Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

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History Timeline

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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1902 - I'll have a Coke.

April 15, 1902 - The first Coca-Cola bottled in the Carolinas is sold in Charlotte. Sales of the carbonated soft drink are modest. Three years later the sale of liquor is outlawed in Charlotte, and statewide prohibition follows in 1909. Coke's popularity increases and will remain strong into future decades, even after prohibition is repealed. 

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1893 - Textile Empire

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.

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1882 - A Military Institute

September 11, 1882 - Finally, tax disputes that have lasted seven years are resolved and Charlotte's Military Institute can enroll its 480 students.

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1913 - Successful Crackers

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. The company that began by selling its products door-to-door will offer its snacks from thousands of grocery store shelves for generations to come.

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1905 - Roosevelt Visits

October 19, 1905By the time President Theodore Roosevelt visits Charlotte, the town has begun to transform itself into a New South city. It boasts cotton mills, its first suburbs, an electric trolley system, colleges, a concert hall and a library. Roosevelt visits Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, widow of Civil War hero General Stonewall Jackson, and applauds Charlotte's abounding prosperity.Mrs. Thomas Stonewall Jackson

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1900 - Cast in Iron

Charlotte Pipe and Foundry opens. The business will thrive, and become so successful in decades to come that it will claim itself the oldest cast iron and pipe business in America.

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