Introducing Urban Adventures: Try these forays on foot
Introducing Urban Adventures: Try these forays on foot
Plus: The top news of the week: Municipal elections appear headed for a delay — NC announces $1M vaccine lottery — Tepper says he's 'not building a stadium alone'
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No reservations needed: Free walking tours are a great way to learn about a new (to you) part of town — or to discover more about a place you already know
Calling all suburbanites, or city dwellers looking to break out of their bubbles: Has it been awhile since you ventured to one of those areas in and around uptown that you keep hearing about? You don’t need Blumenthal tickets or Knights seats as an excuse to make that trek into the big city — The Ledger is here for you. In this occasional series, we’ll handpick adventures (that we’ve tried ourselves!) and tell you everything you need to know to make the most of the experience, from the best time to go, to where to park (or what greenway/light rail to take). Grab your keys, phone and wallet … let’s go!
Ledger intern Lindsey Banks stops to admire the “Bloom” mural on North Davidson Street by Charlotte artist Osiris Rain, one of the stops on the Art Walks CLT tour of NoDa. (She hydrated before the tour with a lavender iced latte from Smelly Cat Coffee House, whose metal cat sculpture is also a stop on the tour.)
by Lindsey Banks
It was my first week in Charlotte — the first time I’d actually stopped to look at the city beyond one-stop trips to IKEA.
Despite growing up only two hours away in Asheville, I’d never truly experienced what Charlotte had to offer. Being new in town as a summer intern and without a personal tour guide to show me around, I hopped on Google and found the next best thing: self-guided tours curated by local artists and historians.
Most were free and easy to navigate, complete with walking instructions and reference pictures. The ones I took had all of the steps listed online, so all I needed was my phone as my guide. (Many were super detailed: “Look at the corner for the trash receptacle.”)
Best of all, these tours are not just for newcomers like me; they are also for longtime Charlotte residents who are looking for a new evening walking route or hoping to impress visiting relatives who want to explore the city. These self-guided tours offer paths for discovering unique art and murals, quirky historical facts and even haunted areas of Charlotte — and all at your own pace!
With summer quickly approaching, these tours were the perfect combination of fresh air, daily exercise and education. I mapped out a plan for three tours and set out for the day, packing plenty of sunscreen and water for my 1 p.m. excursion.
NoDa East at “Bloom” Art Tour: I started my day on the corner of North Davidson and 35th Street, parking in the public lot behind Cabo Fish Taco. I had read that NoDa was Charlotte’s arts and entertainment district but did not know what to expect. I was met with a lively strip of quirky shops and local restaurants and bars, reminding me of home. Bright murals and obscure pieces of art could be found almost every 10 feet.
I roamed up and down the streets, following the self-guided tour compiled by Art Walks CLT and snapping pictures of my favorite paintings. My favorite works included the “Bloom” mural and dumpster mural, both painted by Osiris Rain. The lotus flower painted in “Bloom” symbolizes the rebirth of this location, which used to host textile mills in the 20th century.
Life almost felt normal again — vaccinated people, like myself, roamed around mask-less, and there were no lines limiting people inside businesses.
Fourth Ward Historic District: My next tour took me right outside of uptown, near the Fourth Ward Park. I parked next to the park in a 2-hour spot.
The tour, organized by the Friends of the Fourth Ward group, consisted of 48 stops, so it took me a little longer to complete this one. I strolled through the park, enjoying the shade and starting the tour backward with the Saint Peter’s Hospital, which was built in 1878. I then walked up North Popular Street, stopping to admire the original architecture of homes built in the 1800s.
Each house was different from its neighbor in design and color, and I found myself lingering in front of the 1850 Federal-style McCausland-Taylor House. A crab claw staircase led to the front door, and I read that this design allowed men to walk up one side and women to walk up the other so that they could conceal their ankles while going up the steps.
The dual staircases in front of the 1850 McCausland-Taylor House were designed so men wouldn’t — gasp! — see women’s ankles as they pulled up their dresses and petticoats as they ascended. Historical tidbits are part of the Fourth Ward Historic District Tour.
