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Turn of the 20th Century: Life in Charlotte 1900 - 1910

Play Clothes

Playtime is very important. Girls usually wear smocks over their dresses, and most boys run barefoot. In town, small parks become a common playground for children, complete with swing sets. These open spaces give children lots of room to play baseball, basketball, Hide-and-Seek, Ring-Around-the-Rosie, “Drop-the-Handkerchief, and Follow-the-Leader.      

Independence Park in Elizabeth was the first city park in Charlotte. There were swings, basektball courts, badmitton and a host of other playground activities available to children in Charlotte.

Cost of Living

 Click to see the  difference in prices of various items from 1903 compared to the cost of the same items in 2017.  

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What's There Now?

What's There Now?

 Throughout this exhibit, you have seen how different Charlotte looks today when you compare it to how the city appeared over a hundred years. In this section, you will discover what is there now and what use to be there many years ago.   Today 614,330 of Mecklenburg’s 801,137 residents live inside the city limits of Charlotte. As of 2002, there are only 300 farms left in Mecklenburg County. Recent data indicates that only 24,442 acres of farmland exists in Mecklenburg County. The county is 526 square miles. 

Trolley Ride to Adventure: Lakewood Park

On May 9, 1909  an article appeared in the Charlotte Observer announcing the opening of Lakewood Park, an amusement park on May 15th.  Located about 3 miles northwest of Uptown Charlotte, the lake & dam were originally created by the Southern Power Company  to cool the power transformers. It measured 600 feet wide and 3,960 feet long.

Good Samaritan Hospital

This is the Good Samaritan Hospital, which was located 405 West Hill Street. Built in 1888, it is the first hospital for blacks in North Carolina. Like St. Peter's, the women of St. Peter's Episcopal, led by Jane Smedberg Wilkes, raised the funds for this hospital which operated into the 1960s before becoming part of what later became Charlotte Memorial Hospital, which later renamed itself the Carolinas Healthcare System. The buildings were demolished to make way for the Panthers football stadium.

 

Looking Back At Charlotte

Welcome to our time-travel website for Charlotte, North Carolina during the early 1900s. Discover what life was like over one hundred years ago. You will learn about how people dressed, how they lived, what foods they ate, where they worked, what games children played, new inventions and a whole lot more.  At the turn-of-the century, Charlotte is a small city with a population of 18,091 people. Click on the map below, and you will see that the city limits only included four wards.

Early Hospitals

This is Presbyterian Hospital, which was located at 311 West Trade Street. This postcard dates to 1909. Six years earlier on October 7, 1903, local physicians met at the courthouse in Charlotte and organized the Mecklenburg County Medical Society. Dr. H. Q. Alexander is the first president; Dr. Annie Alexander becomes the vice-president and Dr. Parks M. King is the first secretary-treasurer.

Celebrating Meck Dec Day in Charlotte

Back in the day, everyone in the county celebrated on May 20th, the day the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence was signed. We have been doing so since 1825. It is to honor the men who signed the declaration in 1775. Throughout this week in May there were eating contests, races, patriotic bands and orators. This postcard captures how the town decorated during the 1908 celebration.

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United States Post Office & former branch of the US Mint

This picture was taken along the 400 block of West Trade Street in the early 1900s. On the left is the United States Post Office and on the right is the United States Mint, which at this time was an Assay Office. The Post Office was built in 1881 and demolished in 1915. A fire in 1844 destroyed the first Mint, but it was rebuilt and completed by 1846, and resumed minting coins. By the time, this postcard was taken, coins were no longer being minted here.