USA > North Carolina > Mecklenburg County > Charlotte > Hill's Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) city directory [1936] > Part 2
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This is true, not only in the textile field, where advantageous conditions of power, climate, labor and living conditions at the source of raw materials have already transferred the center of industry from New England to the South, but in other lines of diversified manufacturing as well.
North Carolina today is the pacemaker of the South; it leads in textile manufacturing and hydro-electric power development, and Charlotte is the center of a textile manufacturing territory having 770 mills, operating over 10,000,000 spindles and consuming more cotton than any other section in the world.
14
INTRODUCTION
It is the center of one of the largest hydro-electric developments in the U. S., the total horsepower developed and in immediate prospect of developing being more than a million.
It is the largest center in the South for textile mill machinery and equipment, practically all the large companies in the U. S. and England handling their entire business in the South through Charlotte offices and plants.
It is the "Southern Market" for dyestuffs-laboratories and offices being maintained here by the leading dye corporations of the country.
Charlotte has annual payrolls of over eight million dollars, from 126 widely diversified manufacturing and industrial plants.
Charlotte is located in the center of a territory recognized as the most rapidly developing industrial and commercial section in the South. The eyes of the commercial, as well as tourist, world are focused on the Pied- mont Carolinas-the section of which Charlotte is the geographic and in- dustrial center.
Hard-surfaced roads radiate from Charlotte in every direction. Eleven highways enter Charlotte. The National Highway crosses the North Caro- lina State Highway at Charlotte. North Carolina has 9,000 miles of paved roads. Two million people can come to Charlotte from a radius of one hundred miles by automobile, transact business and return home the same day.
Charlotte is the distributing center of the Carolinas and is the natural radial point for the railroads of this section. Eight railway lines radiate from the city, this situation making possible a maximum of railway track- age for new industries of various kinds. There is an abundance of skilled and unskilled labor willing to give an honest day's work for a reasonable wage. Charlotte is not disturbed by continued labor difficulties, strikes and labor agitation.
The quality of Charlotte's water is excellent, and the supply abundant, with an up-to-date filter plant, built at a cost of $1,500,000.
Electricity, ample and at low rates, has been probably the greatest factor in the industrial and commercial development of Charlotte.
Charlotte's rapid gains as a manufacturing and business center have developed financial institutions commensurate with the demands of this rapidly-growing city and section which they serve.
Charlotte is live, aggressive, progressive.
Charlotte citizens cooperate in matters which promote the civic, com- mercial, religious and industrial welfare of the community.
Charlotte is a friendly city. It welcomes the newcomer, be he from the North, West, East or South.
INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE
Charlotte has many distinct advantages to offer the manufacturer- four competing rail lines, low freight rates, pure water and a convenient location. Henry Ford, after careful study, located his Mid-South assembly plant at Charlotte, and today it is one of the largest units in the Ford chain. Manufacturers should investigate this thriving city. Living condi- tions are ideal. Climate is mild and pleasant, and schools are among the finest in the South. Excellent hotels and shops. Cordial social life. Several excellent golf courses.
Transportation
Charlotte is in a strategic position-within immediate and economical marketing reach of the largest consuming centers in the country. There are four railway systems, with eight lines reaching in as many directions. There are 50 trains daily. In addition to railway freight terminal facilities for the reception of 5,400 carloads daily, the facilities of eight great motor- bus companies are at the disposal of shippers. The latter have direct daily connections with all towns in the Charlotte market area. Scores of pas- senger busses enter and leave the city daily.
The attention of the whole nation has been called to the North Caro- lina highway program begun more than a decade ago. The great network of roads is unexcelled in any similar area in the world and has been a major factor in the economic evolution of North Carolina from a laggard to a leader state. Naturally the most vital arteries in the highway system are those serving the industrial Piedmont. Charlotte, as commercial center of the Carolinas, is the meeting place for three Federal highways and ten State highways. Thousands of automobiles annually commute over these roads from points within a hundred-mile radius for shopping and business in the city.
15
INTRODUCTION
Power
The availability of almost unlimited power at much lower rates than the prevailing average in the country has been perhaps the largest single factor in the development of Charlotte as an industrial center. Charlotte is headquarters city for the Duke Power Co., one of the largest in America, with properties including more than a score of vast hydro-electric and steam-electric power plants and approximately 5,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines in North and South Carolina.