As I passed the Berryhill House on West 9th Street, I heard the faint echo of a piano playing through the house and onto the streets. The sound seemed to transport me to a different time. The historic house was unlike any other building I had seen that day, and I stopped to listen before realizing that I had been standing outside of someone’s home a little too long.
I quickly moved on, finishing my tour with the Old Settlers Cemetery, which was the first municipal burial ground in Charlotte from 1776 until 1867.
The Heart of Elizabeth: My final tour of the day was of Charlotte’s second streetcar suburb, the Elizabeth neighborhood (after Dilworth). This 2-mile self-guided tour from History South was curated by Charlotte historian Tom Hanchett. It usually starts at Independence Park, but the park is currently under renovation. A quick Google search told me that the construction is set to end in the summer. I parked near the Hawthorne Recreation Center.
My favorite stop on this tour was the John Paul Lucas House, which is named after its owner and the newspaper editor for the Charlotte Evening Chronicle in 1913. Most of my knowledge of the early 1900s comes from “Downton Abbey” episodes and my visits to the Biltmore House in Asheville, so I enjoyed seeing how the average, non-estate-owning person lived. Spoons Pharmacy, which is now a Latino street food eatery called Sabor, was also a neat stop. This shop was built in 1928 before zoning came to Charlotte.
Attempting three walking tours in one 91-degree day was no small feat. If you’re up for the challenge, I highly recommend taking a walking tour this summer — but maybe in the evening when it’s cooled down a little. It’s a great way to learn a little more about Charlotte and how it became the city it is today.
Other free walking tours in Charlotte include:
City Walks, which offers online walking tours covering NoDa, uptown murals, UNC Charlotte’s Botanical Gardens, the Belmont neighborhood, east Charlotte and trees in uptown’s Elmwood Cemetery.
History South, which organized the Heart of Elizabeth tour, also has links to seven other historical tours, including Plaza-Midwood, West End/Johnson C. Smith University, Dilworth and South End.
Art Walks CLT, which offered the NoDa art tour, has four walks uptown plus five in NoDa, five in South End, two in Plaza-Midwood, and one each in the West End and Elizabeth/Midtown.
Walking tours at Camp North End, a 76-acre former Model T factory that’s one of the biggest adaptive reuse projects in the country.
Charlotte also has some paid tour experiences that are worth looking into, including:
Lindsey Banks is a summer reporting intern at The Ledger. She’s a rising senior at UNC Chapel Hill.
Today’s supporting sponsors are Soni Brendle…
… and Midday Marketing, a series of free online panel discussions with tips on business marketing in Charlotte. Brought to you by The Ledger and Jumbo, a live-streaming platform. The first one is Monday from 11 a.m. to noon. Details.
This week in Charlotte: A fruitless meeting between CMS and county leaders; your Covid shot could win you $1M; more lawsuits over paper plant odor
On Saturdays, The Ledger sifts through the local news of the week and links to the top articles — even if they appeared somewhere else. We’ll help you get caught up. That’s what Saturdays are for.
Education
New south Charlotte school timeline (Ledger 🔒, WFAE):Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has postponed a decision on south Charlotte school reassignment, which came as a temporary relief to parents and homeowners in some neighborhoods in the Myers Park and South Mecklenburg high school zones.
Debate on school funding: (WFAE) Leaders of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and Mecklenburg County government were unable to reach an agreement on school funding during a joint meeting on Monday. There appears to be more mediation ahead, and if that can’t resolve the dispute, a complicated state formula will determine the county’s contribution to running the schools.
Politics
Debate on 2040 Plan (Ledger 🔒): The City Council yet again sparred over the 2040 Comprehensive Plan, and a slim majority seems poised to pass it with no major changes. Several council members, though, said Planning Director Taiwo Jaiyeoba and his staff seemed reluctant to make edits that a council majority had wanted.
