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History Timeline

1923 - Good Works

Charlottean I.D. Blumenthal opens Radiator Specialties. He will begin a legacy of charity and goodwill, called philanthropy. The Blumenthal family will help raise money for community education and to care for the elderly. A modern performing arts center will bear the Blumenthal name.

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1939 - War in Europe

September 1, 1939 - After years of growing tensions among European countries, Germany invades neighboring Poland. This marks the beginning of World War II. Over the next two years, Germany will invade nine other countries. The U.S. will try to remain uninvolved, or neutral, in the fighting. 

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1915 - Movie Premiere

November 15, 1915 - Five thousand people crowd into the Academy of Music in downtown Charlotte. It is the premiere of the silent film Birth of a Nation. A 30-piece orchestra accompanies it. Based on a novel by Shelby's Thomas W. Dixon, the controversial D.W. Griffith movie glorifies the Ku Klux Klan and its role in the Reconstruction era that followed the Civil War.

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1923 - Efird's Store

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 1956, Efird's will be sold to its competitor, the Belk family stores.

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1929 - Gastonia Mill Strike

June 7, 1929 - In nearby Gastonia, there is a bitter struggle at the Loray textile mill. Organizers have come to Gastonia who want workers to join together in a group called a union. Some people believe the union can help workers. Others disagree. In a violent confrontation, Police Chief Aderholt is shot and killed. The trial will be moved to Mecklenburg County and seven people will be convicted of crimes. 

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1905 - Cornelius

Joe Cornelius never actually lived in the town named for him. As a resident of neighboring Davidson, he lent money in 1903 to the people who built the mill in the north Mecklenburg town that would bear his name. By next year, there will be a school in Cornelius.

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1897 - Elizabeth Neighborhood

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

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1887 - Home for Children

A failed school becomes home to 100 neglected or orphaned children. Thompson's Orphanage, organized by St. Peter's Episcopal Church, is only the second such facility in North Carolina. Cattle graze on 40 acres of pasture that surround the home. In later years the valuable land will be developed as Charlottetown Mall.

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1891 - First Suburb

May 18, 1891 - The old horse-drawn trolley cars of downtown Charlotte have been replaced. Now, there is a street railway unlike anything seen before in the Queen City. The trolley is powered by electricity! The new lines stretch all the way from downtown to a new neighborhood, called Dilworth, Charlotte's first suburb.Dilworth Neighborhood

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1908 - First Skyscraper

Charlotte's first steel-frame skyscraper is the tallest building in the state. The Independence Building towers 12 floors above the intersection of Charlotte's Trade and Tryon streets, called the Square. With its impressive marble lobby, the Independence Building is home to the Charlotte National Bank, the Woodall and Shepherd drugstore, and office space.

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