Charlotte's Mint closes. It never again manufactured money after the Confederate soldiers left. Since 1867, is had been used to measure and analyze, or assay, gold. Now the building will be used by the Red Cross and by the Charlotte's Women's Club.
Good Samaritan Hospital is aptly named. It is reported to be the first hospital in the U.S. for black patients. Mrs. Jane Wilkes, a nurse whose husband, Captain John Wilkes ran Mecklenburg Iron Works, heads the hospital's fund-raising efforts. Hundreds of miles away in New York, Mrs. Wilkes' relatives donate money to the Charlotte facility. They, too, are Good Samaritans.Good Samaritan Hospital
The network of railroad lines serving Charlotte grows as the Norfolk and Southern Railroad reaches from Virginia to the Queen City by way of Raleigh and Albemarle. Like spokes of a wheel, rail lines expand in eight directions from Charlotte. Passengers, freight and goods travel farther than ever before.
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.
December 17, 1903 - On a windy bluff on North Carolina's outerbanks, Orville Wright takes flight in a powered airplane. He is the first person to accomplish this feat. His 100-foot trip lasts 12 seconds. Orville and his brother, Wilbur, traveled here from their Ohio bicycle shop to take advantage of the coastal winds at Kill Devil Hills.
<p>January 31, 1903 - Since 1891, Charlotte's library has charged a subscription fee of 50 cents per month. Today, the city's first free library opens. Northern steel executive Andrew Carnegie has given Charlotte $25,000 to start the library. The city must promise to provide $2,500 each year to operate it. Carnegie also donates money for a separate library designated for black patrons. When a tax dispute arises in 1939, the Charlotte Public Library will be forced to close for one year.
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
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.
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.
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.