Edward Dilworth Latta (1851-1925)


Latta was a South Carolinian who came to Charlotte in 1876. He and his brother established men's clothing store.

In 1883 he started the Charlotte Trouser Co. in Uptown Charlotte. Met Thomas Edison in 1890 who convinced him to go in the real estate business and establish an electric streetcar line in Charlotte.

Dilworth was Charlotte's first streetcar suburb. Opened on May 20, 1891. Trolley service began the same day.

There were no automobiles in Charlotte in 1891.

The trolley goes through the industrial district of Dilworth.





A view of the industrial heart of Dilworth, in 1907. The building on the left is the Charlotte Trouser Company. Next to it is the Park Manufacturing Company, Charlotte Cordage Company, and, on the right, Mecklenburg Roller Mills.

Trolley line built by Edison Electric Company for $40,000.

Wilmore established in 1914 by developer F. C. Abbott. Made up of two farms, one belonging to the Wilson family and one to the Moore family. That's why it is called Wilmore. East Boulevard and Park Ave. were extended across railroad track to connect Dilworth and Wilmore. Wilmore was also served by a trolley line running south on Mint St. from Uptown.

Made In The Carolinas Exhibition Building

Built in 1923 as part of Made In The Carolinas Industrial Exposition.

Used to display industrial products made in North and South Carolina.

Thousands rode train to visit the site.

Governors of North Carolina and South Carolina were at official opening ceremonies.

Band from Russia came to perform.

Later the building was converted into an A&P Grocery Store.

First streetcars in Charlotte were horse-drawn. Began operating on January 3, 1887.

Electric streetcars or trolleys began operating on May 20, 1891.

Trolley Line was taken over by Southern Power Company (later the Southern Public Utilities Company and Duke Power) in 1911. Ran to neighborhoods like Dilworth, Myers Park, Elizabeth, Wilmore, Piedmont Park, Belmont-Villa Heights, Biddleville and Washington Heights.

Site of violent strike in 1919. Company officials occupied the carbarn and were attacked by strikers. There were deaths. Streetcars quit running in March 1938. This became the bus barn.

Charlotte Trouser Co./Lance Building

Charlote Trouser Co. moved to Dilworth from Uptown Charlotte in 1894.

Second oldest factory building in Dilworth. The Atherton Mill is the oldest.

Manufactured men's trousers for distribution throughout the country.

Company founded by Edward Dilworth Latta, but he had sold it by time it moved to Dilworth.

Later occupied and expanded by Lance Packing Company. Old Charlotteans remember smelling roasting peanuts as they drove up South Boulevard.

Converted into condominiums.

Park Manufacturing Company Building Site (Burned February 1997. Destroyed June 1998) Built in 1895 and expanded in 1901. Manufactured pumps, heaters and primarily elevators.

One of six factories that opened in Dilworth in 1895.

Park Elevator Company vacated in 1980's.

Became a night club. Hootie and the Blowfish performed here.

Park Ave. is so named because it leads to Latta Park. Latta Park was put at the end of the trolley line to encourage ridership. The University of North Carolina played Davidson in football there. There was a lake for boating and a summer theater.

Bland St. is named for Dr. Charles Alberto Bland. He was one of Edward Dilworth Latta's partners in developing Dilworth and establishing the trolley line.

Carson Blvd. is named for the Carson family, who owned and operated two gold mines in the area.

Until 1891, there was no bridge carrying Morehead St. over the railroad track. Morehead St. is named for John Motley Morehead, who was a leader in promoting railroad construction in North Carolina. The Morehead Scholarships at UNC Chapel Hill are named for him.



Edward Dilworth Latta and five Charlotte entrepreneurs he recruited organized the Charlotte Consolidated Construction Company, known as the Four Cs, in 1890. The company's first project was to upgrade the old horsecar system and establish a new neighborhood, Dilworth, one and a half miles south of the city center.Four Cs paid the Edison Electric Company (which Thomas Edison helped organize) $40,000 to install an electric streetcar line along the former horsecar lines and extend the route to Dilworth. As with most horsecar-electric streetcar conversions, this required removing the horsecar tracks and installing heavier tracks. The first trolley on the new system ran on May 18, 1891. "While the prospect of considerable profit certainly inspired Dilworth's formation, Latta's thinking also evinced a broad streak of New South boosterism," wrote Charlotte historian Tom Hanchett.

The neighborhood park, Latta Park, helped attract riders and prospective residents to Dilworth. In addition, a textile mill and industrial area were established on the edge of the neighborhood. Four Cs extended streetcar lines to other neighborhoods on the city's outskirts. Later, during World War I, the War Department built Camp Greene, which trained up to 65,000 men, west of the city on a streetcar line.

Tobacco and textile manufacturer James B. Duke established a new utility, Southern Power Company, in Charlotte in 1905 and began building hydroelectric plants along the Catawba River and the Piedmont region. The company won approval for a streetcar franchise in 1910, despite opposition from Latta.

Shortly thereafter Latta sold his trolley company, Charlotte Electric Railway Company, (consisting of thirteen miles of tracks, thirty-nine trolley cars, and a car barn), to Southern Power for $1,235,000. At the same time, Latta sold Duke his gas supply business.

Southern Power, at Duke's initiative, also established the Piedmont and Northern Railway in 1911, the state's only successful interurban electric railway and one of a few such systems in the Southeast. The Greater Charlotte Club (now Charlotte Chamber of Commerce) supported this move by raising and contributing $300,000. Interurban lines operated between cities, also accessing electricity overhead, but using multi-car trains that served freight as well as passengers. P&N's Charlotte-Gastonia line opened in 1912 with its own tracks and included passenger stops in Pinoca, Thrift, Mount Holly, North Belmont, McAdenville, Lowell, Ranlo, and Groves. The railroad also operated a passenger and freight line between Spartanburg and Anderson, S.C. and an all-freight line from Mount Holly to Terrell, N.C. in Catawba County.

In 1913 Southern Power (which became Duke Power in 1924) organized a new subsidiary, Southern Public Utilities Company, to operate streetcar systems and expand the company's retail activities. The following year, the company opened a new, forty-car barn. By 1930 Duke Power owned the streetcar systems in Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High Point, and Salisbury. The Charlotte system expanded to serve several new outlying neighborhoods and reached a total of twenty-nine miles of trackage.



CREDITS: Excerpts:Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historical Landmarks Commission


In the meantime, Edward Latta enlarged Latta Park in Charlotte to ninety acres of entertainment. By 1902 the park included a pavilion, bowling alley, baseball park, theater, 10,000-square-foot greenhouse, merry-go-round, and skating rink. A fairground was added the same year, which featured horse racing, exhibitions, and fairs. The park included a pavilion for blacks to gather for picnics and meetings. Blacks apparently had access to much of the park, including the ballpark, where black semi-pro teams played. That openness ended in 1903, when a growing sentiment for segregation led the Charlotte Observer to recommend that whites and blacks not mingle together at Latta Park. Edward Latta closed the black pavilion at the park and built a new one near Biddle Institute.

On July 9, 1910, Latta opened Lakewood Park, so that he could dismantle nearly all of Latta Park to provide more residential land for Dilworth. Located on the streetcar line just outside the city limits on the northwest side, Lakewood Park featured amusement rides, including a roller coaster which cost $15,000 and a 100-seat merry-go-round, as well as a lake for rowing and swimming, a zoo, and a dancing pavilion. Latta leased Lakewood to Southern Public Utilities before selling it to the company in 1916 for $50,000. The parents of Billy Graham met while attending a picnic in the new park. Lakewood Park developed a tradition of extending its season an extra week in the fall for African-Americans.