Election delays ahead (AP/WFAE): A bill making its way through the General Assembly would allow Charlotte to hold municipal elections in March and April of 2022 instead of this November. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education elections would be pushed back until November 2022. The postponement is blamed on delays in census data.
Local news
Covid vaccine reward lottery (WCNC): North Carolinians who have been vaccinated against Covid will be automatically entered into four drawings with cash prizes of $1M apiece, Gov. Roy Cooper said Thursday — part of an effort to encourage vaccinations. People vaccinated after Thursday will be entered twice. Odds might be slim, but “everyone who gets a Covid-19 vaccination is a winner,” said health and human services secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen.
Eyes of Tammy Faye (Ledger): A preview for the movie “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” was released this week, which Searchlight Pictures describes as an “intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker.” Bakker and her husband, Jim, co-founded the PTL Club, which was headquartered in Fort Mill until it collapsed in scandal in 1987. The movie was filmed in Charlotte starting in October 2019 and will be in theaters Sept. 17.
More odor lawsuits: (Ledger) A third lawsuit was filed this week against a York County paper plant by residents upset over the foul smell it is producing. Some powerful South Carolina politicians are the lawyers filing suit.
Business
Big single-family landlords (UNC Charlotte Urban Institute): An examination of Mecklenburg County’s largest residential property owners shows that single-family rental conglomerates own more than 11,000 houses. The analysis found that “single-family rental companies are likely putting the most pressure on the lower end of the market” and that the purchases “tended to focus on middle-income neighborhoods, with fewer purchases in the higher income ‘wedge’ of southeast Charlotte or the northern part of Mecklenburg that includes Davidson and Cornelius.” The Ledger examined the trend in July 2020 (🔒).
Sports
Tepper on new stadium (WCNC): Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper said “there’s no way in hell” he would want to build a domed stadium to replace Bank of America Stadium. He added: “You know, at some point that building [Bank of America Stadium] will fall down. I said it before and I’ll say it again. I’m not building a stadium alone. The community’s going to have to want it.”
Good reads
Caring for newborns (Ledger 🔒): A hospital in the Charlotte area has brought in nurse practitioners to replace medical doctors who care for newborns in an apparent cost-saving move. Some doctors say the move is “dangerous” and jeopardizes the care of babies.
Putting the dough in doughnuts (North Carolina Rabbit Hole): Jeremy Markovich reads through a securities filing for Krispy Kreme’s upcoming IPO and learns that the doughnut-maker owns Insomnia Cookies (“big cookie and big doughnut are in cahoots”), free doughnut campaigns get the company tons of free publicity and doughnut sales hit record highs last year. “You all ate a lot of pandemic doughnuts,” he writes.
A newsletter written by a robot (Ledger): We let an artificial intelligence program write our entire Monday newsletter, and the results were … interesting. The computer we used, who is nicknamed “Jarvis,” produced perfectly readable articles about Charlotte’s 2040 Plan, the housing market and Bank of America. But in compiling a list of 11 things to do in Charlotte, Jarvis recommended buying a house, visiting a historic neighborhood that doesn’t exist and dining at Carrabba’s.
From the Ledger family of newsletters
Why are there so many shortages? (Wednesday 🔒) We examine the phenomenon of pervasive shortages in the area, from lumber to flowers, and hear from local business owners and experts who explain why it’s happening and how long it’ll last.
He brought a seminary to Charlotte: (Ways of Life 🔒) Robert Cooley was an archaeologist, a theologian and a college president. Under his leadership, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary opened a Charlotte branch in 1992. Friends said he had a “friendly dignity” about him, and he could lecture on theological topics for hours with no notes. “It was like he had a manuscript in his brain,” a friend said.
Slow transit recovery (Transit Time): While travel by car and plane have rebounded quickly, rides on public transit in Charlotte are slower to recover. Light rail and bus rides on the Charlotte Area Transit System were down 60% in April compared with a year earlier.
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory; Reporting intern: Lindsey Banks