Fact Friday 149 - Another Look at Independence Park

Happy Friday!

We first highlighted Independence Park and some of its history in Fact Friday #5. This week's post will be both a review and an addition. 

Established in 1905 in the Elizabeth neighborhood as the first public park in Charlotte, Independence Park was founded on the site of the old city waterworks by industrialist and publisher Daniel Augustus Tompkins. Tompkins wanted to provide a familiar and relaxed country setting for the labor force driving the increased industrialization of Charlotte, many of whom had migrated to the city from nearby rural areas. Edward Dilworth Latta had previously offered his private Latta Park land in Dilworth for sale to the City in 1894, but there had been no agreement on a municipal park system by the turn of the century. Independence Park was designed by John Nolen, a student of landscape architecture at Harvard University who would go on to design the Myers Park suburb in Charlotte. Visitors are seen here enjoying the park in this panoramic view (below) taken in 1912. Far in the distance of the shot are the Knox Presbyterian Church on Hawthorne Lane, established the same year. 

D.A. Tompkins had advocated during its creation that Independence Park should remain in its natural state as much as possible outside of the planting of a few trees, but over the years it has changed immensely. In 1929 the city built an Armory-Auditorium at the western end of the park, and the still-extant American Legion Memorial Stadium opened as Charlotte's first major outdoor sports arena beside it in 1936. The Park Center was built in the 1950s to replace the auditorium, and is now known as the Grady Cole Center. Today the land seen in the 1912 photograph is a parking lot, and the only original part of Independence Park that still exists is a few hundred feet behind the church to the north. The Knox Presbyterian Church still stands and is now called Caldwell Presbyterian. To the left of the church is the Elizabeth Traditional Elementary School. A much smaller school building was first established on the spot in 1912, and the current structure was built in 1933. 

 

Until next week!

 

Chris. 

Email me at chris@704shop.com if you have interesting Charlotte facts you’d like to share or just to provide feedback!

 

Information taken from:

Charlotte Then and Now, Brandon Lunsford, 2013.  

 

“We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future.” – Frederick Douglass