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Charlotte drawing from 1975 at Green's Lunch


ScottCLT

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Have any of you noticed the drawing of Charlotte from 1975 at Green's Lunch uptown? It's a caricature-style drawing that encompasses the whole city. My girlfriend went there for lunch for the first time today before trying to find the homeless soccer thing (though we never actually found the homeless soccer tournament).

We both stood in front of the drawing for 20 minutes probably...looking at it inch for inch, noting everything that had changed in Charlotte over the last 30 years. We saw SouthPark, anchored by Ivey's and Sears. We saw the plethora of banks downtown, which gave us more of an understanding why Charlotte is the banking capital it is today -- basically, all the buildings uptown even in 1975 were banks. Most of the names don't exist anymore, but most of them were acquired by BoA, Wachovia, or First Charter. Also, we noticed that Eastland Mall wasn't looked at as a bad part of a town, but a thriving mall. The Arboretum didn't exist in this drawing. The older "Blake" tower was the Sheraton then. I saw "Jefferson First Union" on the top of one of the skyscrapers downtown.

I could go on forever. I was so obsessed with this drawing, I couldn't stop looking at it even after I was done eating. My girlfriend and I looked at it for long after we'd stacked our tray on the trashcan.

I love this photo...it explains so much about this city without explanation. Just looking at this drawing gave us a history lesson. For any of you that have or haven't been to Green's Lunch, check out the drawing on the left wall as you walk in. If you're a geek about Charlotte like me, you'll enjoy it.

Does anyone know where I can get this drawing online?

-Scott

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In 1975, I was 20 and actually walked those streets caricatured in the drawing! Even in 1975 Charlotte had a remarkable glamour to it:)

Sorry for the double reply. I was born in 1980 in Hickory, and didn't move to Charlotte until 1998. I had little exposure to Charlotte until then other than the occasional outing to Blumenthal to see a show with my parents. The existence of department stores downtown in 1975, as pictured in the drawing, amazes me. There was a 4-story Belk's! (according to the drawing), along with Ivey's (I knew about that one already because of the condos there now), and Sears. Where did retail downtown fail? I'm guessing in the early '80s. I just wish that we still had those stores downtown. Even though they aren't upscale, the existence of those stores would have surely attracted others had they stayed here.

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The Belks was there until 1992 or so. The Ivey's building is still there. The Sears building is still there too. I went to the grand opening of Eastland in 1975 and at the time it was considered the best mall in the Carolinas. SouthPark in comparison was fairly rundown by the mid 80s and nobody went to that mall. I've posted some photos online that I took of that Belks and some of the other places in Downtown before they were demolished.

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Yep, that's the one! It's listed at "Charlotte_Wachovia_Bank_Promotional_Cartoon_Map_1975.jpg"

Slightly off topic:

I was looking at another map from 1975 in that app viewer and remember seeing "Carpenter Airport" on an old map when I was a kid (pre internet). I've always wondered about it.

Does anybody remember it or know anything about it?

There also used to be a dirt strip at Metrolina Expo.

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Slightly off topic:

I was looking at another map from 1975 in that app viewer and remember seeing "Carpenter Airport" on an old map when I was a kid (pre internet). I've always wondered about it.

Does anybody remember it or know anything about it?

There also used to be a dirt strip at Metrolina Expo.

There is also an airport on the east side of town off of Newell-Hickory Grove Rd. (now renamed as Harris Blvd) called Delta Airport. It's been closed for some time.

The strip at the fairgrounds was used to teach skydiving at one time in the 1960s. It can be seen off a road called airway road.

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I've got a shiny new quarter for anyone who can figure out a way to save a print-worthy version of any of those maps without doing it in two-inch by two-inch sections. There's great stuff there...

Now, I'm not recommending that you do this, see. But I could imagine that if someone were to do a google image search on "maps site:engbs.co.mecklenburg.nc.us", and then view an image thumbnail to get a filename, and then add that jpg filename (wihtout thumb, or thumbnail) to the base address 'http://engbs.co.mecklenburg.nc.us/subdiv/historicmapsarchive', they would probably get a full copy of one of the maps referenced on that site.

Not that anyone would do that. Say, for an out of copyright map such as:

http://engbs.co.mecklenburg.nc.us/subdiv/h...rlotte_1892.jpg

Or a scan of a promotional cartoon map that would be created with the intent of wide distribution, such as:

http://engbs.co.mecklenburg.nc.us/subdiv/h...1975.jpg

:whistling:

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I love the 1975 one. Is it true Pineville-Matthews Rd was previously known as Matthews-Pineville Rd?

