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| Charlotte Apartment Locator Services : Charlotte Apartments |  | Contents | |
| History |
| Charlotte was founded in the 1750s at the intersection
of two Indian trading paths, including a north-south route termed
the Great Wagon Road followed closely today by U.S. Route 21.
In the 18th century, the Great Wagon Road led settlers of Scotch-Irish
and German descent from Pennsylvania into the Carolina foothills.
These settlers were known for rugged industriousness and individualism
due, in part, to their Presbyterian conviction. For much of
its history, Charlotte has been a predominantly Presbyterian
city. The crossroads at which the village of Charlotte Town
was founded, which sat atop a long rise in the Piedmont landscape,
today is the heart of modern downtown Charlotte; the former
trading paths are now known as Trade and Tryon Streets, the
latter named for William Tryon, a royal governor of colonial
North Carolina. |
Charlotte Skyline |
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| The village, established by Thomas Polk, uncle of United States
President James K. Polk, was named for Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz,
the German wife of British King George III. |
| The filiality to King George and his consort was short-lived,
however. On May 20, 1775, townsmen signed a set of resolves
that later became known as the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.
A copy was sent to the Continental Congress a year later. Though
Thomas Jefferson would deny having borrowed content from the
Mecklenburg declaration, his 1776 Declaration of Independence
featured language similar to the Charlotte document. |
| Charlotte played a critical role during the Revolutionary
War, site of encampment for both the American and British main
armies. During a series of skirmishes between British troops
and fiesty Charlotteans the village earned a lasting nickname,
"Hornets' Nest," so dubbed by a frustrated Lord General
Cornwallis. Charlotte was an ideological hotbed of revolutionary
sentiment, an enduring legacy proclaimed today throughout the
city in the nomenclature of such landmarks as Independence Boulevard,
Independence High School, Freedom Park, Freedom Drive, et al.
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| The Civil War largely bypassed Charlotte, though the city
was the site of the Confederate Cabinet's final meeting. Confederate
president Jefferson Davis was in Charlotte when he received
news of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. |
| Charlotte's history as a financial center is extensive. In
1838 the U.S. Congress established a branch U.S. Mint there,
because of the gold deposits found in the area. Additionally,
an 1836 executive order issued by President Andrew Jackson called
a specie circular had mandated all land transactions be conducted
in cash, thus incresing the need for minted money. The Charlotte
mint, which produced coins in denominations of $2.50, $5, $10,
and after 1849, $1, was active until 1861, when Confederate
forces seized the mint facility at the outbreak of the Civil
War. The mint was not reopened at the end of the war, but the
building survives today, albeit in a different location, and
now houses the Mint Museum. Because of the relatively small
mintage the Charlotte mint produced annually, surviving pieces
are prized in the field of American numismatics. |
| The city's banking industry achieved greater prominence in
the 1970s, largely under the leadership of financier Hugh McColl,
Jr. McColl transformed North Carolina National Bank (NCNB) into
a formidable national player that, through a series of aggressive
acquisitions, would eventually become Bank of America. Today,
Charlotte is the second biggest banking center in the country,
after New York City. |
| Charlotte's penchant for looking ahead -- a drive for economic
development that kicked into particularly high gear during the
mid-20th century -- has created something of a historical apathy
in the city. Most traces of antebellum Charlotte are long gone,
and preservationists often struggle to maintain landmarks in
the face of modern-minded boosters, a key reason Charlotte is
often regarded as a "new" American city despite the
fact it is actually one of the oldest. |
| Harvey Gantt, the first African-American mayor of Charlotte,
was elected in 1987 and served to 1991. Richard Vinroot served
as mayor from 1991 to 1995. Patrick McCrory succeeded him in
office and, in 2003, won re-election to a fifth term. |
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