Edward Latta

Edward Dilworth Latta (1851-1925) was a native of Pendleton, S.C. He came to Charlotte in 1876 and worked in a clothing store. In 1890, he organized the Charlotte Consolidated Construction Company, also called the 4 Cs, and shortly afterward began developing the city's first suburb, Dilworth. He was responsible for commissioning noted Olmsted landscape architecture firm to design a section of Dilworth in a new way. Instead of the grid pattern of the city's downtown area, the new suburb was graced with curved streets that followed the natural patterns of the land.

Latta Park opened in 1891 and quickly became a popular recreation spot with its lake, pavilion, greenhouse and picnic areas. Latta also bought Charlotte's horse-drawn streetcar line and modernized it as the Charlotte Electric Railway. He built Latta Arcade, one of the few remaining structures on Tryon Street that survives today from that era.

The grand mansion that was his East Boulevard home no longer stands. It was demolished in the 1960s. Latta and his wife, Harriet Nisbet, had three children. When E.D. Latta died in Asheville, he was one of the richest men in North Carolina. He is buried in Charlotte's Elmwood Cemetery.