The industrial and commercial development of the Piedmont Carolinas, today one of the busiest manufacturing and trading areas in the entire world, has paralleled the growth of the Carolinas as hydro-electric power center of the Southeast. James B. Duke, industrialist and tobacco magnate, more than thirty years ago conceived a plan whereby the vast resources at his disposal should be turned into channels for the upbuilding of the Caro- linas and the new South. His vision has been realized and his successors in the administration of power and other holdings have devoted energy and capital without stint to the expansion of Southern manufacturing and to the crystallization of a sound economic structure for generations to come.
Labor
Charlotte's labor is of the finest in the country today-native, white, sober, industrious. Labor troubles are practically unknown and the labor turnover is small.
Textiles
Here the textile development of the South is centering. Seven hundred and seventy mills operating 10,000,000 spindles within a hundred miles, and a great business has grown up in supplying these mills with dyestuffs, cotton, machinery and equipment of all kinds.
As a Manufacturing Center, Charlotte Offers:
1.
Low power for manufacturing purposes.
2.
Close proximity to the sources of all material for finished products.
3. Cotton, cotton yarns, cottonseed, cotton oil, tobacco, peanuts, kaolin, wood pulp, lumber, etc.
4. Logical location for a manufacturer of commodities for export through the ports of Norfolk, Wilmington, Charleston and Savannah. 5. A very desirable type of high-class labor available to manufac- turers.
6. Mild climatic conditions throughout the year. There are nine months of exceptional open-season weather.
7. The adequate transfer facilities of four railroads, with daily ter- minal facilities of 5,400 carloads.
8. Desirable living conditions and an unusual residential development.
Finance
With the sure and rapid growth of Charlotte as a business center. there has been concomitant development of adequate and reliable financial institutions. There are three national banks, one state bank, four in- dustrial banks and two building and loan associations.
The Charlotte branch of the Federal Reserve Bank serves a territory embracing 34 counties in western North Carolina and 21 counties in western South Carolina. Counting out-of-town branches as separate banks, there were in this territory at the beginning of 1934, 38 member banks, nine par non-member banks, and 99 non-par, non-member banks operating on an unrestricted basis. The presence in Charlotte of a Federal Reserve Branch has furnished an added incentive to new businesses and industries desiring to establish offices and plants in or near the city of Charlotte.
Market and Trading Arca
Charlotte is the largest and busiest city between Richmond and At- lanta. Charlotte is the natural point of dissemination for three extensive and growing trade channels: The Atlantic Coast Line territory, the Pied- mont Carolinas, and the unexploited Tennessee-Kentucky sector. Charlotte is the commercial and industrial capital of a key area in the new South, Piedmont Carolinas-the industrial main line of the South Atlantic Sea- board. Millions are working. Millions are buying.
Newspaper circulation and advertising furnish a sound index to market conditions. The Charlotte Observer is the only morning paper in America in a city of less than 100,000 having a circulation of over 55,000 daily and 58,000 Sunday. The Charlotte News, a foremost afternoon newspaper (also published on Sunday morning) effectively reaches the local buying populace and the active market within a fifty-mile radius with a circulation of more than 30,000.
16
INTRODUCTION
Charlotte has over 1,200 retail stores, including six of the largest de- partment stores in the South. The big department stores alone employ 1,800 workers and the annual combined sales reach into millions.
The annual industrial payroll exceeds $8,000,000.
More than 45 smaller industrial and rural towns are located within a radius of fifty miles immediately centering around Charlotte. Advan- tageous geographical boundaries, plus the drawing power of modern stores, bring this tremendous volume of trade to Charlotte over a network of superb roads.
Charlotte has a greater population within a fifty-mile radius than Richmond; a greater population within a hundred-mile radius than At- lanta. Charlotte is the geographical and business center of the Carolinas.
50-mile radius 100-mile radius
Richmond
468,000 2,124,000
CHARLOTTE
. 583,000 .1,972,000
Atlanta
711,000. 1,904,000
Population of city and suburbs approximately 90,000
Population within 25-mile radius
„,
250,000
Population within 50-mile radius.
600,000
Population within 75-mile radius
1,200,000
Population within 100-mile radius
2,000,000
Population within 150-mile radius 4,500,000
Charlotte offers the finest opportunities of today as the logical loca- tion for new industries, distributors, wholesale houses and business interests of every description that wish to take advantage of the manufacturing and trade opportunities in this rapidly-developing section, the richest trad- ing territory in the South.
