Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

You are here

Home

History Timeline

1907 - Expanding Healthcare

Charlotte Sanitorium opens in a five-story building at the corner of Seventh and Church Streets. The hospital can accommodate 100 patients. It is privately owned by a group of 30 physicians and surgeons. Charlotte Sanitorium will operate only until 1942, but will earn the respect of doctors and patients alike. 

Date of Event:

1901 - Birth of a Banking Giant

A group of real estate developers form a bank called the Southern States Trust. Its president is George Stephens. Through joining, or merging with other financial institutions, the bank's name will change several times. It will be the American Trust Company, American Commercial Bank, and North Carolina National Bank. Finally, it will emerge as a nation-wide leader: NationsBank then, after 1998, Bank of America.

Date of Event:

1891 - Cherry Neighborhood

Plans are underway for a new neighborhood called Cherry. Black families who want to move away from crowded rental housing downtown can now buy or rent cottages with enough land to plant gardens. In later years, some people will believe Cherry was built to house the servants who worked for white homeowners in Myers Park. But the truth is that Cherry was designed first, by at least a decade.Cherry Neighborhood

Date of Event:

1882 - First School for African Americans

The first school for 253 black students opens in the basement of the black community's Episcopal Church. An important advocate for blacks arrives: Dr. J.T. Williams, a renowned doctor and educator.

Date of Event:

1912 - Bright Lights, Small City

Some civic leaders decide they want downtown Charlotte to resemble the brightly lit avenues of New York City. Charlotte removes the trees that grace its downtown streets. But no amount of artificial light can replace what has been lost.

Date of Event:

1860 - Secession

December 20, 1860 - South Carolina declares it is no longer part of the United States! Next month, six other Southern states soon follow. Those who leave, or secede, join together and form the Confederate States of America, or C.S.A. They no longer believe in the U.S. government. For the time being, North Carolina remains in the Union.

Date of Event:

1861 - Sumter

April 12, 1861 - U.S. army troops are stationed at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, an island at the entrance to Charleston Harbor. From across the water, Confederate soldiers open fire with mortar shells on the fort. The Civil War has begun! For the next four years, the war will turn America's countrymen, neighbors and families bitterly against each other.

Date of Event:

1867 - Union Soldiers Leave

December 18, 1867 - Union forces who have been stationed in Charlotte finally depart. The city's residents have cooperated with the federal troops. Although no battles were fought in the streets of Charlotte, Union raids took place at nearby Salisbury, Fort Mill (South Carolina), and Gastonia. There will be a national cemetery to mark where several thousand Union troops died while imprisoned at Salisbury.Confederate Prison

Date of Event:

1853 - Distinguished Citizen

His motto is Push, Pluck and Perseverance. Jewish store owner Samuel Wittkowsky is one of Charlotte's earliest civic boosters. As a friend of Governor Zebulon Vance, this European immigrant will intervene with those who want Vance arrested at the end of the Civil War. The building and loan company Wittkowsky organizes will one day become Home Federal Savings. 

Date of Event:

1865 - A Nation in Mourning

April 14, 1865The Civil War is over. President Abraham Lincoln is attending Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. with his wife when actor John Wilkes Booth appears in the president's private theater box. Booth, a supporter of slavery, despises the president. He shoots and kills Lincoln, then jumps to the stage and flees. Booth will be found hiding in Virginia 12 days later and be shot. As Americans mourn the loss of Lincoln, they are uneasy. They wonder what will happen next.

Date of Event: