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The Voice of
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The symbol of Cabarrus County nearly became a parking lot. In the 1970s, recalls Jack Foard, retired Concord textile executive, teacher and historian, the county's 1876 courthouse was crumbling. Elected officials looked at the old building and saw a place for cars. The people of Concord and Cabarrus saw a historical treasure. “They started a petition movement, and solicited contributions from businesses, individuals and trusts,” says Foard, who heads Historic Cabarrus, which maintains and operates the courthouse. Now, its spired cupola and clock have been adopted by private businesses and official agencies alike as the county's symbol. It houses a museum and meeting rooms for the public. Cabarrus, settled in the 1730s by the Scotch and Irish, is one of the state's oldest counties and among the best to view its history. Twenty-odd years ago, the close call with losing its courthouse was a rallying cry for preservation. Stroll through downtown Concord with Trish LeDuc, executive director of Concord Downtown Development Corp. “Probably the most significant impact was when we were accepted in the Main Street program in 1990,” she says. A process of undoing began. Store fronts covered by the aluminum paneling “modernization” movement of the 1950s and 1960s were uncovered. “Fortunately,” adds LeDuc, “most of the people didn't destroy the character of what was underneath.” That included stores, offices and other buildings dating to 1885. Some were purchased from the county and optioned to Preservation North Carolina. Others, like the Rookwood Restaurant, found new uses. The original town hall is now an attorney's office. The 1885 Morris House Hotel is being restored, and will include an Italian restaurant on the first floor. Nearby, in the center of the town, Memorial Garden, a three-acre garden dating to the early 1800s, this time of year features bright annuals along walks lined by magnolias, oaks and crepe myrtle. It is about to join the state garden-tour list. Flanked on both ends by Union Street and its Victorian homes, downtown has undergone rebirth. “Until the last two or three years, it was hard to find anybody here in the evenings,” says LeDuc. Now, attracted by coffee shops and restaurants, its street-scaped sidewalks are alive again. Elsewhere, Cabarrus history is in daily use. At Barber-Scotia College, founded in 1867, the main hall, on the National Historic Register, is among dozens of examples of the 19th century brickwork that dominates much of the architecture in Cabarrus. In Kannapolis, Cannon Village, which includes 450,000 square feet of specialty shops and outlets for antiques, towels and home furnishings, features the same colonial brick theme. Also in the village is the Textile Museum, including not only touch-screen displays, but a reminder of far earlier times — antique looms and other weaving equipment. History can take some surprising turns, notes Mark Shore, executive director of the Cabarrus County Convention and Visitor's Bureau. For example, hidden on shady King Street in Kannapolis is a tiny house from a nearly forgotten era. A “GI house,” it was one of more than 100 that industrialist Charles Cannon built for soldiers returning from World War II and facing a severe housing shortage. Today, it is a museum with articles from 1945 to 1950. East of Concord, where bottom lands along creeks and streams lured early farmers — Reed Gold Mine, a state historical site, is here — Bost Grist Mill, from the early 1800s, has been restored by the family that still owns it, and grinds corn into meal and grits. For Jack Foard, the history lives. He
attended Catawba College, in the 1950s, and when a professor from
the Midwest read his paper on the mill villages of Kannapolis, he
remarked, “I didn't know places like that existed any
more,” recalls Foard. —Edward Martin |
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