District office of Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce of U. S. Department of Commerce located at Charlotte. Two radio stations, WBT, 50,000 watts, and WSOC, 250 watts.
Diversification
Charlotte has 126 industrial plants of a wide range of interest.
There are more than 200 branch offices of national concerns in Char- lotte. More than 1,000 traveling men make their headquarters here.
Charlotte is the center of a prosperous and widely diversified farming section.
Mecklenburg and the other counties immediately serving Charlotte are foremost in the state as truck-producing counties. Fresh vegetables and fruits are locally grown and are placed on the table of the city and urban consumer with dispatch, which pays tribute to the efficiency of the many excellent marketing agencies. In recent years Federal experimenta- tion with perennial lespedeza and other forms of food and forage crops in Mecklenburg have attracted national interest. Morrocroft, a few miles from Charlotte, is perhaps the most beautiful model farm in the entire South. Some of the most noted prize cattle in the nation are locally owned.
CLUBS
The essential SPIRIT of any city or community can find tangible ex- pression only through group civic organizations with their various specific objectives, and having in common the single purpose of cooperatively for- warding the prosperity and happiness of the entire community.
Excellent member clubs of the following national and international organizations may be found in Charlotte: Rotary, Kiwanis, Civitan and Lions.
The celebrated Goodfellows Club of Charlotte, meeting five hundred strong once a month, has achieved a record of accomplishment in charit- able enterprises which has been a source of deep satisfaction to the entire state.
The Charlotte Woman's Club stands well to the fore and annually contributes much to the cultural welfare of the city through the promo- tion of art exhibits and in other ways. The fine work of the Altrusa Club and the civic enterprise of the Charlotte Business and Professional Wo- men's Club give an index to the aggressive and constructive part taken by women in public life.
The Charlotte Junior Chamber of Commerce is an agency of great and growing importance in civic affairs.
RESIDENTIAL FEATURES
Charlotte is known throughout the country for the unusual extent of its beautiful residential sections, the elegance of its homes, the loveliness of residential landscape, and the thousands of trees bordering its streets.
17
INTRODUCTION
But, however extensive its area of more costly homes, the basic unit is the small home. Charlotte has no tenement districts and no slums. There are thousands of small cottages and bungalows and the majority of families live in their own homes.
No city in the country not primarily a resort center has better hotel facilities than Charlotte. There are more hotel rooms in Charlotte than in any city between Washington and Atlanta, and Charlotte is prepared to take care of the largest conventions. Charlotte has several large met- ropolitan apartment houses, equipped luxuriously and comparing favor- ably with any in the world, and scores of smaller apartment buildings.
SPORTS AND RECREATION
Extensive and well-equipped parks and playgrounds, with directed and supervised programs of community play and recreation through the medium of the Park and Recreation Commission, afford a special incentive to fam- ilies with children of all ages.
Within the city limits are abundant facilities for a wide variety of sports, including tennis, golf, handball, archery and others, and only a few miles away boat-racing and sailing may be pursued the year 'round. Seven fine golf courses are available, and an increased demand can be handled in advance.
The new plant of the old Charlotte Country Club, traditional through- out the country for charm and simple elegance and for the "Southern air," is unexcelled in the South.
The Myers Park Country Club, located at the edge of one of the most beautiful residential sections in the country, has been active in the promo- tion of inter-city and inter-state competition in swimming and in tennis, several important meets and tournaments being held annually.
EDUCATION AND CULTURE Schools and Colleges
The love of education . a deference to things spiritual . . . were the first thoughts of the people of Mecklenburg in the settlement of their new country. The first schools were conducted in the homes of the teachers or of their patrons.
Prior to the time of the American Revolution, a number of school buildings had been erected.
Today the children of Charlotte and throughout the Piedmont region attend grammar and high schools of unusual excellence. The nature of the population, so largely pure American stock, makes any other course unnecessary. Charlotte has 27 modern and extensive school buildings and a capable personnel of well-trained and carefully-selected teachers.
Charlotte is the location of Queens-Chicora College, a Presbyterian college for women in the "A" classification of American colleges and uni- versities.
Davidson College, located twenty miles from Charlotte, is closely as- sociated with the "Queen City." A Presbyterian denominational college for men, Davidson has long been recognized throughout the nation as a college of exceptional character and the finest of traditions.
Johnson C. Smith University, located at Charlotte, is one of the out- standing Negro universities in the country and has long maintained a splendid record in the Charlotte community.
