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St. Peter's Episcopal Church was first built in 1857 then rebuilt between 1880 and 1892. Located at the corner of 7th and North Tryon Streets, it is the oldest Episcopal Church in Charlotte. Physical Description: 8x10 glossy Publisher: Unknown
St. Mark's Lutheran Church is the oldest Evangelical Lutheran Church in Charlotte. Worship services were first held in 1859. The church occupied a number of facilities, including a church on North Tryon Street prior to moving to Queens Road.
Surveyors mark off the locations of Charlotte's streets in a block pattern called a grid. The four sections defined by the crossing of Trade and Tryon streets will evolve into four areas, called wards. In years to come, each of the wards will change tremendously.
With the Revolutionary War now over, citizens work hard for a better life in the growing Charlotte- Mecklenburg communities.
Dr. Caldwell has practiced medicine in Charlotte for more than 20 years. But doctors still don't know how diseases are transmitted. Without realizing it, Dr. Caldwell treats a patient and brings a deadly infection home to his own family. His wife, Harriet, and three children will die.
March 3, 1845 - The U.S. Congress agrees to set aside, or appropriate, money to rebuild the Charlotte Mint. The facility, which made coins from gold mined in North Carolina, was destroyed by a fire last July. Congress will allow $35,000 to be spent on the project.
Doctors and lawyers, printers and teachers, miners and tradesmen all make their homes in Charlotte. In the surrounding Mecklenburg county, flour and grain are milled and gold is mined. Taverns welcome travelers, and a weekly newspaper keeps citizens informed.
The First Charlotte Bank opens. But not everyone in Mecklenburg needs a bank. During the first 50 years of U.S. history, settlers in the rough wilderness, or backcountry, have had little use for money. Many people trade for what their families need.
Before the railroad came through in 1852, the little village was known simply as Morrow's Turnout. Now, the town south of Charlotte is incorporated as Pineville. In 1903, it will have a cotton mill.
The Carolina Central Railroad connects Charlotte to Wilmington, nearly 200 miles away. Within two years the railroad will reach from Richmond, Virginia to Atlanta, Georgia. The cotton trade booms as textiles made in the region travel to markets beyond.Steam Engine
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.