Why is downtown charlotte called uptown

The early residents of Charlotte would walk or ride their horses to Trade and Tryon to buy and sell their goods. As the city grew it slowly went back to the term downtown, when the industrial revolution took place. Like most other cities at the time. It was later resurrected in the s as a PR campaign to make downtown sound better. I have always wondered why the grid layout of Uptown was laid out facing Northeast.

Most people mistakenly think that all the streets run North-South and East-West. I figured there has to be some reason for this. Things to do Fahrenheit. Nuvole Rooftop TwentyTwo. Bank of America Stadium. Spectrum Center. Truist Field. Alexander Michael's. Type 1. Charlotte is a place that asks you to dig in, to find connections and to make history here yourself.

Charlotte calls itself the Queen City. But why? The nickname offers a hint that this community is older than the U. Interestingly enough, Tryon Street does not align to the compass, as in many Colonial towns. Instead, it runs along a low ridgeline with a diagonal slant. Independence Square got its name during the American Revolution. In May of , more than a year before Patriot leaders signed the Declaration of Independence, Charlotte made its own statement of defiance against Britain.

Tradition holds that there was even a full-blown Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence created on May 20, However, no copies exist, and the document never appeared in any Colonial newspapers or other records. In June , a local tavern-keeper named James Jack served as a messenger carrying important papers to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Local sharpshooters peppered his men mercilessly in the Battle of Charlotte and the Battle of Kings Mountain nearby.

After the Revolution, a totally unexpected event put Charlotte on the money map. In , a boy named Conrad Reed, playing in a creek 25 miles east of the city, picked up a pound rock that glittered. It was the first piece of gold ever discovered in North America. In , with the intention of opening an art museum, a group of citizens purchased a building that had served as the original branch of the U. It had been constructed in Uptown to handle gold ore. During the Civil War, the Mint had been converted into a Confederate and headquarters and hospital.

Today, the museum, which remains in the same spot, is known simply as the Mint Museum. Meanwhile, old mine shafts still lurk beneath Uptown. In , local investors in Charlotte and upstate South Carolina succeeded at completing the first rail line to enter the heart of the Carolinas.

It connected Charlotte with Columbia, South Carolina, where existing tracks transported goods to the port of Charleston, South Carolina. The North Carolina state legislature immediately authorized construction of a second line to link Charlotte with Raleigh, North Carolina. That railroad crossroads made tiny Charlotte a hot spot in the Civil War from to There are many distinct statues and sculptures — including the sparkling Firebird. Plus, new murals and street poetry are always being added to building facades.

This all makes a self-guided art tour one of the many fun, free things to do in Uptown Charlotte. The baseball pitch is just a block up from the Panthers home stadium, which will in also be home to the new MLS expansion team, Charlotte FC. Basketball fans will want to catch the Hornets in action at the Spectrum Center. You can also see big-name touring acts at the Spectrum Center.

Or check out some of the local acts performing at lounges such as The Imperial or at city restaurants. Speaking of restaurants, the culinary scene is a big draw for Uptown Charlotte.