There are other educational and training agencies including commer- cial and business colleges with large enrollments, a preparatory and coach- ing school for boys, excellent dancing and music studio schools, and kinder- gartens. In fact, all the educational facilities of a modern city are offered by the "Queen City."
Music and the Theatre
The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of the Spanish composer and conductor, Guillermo de Roxlo, of Barcelona, is coming rapidly to the fore among civic symphony organizations.
There is an active concert association and there are other musical groups.
The Charlotte Little Theatre, under professional direction, has for several seasons attracted wide attention by the uniform excellence of work.
Libraries
Charlotte has five libraries, with a total of 75,000 volumes, in addition to the leading publications in all fields. There are numbers of active read- ing and book clubs.
An active children's department, featuring story-telling hours, adds greatly to the cultural life of the little folks, and forms an important part of the library program.
18
INTRODUCTION
CHURCHES
Charlotte is the foremost church-going city in the state. It has more churches and more church members than any other city in North Carolina, and its Christianity and church work are of a practical character.
How strongly Christian influence is intrenched in Charlotte is demon- strated by more than a hundred organized congregations, with a member- ship of approximately forty thousand, including the Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, A. R. P., Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, Moravian, Jewish Church of the Nazarene, and the Salva- tion Army. The total value of church properties in Charlotte is more than five million dollars.
Prominent in the religious life of the city are the Ministerial Associa- tion, embracing the pastors of practically every white church in the city; the Christian Men's Club, made up of prominent business men, and the Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian As- sociation.
MEDICAL CENTER
Charlotte has in recent years gained a national reputation as a medi- cal and surgical center. Two large modern buildings, the Professional Build- ing and the Medical Building, are entirely occupied with physicians, dentists and surgeons. In addition, numbers of the profession have offices elsewhere in the city. Some of the most successful and eminent specialists in the country are affiliated with Charlotte clinics.
There are six large hospitals, an extensive county sanatorium for tu- berculosis, and a baby hospital. Clinical hospitals for eye, ear, nose and throat, and for other specialized diseases, are among the finest in the country.
The Hospitalization Foundation of the Duke Endowment, one of the major philanthropic institutions in America, is located in Charlotte.
BAROMETERS OF CHARLOTTE'S GROWTH
The following barometers, with a few exceptions, apply directly to the area within the city limits of Charlotte. Within this limitation, the figures give a fair picture of the city's expansion. Charlotte's growth, however, is actually greater, due to the development beyond the city's fixed limits, in the suburbs.
The stability of Charlotte's growth is indicated by the steady increase in population and wages paid even through the last few years. The value of manufactured products, and the number of wage earners employed in industry, show the solidity and industrial strength of the community.
The progressiveness of Charlotte is shown by the remarkable interest in the cultural and recreational features of the city's life.
PERIOD
% of
BAROMETER
OF YEARS
AMOUNT INCREASE
Population
City of Charlotte
1910
34,014
1930
82,675
150%
State of N. C.
1910
2,206,287
44%
(For Charlotte only unless otherwise designated)
Manufacturing
Value of Products
1910
$10,459,684
1930
69,816,633
570%
Wage-Earners
1910
4,199
121%
Wages Paid
1910
$1,557,203
8,735,340
460%
Postal Receipts
1920
$431,490
1933
776,731
80%
Freight, in Tons
1920
8,100,000
1933
15,715,000
94%
Schools
Attendance
1925
10,317
1933
15,212
49%
Parks and Playgrounds
No. of
1927
6
1933
23
283%
Acreage
1927
131
1933
366
179%
·
1930
3,170,276
1930
9,299
1930
INTRODUCTION
Libraries (City and Suburbs)
No. of Volumes
1919
9,728
1933
105,691
997%
No. of Volumes Lent
1919
55,324
1933
504,412
812%
Publie Utilities
Telephones in Use
1923
9,708
1933
14,002
44%
Consumption of Water
1920
1,323,400,000
61%
Gas Sales
1920
200,771,600
30%
Electric Sales K.W.H.
