♦ At one time, if you lived on the north side of 37th Street in the NoDa neighborhood you could keep hogs and sell fireworks, but if you lived across the street on the south side you could not. The city limits line ran down the middle of the street.
♦ A bronze tricorn hat sits on a rock beside the Little Sugar Creek Greenway near Seventh Street. It’s part of the Thomas Spratt-King Haigler statue nearby. Spratt was an early European settler in the Charlotte region, and his friend and ally, King Haigler, was considered the greatest of the chiefs of the Catawba Indians. During the Revolutionary War the Catawbas fought on the side of the Patriots.
♦ All 20 of the Wall Poems painted around Charlotte are from poets who lived in or were affiliated with North Carolina.
♦ The Mid-Century Modern-style home of civil rights leader Reginald Hawkins, in the 1950s neighborhood of McCrorey Heights near Johnson C. Smith University, was one of four civil rights’ leaders home firebombed in 1965. No one was ever arrested.
♦ Ishmael Titus was an enslaved man from Rowan County who fought in the Revolutionary War battles of Kings Mountain, Guilford Courthouse and Deep River. He was granted his freedom after the war and died at age 110 in Massachusetts. A memorial on South Tryon Street honors Titus and Dempsey Reed, a Mecklenburg County freedman who also fought in the Revolution and was wounded in battle.
Those are among the interesting stories told during the series of City Walks throughout May in Charlotte. City Walks are free, citizen-led walking tours of Charlotte neighborhoods, sponsored by PlanCharlotte.org, an online publication of the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute. The walks began May 1, with a Munching Tour in east Charlotte, led by Tom Hanchett, and will end May 31, with the Inside|Out Art walk along the Stewart Creek Greenway from Seversville through Wesley Heights and along the Frazier Park greenway. City Walks take place each May. Learn more and register for walks May 27 and May 31 at citywalksclt.org.
This gallery of photos shows scenes from the walks. Find more photos on Instagram or Twitter with #citywalksclt.
The historic Red Front Department Store is the oldest retail building in the Belmont neighborhood, a highlight of the May 6 City Walk through the neighborhood, in partnership with the Charlotte Museum of History. Photo: Mary NewsomWalk leader Amy Bagwell, artist and poet, in front of one of the 20 Wall Poems painted around Charlotte. The poem by Greensboro poet Fred Chappell at East Ninth and North Brevard streets was on the May 17 Uptown Wall Poems walk. Photo: Mary NewsomWalk leader Scott Syfert, standing at a marker along South Tryon Street, describes the role of the Catawba Indians in the region’s history. Syfert led a walk about Charlotte history on May 20. Photo: Mary NewsomAppropriately for a walk featuring poetry, Howard Hamilton wore a T-shirt noting the importance of punctuation. Walk leader and artist Amy Bagwell told how, while installing the poem “Bus Stop” by Donald Justice at Seventh and Brevard streets, she made the painter climb back up the ladder to remove a comma the poet did not intend. Photo: Mary NewsomThe first walk, May 1, was a Munching Tour of east Charlotte, led by historian Tom Hanchett, at far end of table, left. The group is at La Shish Kebob, with owner Izzat Freitekh, at end of table, right, waving with blue glove. Photo: Angelique Gaines.On a May 13 walk, leader Tobe Holmes of University City Partners, in front of a new Charlotte Area Transit System parking deck, describes changes that will make North Tryon Street a more pedestrian-friendly area when the Blue Line Extension opens March 2018. Photo: Mary NewsomThe May 13 tour of University City startled this gaggle of goslings, who escaped into the University Place lake. Walk leader Tobe Holmes described ongoing development as well as plans for the area when the Blue Line Extension light rail opens in March 2018. Photo: Mary NewsomWalk leader Tom Hanchett, on a May 13 walk, describes the historic Excelsior Club behind him on Beatties Ford Road, a nightclub that opened in 1944 and hosted entertainers Nat King Cole and Louis Armstrong. as well as hundreds of community events. Photo: Mary Newsom Walk leader John Howard takes the group past the Revolution Park neighborhood garden along a greenway beside Irwin Creek on the May 6 Walk on the West Side. Photo: John HowardCharlotte’s Hebrew Cemetery dates to 1867. These gates were once the front gates, before the cemetery expanded and put its front gates on Statesville Avenue, walk leader Brian Yesowitch told a City Walk group on May 14. Photo: Mary NewsomThe May 6 Munching Tour organized by residents of the Grove Park neighborhood drew a crowd. Walk leaders were local historian Tom Hanchett, center, and Mimi Davis, in yellow. Photo: Ashley ClarkParticipants look over the bakery case at the Salvadoreña restaurant during a May 6 tour organized by residents of the nearby Grove Park neighborhood. Photo: Ashley ClarkThe May 6 history walk through Plaza Midwood, led by historian Tom Hanchett and Jeff Byers, took place amid a crowd of participants in Charlotte’s successful Open Streets 704 event along Central Avenue. Photo: Diane GavarkavichWalk leaders and NoDa residents Eric Hoenes, left, and Kevin Gavagan. Photo: Mary NewsomChris and April Davis, who came along on the May 6 walking tour of NoDa, told about having their first date at the now-demolished Fat City deli. In the distance are the new condos that replaced the funky old deli. Photo: Mary NewsomStatues near Seventh Street depict Thomas Spratt, left, and his friend, the Catawba Indian Chief known as King Haigler. Scott Syfert led a May 7 City Walk describing the statues and the people depicted, part of the Trail of History on one section of the Little Sugar Creek Greenway. Photo: Mary NewsomParticipants in the May 20 City Walk led by Scott Syfert saw this plaque in the sidewalk at Trade and Tryon streets. It commemorates the story, never fully verified, of a May 20, 1775, declaration of independence in the small hamlet named Charlotte. The declaration is known as the Meck Dec. Photo: Mary NewsomSonjia Parker, with partner, Max, led the May 27 City Walk through parts of South End. Photo: Mary NewsomCity Walk participants see new construction and the newly opened Fidelli Kitchen, left, cheek-by-jowl with the venerable Price’s Chicken Coop on Camden Road. Photo: Mary Newsom City Walk participants hear from Bart Stetler at Queen City Bicycles on Park Avenue, one of South End’s small, locally owned shops. Photo: Mary Newsom
