Charlotte North Carolina History

Named after Queen Charlotte, the wife of England’s King George III, during the mid 1700s, the city was founded at the intersection of two Indian trading paths near the Catawba River. One was known as the Great Wagon Road (renamed Tryon Street) which ran north-south, and the other ran east-west, today’s Trade Street. The intersection of Trade and Tryon is known as The Square. From Pennsylvania came Scots-Irish and German settlers. The county name, Mecklenburg, came from Queen Charlotte’s homeland of Germany. Charlotte is sometimes referred to as “Queen City.” In 1799, gold was discovered and in 1837 the U.S. Congress established a branch of the United States Mint. At the outbreak of the Civil War Confederate forces seized the mint facility. (The building houses the Mint Museum of Art today). As the area grew, cotton became the staple crop, and the arrival of the railroad brought even more stability to the economy. Charlotte grew from a regional textile center to one of the nation’s largest banking and financial centers. Although many of the original antebellum homes no longer exist, the city is one of the oldest of the nation's larger metropolises.