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

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.

North Carolina Medical College

The North Carolina Medical College receives a charter in 1892. Originally the medical school is located at Davidson College, but the upper classes attend school in Charlotte near the Presbyterian Hospital at Trade and Mint Street. In 1907, all of the medical students occupy this building on Sixth and Church Streets.

Working on the Railroad

The first passenger train arrived in Charlotte in 1852. The second passenger depot was the Southern Railroad Depot that was designed by Frank Milburn in the Spanish Mission style. It was built in 1905 and was located at 531 West Trade Street.  A railroad crew posed for this photograph in front of their locomotive. 

"To Serve and Protect"

The Charlotte Police Department posed for this picture in 1910. Seated, from left to right: Hugh Shields, Cliff Bell, J.T. Farrington, J.D. Johnson, B.J. Summerow.  Standing left to right: M.M. Earnhart, Charles Ayers, Lee Hargett, J.E. Crowell and J.M. Earnhart.

Biddle University (Now Johnson C. Smith University)

First known as Biddle Memorial Institute, the school was founded in 1870 on Beatties Ford Road by the Catawba Presbytery. Colonel W.R. Myers donated the land. The school was named for Henry Biddle husband of its financial benefactor, Mary D. Biddle of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.