Just noticed some more interesting details..."Charlotte Municipal Airport." Did Arnold Palmer Cadillac actually used to be downtown? What was Carolina Trade Mart? Which hospital used to be Charlotte Memorial? What does "Slug's Tower Suits" mean? Does that have anything to do with the "Slug's Rib" on Independence in the cartoon? At the Holiday Inn, there was a "Hornet's Lounge" -- this was before the Hornets!

This pic is a total history lesson for me.

-Scott

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Just noticed some more interesting details..."Charlotte Municipal Airport." Did Arnold Palmer Cadillac actually used to be downtown? What was Carolina Trade Mart? Which hospital used to be Charlotte Memorial? What does "Slug's Tower Suits" mean? Does that have anything to do with the "Slug's Rib" on Independence in the cartoon? At the Holiday Inn, there was a "Hornet's Lounge" -- this was before the Hornets!

This pic is a total history lesson for me.

-Scott

  • Charlotte Douglass Airport opened in 1982 as the brand new shiny hub for Piedmont Airlines. Prior to that the terminal was on the other side of the landing field and named as you noted. The building is still there, but is used for cargo traffic now. It was one of those older airports where they rolled the stairs up to the plane.

  • Carolina Trade Mart was an office building. I believe its original purpose was to serve the fashion industry. If I remember correctly, there was a battle when Greensboro tried to get the event moved there and the response from Charlotte was to build the building that is at the corner of College and 5th Street across from the Hearst tower. That along with the Holiday Inn and City Fair (all built around the same time) sparked the end to the old Trade Mart. My memory is pretty fuzzy on this one but I think that is what happened. After a pretty bitter fight with a lot of name calling, Greensboro did not get the event.

  • Charlotte Memorial was the original name of the hospital that has the more trendy named Carolina's Medical Center. Old timers in Charlotte will still refer to this hospital as "memorial". You might note that Mercy was an independent hospital in those days as well as the Eyes Ears & Throat Hospital.

  • Slug's was a high end restaurant for years in Charlotte. They were a mini-chain as they once also had a location at University city back when it was new and trendy. I don't think it is related to Slug's Ribs, but I could be wrong on that one.

  • Hornet is one of the area's nicknames and didn't have anything to do with the NBA Hornets except they picked up on it when they came to town in the late 80s. The name comes from the Revolutionary War days when Brtitsh General Cornwallis remarked about the resistance here. He said he resistance met in North Carolina "There's a rebel behind every bush, it's a veritable nest of hornets." Shinn was going to name the team the Charlotte Spirit, but local boosters got him to change the name to the Charlotte Hornets to better reflect the area.

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At the Holiday Inn, there was a "Hornet's Lounge" -- this was before the Hornets!

Others have mentioned the historical signifigance of hornets to Charlotte, but in the sporting world the Charlotte Hornets was the name of the cities minor league baseball team from 1901-1973. The was also a Charlotte Hornets team in the World Football League from 1974-1976.

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Others have mentioned the historical signifigance of hornets to Charlotte, but in the sporting world the Charlotte Hornets was the name of the cities minor league baseball team from 1901-1973. The was also a Charlotte Hornets team in the World Football League from 1974-1976.

I actually love the name Hornets...it's pretty unique in the sports world. I was disappointed when the city chose not to sue to retain the rights to the team nickname (like Cleveland did with the Browns), but I guess locals were just happy to see George Shinn leave town.

I'm hoping that when this city does eventually get an MLB team, it christens it the Hornets.

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  • Slug's was a high end restaurant for years in Charlotte. They were a mini-chain as they once also had a location at University city back when it was new and trendy. I don't think it is related to Slug's Ribs, but I could be wrong on that one.

Slug's Rib was related to the Slug's Tower Suite in the map (and Slug's Choice at Southpark, and the Slug's in UC) IIRC. It's hazy, but seems like it was mostly a place for prime rib.

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Others have mentioned the historical signifigance of hornets to Charlotte, but in the sporting world the Charlotte Hornets was the name of the cities minor league baseball team from 1901-1973. The was also a Charlotte Hornets team in the World Football League from 1974-1976.

another wildly fascinating fact about the word HORNET, is that it's anagram is the word THRONE... which i would venture to say was the chair of choice of QUEEN CHARLOTTE. the name is fitting in so many ways... :)

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