1920
10,833,556
1933
42,154,779
289%
Bank Deposits
1926
$40,005,709.48
1927
46,479,955.20
1928
46,475,693.14
1933
37,446,000.00
1934
54,236,971.18
1935
55,141,000.00
Bank Clearings
1926
$599,069,907.24
1927
654,758,277.97
1928
685,895,377.79
1929
725,602,773.24
1930
582,392,778.99
1934
537,148,809.23
Express Receipts
1915
$ 315,000
1925
above
600,000
1927
700,000
1930
1,000,000
Real Estate Taxable Value
1927
$127,609,350
1932
above
150,000,000
1932
(City and County)
"
110,000,000
Tax Rate
1935
$1.40
1935
(County)
.64
CHARLOTTE OF THE FUTURE
The awakening of Piedmont Carolinas and the development of Char- lotte leadership in the past ten years furnish a vivid chapter in the history of the greater reconstruction of the South.
In real property and improvements, the increase in per capita wealth in North Carolina in the past census period of ten years was 340%. That of the nation at large was 61%. The industrialization of Piedmont Carolinas accounts for this phenomenal rate of progress in the state at large.
It is reasonable to assume, on the basis of all available data, that Char- lotte is destined to continue on the upward trend and that it will maintain its position of preeminence among the cities of the Atlantic Seaboard. Roger Babson, Who is familiar with the situation in the Carolinas, states: "I have every confidence that the city will continue on an upward trend . . . Charlotte may be rightly called one of the high spots of the nation."
Charlotte is strategically located for greater manufacturing and mar-
keting. The "Queen City" vicinity offers logical advantages to:
Tobacco factories
Cotton mills
Silk mills
Rayon
Paper boxes
Machinery and tool manufacturers
Clothing
Fertilizer
Boots and shoes
1
,1
175,000,000
1934
1933
261,576,400
1932
2,134,227,000
19
20
INTRODUCTION
Leather belting Copper, tin, sheet iron Structural steel Wood pulp products Terra cotta and pottery
Paint and varnish
Mattresses and pillows
Furniture Farm implements Wire work Cordage and twines Brooms and brushes Auto and wagon works
Toy factory Turned wood novelties
Cheese factory
Dairy products Glass factory Sack and bagging
Rugs and carpets
Scores of others not listed here
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE INVITES INQUIRIES
The Charlotte Chamber of Commerce is prepared to furnish an un- prejudiced analysis of the Piedmont market as regards any particular prod- uct, and to cooperate with the inquirer in a careful follow-up of the initial step where conditions, in the inquirer's judgment, clearly justify investi- gation. The Chamber of Commerce extends an invitation to outsiders to visit this city and experience the Charlotte spirit of good-will and coopera- tion, and invites the outside public to tune in on WBT, Charlotte's 50,000- watt radio broadcasting station, one of America's finest and best; also, Radio Station WSOC. This is the fastest and soundest growing city in the greater industrial South. For a decade Charlotte has led the NATION in rapidity of growth as a distributing center. Mr. C. O. Kuester, Business Manager of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, will send any inquirer a personal answer explaining WHY this is true.
CHARLOTTE IS THE COMMERCIAL CAPITAL OF THE PIEDMONT CAROLINAS. WATCH AND HELP IT GROW GREATER.
of
ASSOCIATION
WORTH AMERICAN
DIRECTORS
CLASSIFIED BUYERS' GUIDE OF THE CITY OF
CHARLOTTE
(NORTH CAROLINA)
1936
MORE 60013
ADE BOUGHT AND SAU
THOOUEN THE CLASSIFIED BUSINESS LISTS
DIRECTORY THAN
ANY OTHER PIEDIUM
ON EARTH
The Buyers'Guide contains the advertisements and business cards of the more progressive business men and firms in the city, classified according to lines of business
HILL DIRECTORY CO., Inc., Publishers 8 North Sixth Street, 4th Floor Richmond, Va.
22
ACCOUNTANTS-CERTIFIED PUBLIC
GEORGE E. DOMBHART
CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT
801-2 Commercial National Bank Building
Phone 3-3738
Charlotte, North Carolina
AUTOMOBILES
P. L. ABERNETHY, President
R. S. HOPKINS, Sec .- Treas.
CITY CHEVROLET CO.
SALES CHEVROLET
SERVICE
Motor Cars and Trucks
710 S. TRYON ST. PHONE 7156
EARL BOOMERSHINE, INC.
VALVE IN-HEAD
Ruich
AAA
MOTOR CARS
BUICK and PONTIAC DEALERS
Sales and Service
318 W. 5th ST.
PHONE 2-2123
(1936) HILL DIRECTORY CO.'S
23
AUTOMOBILES
Bird
ONE STOP SERVICE
PETTIT MOTOR CO.
Authorized Dealers
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