Written by Stephen Olert,
8th grade student at Carmel Middle School
The Dilworth Neighborhood
The Dilworth neighborhood in its early years closely follows the career of Edward Dilworth Latta. In October 1876 Latta moved from New York to Charlotte. At that time there were 7,094 residents in Charlotte.
Edward Dilworth Latta
On July 8, 1890 Latta, Mayor McDowell and four other residents formed Charlotte Consolidated Construction Company (the Four Cs). Their plan was to develop a suburb of Charlotte, named Dilworth, where they intended to sell lots and residences to "the cityšs burgeoning industrial population, which composed the essential workforce for the expanding industries." They purchased 442 level and treeless acres south of Charlotte.
Then they decided to build a streetcar system between downtown Charlotte and Dilworth. This was done not only to provide a service to the residents, but to make more profit from the fares. The railway operated two trolley lines, which intersected in the heart of Charlotte at the square where Tryon and Trade Streets meet. The citizens of Charlotte were interested in and excited about the trolley.
In order to entice the citizens of Charlotte to buy lots and homes in Dilworth they also created a recreational area named Latta Park. The park was at the end of the trolley line. This was done to promote the trolley as well. A landscape architect, Joseph Forsyth Johnston, was hired to design and supervise the construction of Latta Park. The park had a "lake for boating, a lily pad pond, a series of fountains, terraced flower gardens, and a network of meandering paths and drives." The Daily State Chronicle of Raleigh called it the "most magnificent spot of its kind in the South."
Homes did not sell very well right away. With some advertising and the appearance of Atherton Cotton Mills, sales picked up a bit. The owner of the mill purchased an entire block of Dilworth and built twenty houses for its mill hands. Once Atherton Cotton Mills moved in other industry followed. This led to the establishment of an extensive industrial district in Dilworth. More people, the employees of these industries, then moved into the suburb. There was, however, a lot of noise from the factories, that made living there not so ideal. A majority of the people who lived in Dilworth were middle-class families.
Atherton Mill
Atherton Mill House
By 1903 Charlotte had become a major industrial and commercial center because of Edward Dilworth and his associates and their dream. The population had almost tripled. The Four Cs expanded the railway to include neighborhoods of Piedmont Park, Elizabeth and Biddleville. In 1903 the conductors and motormen of the Charlotte Street Railway went on strike and the people of the city supported them. The company would not turn on electric heaters in the streetcars. The owners of the company ended up turning on the heaters and having the workers return after they unsuccessfully tried hiring scabs to replace the workers. Between the strike and losing the city street lighting contract and a dispute over gas services and prices Latta had lost the virtual monopoly that he once had. James B. Duke came in and underbid the Four Cs on the lighting contract and obtained a franchise to run a power company. The Charlotte Railway Company was sold to Dukešs Southern Power Company.
Dilworth's manufacturing core, as seen in this 1907 photograph
Dilworth was annexed into the city in 1907. Latta used the money he saved on providing utilities to the suburb to build another section of Dilworth. The Four Cs commissioned Olmsted Brothers, a nationally renowned landscape architecture and city planning firm to design the street plan and landscape of eastern Dilworth.