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May 20, 1875 - It's the 100-year, or centennial, anniversary of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, a document that proclaimed freedom in 1775 from British rule. Masses of people from Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee and both Carolinas crowd into Charlotte for the celebration.
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.
September 25, 1895 - A retail store that began in Monroe, North Carolina seven years ago comes to Charlotte. The store owned by W.H. Belk will grow for more than 100 years, when it will include more than 400 department stores in the Southeast.W. H. Belk
An order of nuns called the Sisters of Mercy opens a 25-bed hospital. It is Charlotte's first hospital designated for white patients that admits blacks. Begun on First Street, Mercy Hospital will move to Fifth Street.
Until now, cotton grown in Mecklenburg County has traveled north to be made into cloth, or milled. At West Fifth and Graham streets, R.M. and D.W. Oates begin the Charlotte Cotton Mill. They employ 70 people, mostly women, to clean, spin and weave the cotton thread into cloth.
A private hospital begun by a group of Charlotte doctors becomes Presbyterian Hospital when its founders give the facility to the church in 1903. A nursing school will be part of the hospital as well.
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
May 20, 1909 - Charlotte's buildings are draped in flags as President William Howard Taft visits the Queen City. It's the annual celebration of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence -- Meck Dec Day.
Industry grows, attracting people away from farms to the cities of the South. Investors come, too, bringing jobs. Charlotte's population finally surpasses that of Raleigh, North Carolina's capital.
November 30, 1900 - Two automobiles, the first to arrive in the Queen City, are unloaded at Charlotte's rail depot. Businessman Oswald Barringer keeps one and sells the other to Dr. C.G. McManaway. The early autos are called locomobiles.
Most people come to call it the Jacob's Ladder School, nick-named for the outside stairways that criss-crossed the wooden building. Its official name is the Myers Street School, Charlotte's first graded school for black children.
From Charlotte's street corners, Philip L. Lance sells peanut butter and crackers. By 1926, the Lance Company will occupy a three-story building on South Boulevard.
Until now, firefighters in Charlotte have been volunteers. Two companies are white, one is black. Now, local elected lawmakers, called the City Council, create the town's first professional fire department. The four firemen who are hired each earn $25 per month.Horse-drawn steam engine
February 22, 1890 - Inventor Thomas Edison dines at the home of Edward Dilworth Latta, for whom the new Dilworth neighborhood is named. Soon, Latta will hire Edison's company, General Electric, to develop Charlotte's electric trolley line.
Electric-powered streetcars have made it possible for families to move to suburbs beyond Charlotte's downtown area. Now, the city has nine streetcar lines, with cars displaying billboards that encourage families to buy homes in new neighborhoods. Buy a home in Dilworth for rent money!
The Ford Motor Company in Charlotte produces 85 cars each day. The factory, which opened in 1915, will operate until the 1930s. There will also be a Ford repair shop in the 200 block of North College Street, operated by Doc Crowell and W.G. Frye.
October 19, 1923 - Efird's Department Store opens on North Tryon Street. The Efird family had operated the Charlotte Mercantile Company since the turn of the century, but now boasts it is the only store south of Philadelphia with escalators.
In a boarding house on East Boulevard, author Carson McCullers is at work. She will win national acclaim when her novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, is published in 1940. McCullers is one of many writers who spend time in Charlotte during their careers.
Even though the country is in the midst of a terrible economic downturn, the performing arts survive. The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra is founded. It will be followed in 1948 by the city's opera company.
June 4, 1941 - Many Southern cities still have rules, called blue laws, that prohibit certain activities on Sundays.