed through Charlotte: textiles, hosiery, dyes, machinery and electrical equipment, furniture, cardboard, flour, fertilizer, and cottonseed oil. At the start of the twenty-first century, diversification continued to contribute to Charlotte's commercial strength, although banking and credit are the city's major source of wealth and recognition.

Bibliography

Burns, Hilary. "Charlotte Drops to Third-Largest Banking Hub in U.S." Charlotte Business Journal, 23 May 2017, www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2017/05/23/charlotte-drops-tothird-largest-banking-hub-in-u-s.html. Accessed 23 Oct. 2017.

"Charlotte City, North Carolina." QuickFacts, United States Census Bureau, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/charlottecitynorthcarolina/RHI725221 Accessed 21 Feb. 2024.

"Charlotte, NC." Forbes, 2017, www.forbes.com/places/nc/charlotte/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2024.

Graves, William, and Heather A. Smith, editors. Charlotte, NC: The Global Evolution of a New South City. U of Georgia P, 2010.

"Local History." Charlotte-Mecklenberg Historic Landmarks Commission, 2017, landmarkscommission.org/local-history/. Accessed 23 Oct. 2017.