CTC/Arena Stop Art Windscreens
This stop on Trade Street is no stranger to the rush of intersecting modes of transportation or the bustling activity of crowds. Since the mid-1800s and the boom of the cotton trade this location in the Queen City has been a hub of trade and travel. These two shelters contain a collection of materials focused on the concepts of people in motion, whether through transportation or the excitement of events.
The artist chose a unifying background in both the inbound and outbound shelters to give the viewer context of the area: Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps provide colorful framework for the art and show the location of this stop as it appeared in 1929, with the Cotton Platform and railroad tracks. Today the LYNX Light Rail runs along the corridor originally named “A Street,” which later became the freight rail line for the transportation of cotton from farms to mills in what we now know as NoDa and SouthEnd.
CTC/Arena Outbound Windscreen Key
(click on the image for a closer view)
1. 1929 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of the immediate area of this stop location. These highly detailed maps were originally created for assessing fire insurance liability in urbanizes areas, but now serve as a very accurate record of past building locations.
2. Antique engraving of a cotton plant by Jaques-Nicolas Tardieu. Tardieu was a well known 18th century engraver who lived in Paris. The artist chose to use this cotton plant engraving because of the significance of the Cotton industry through the 18th and 19th centuries in Charlotte
3. Railroad workers and engine circa 1895. The railroad's route through Charlotte was pivotal in transforming the city into a major hub of trade in the Southeast. Nearby farmers would bring harvested cotton to Charlotte where it would be distributed throughout the region by train. Photo courtesy of Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.
4. Deed of property circa 1850 gives the right of way for what was originally A Street, now College Street (to the east of B –Brevard and C-Caldwell) to the railroad company. This is where the light rail tracks are today, bisecting uptown Charlotte. Courtesy of Mecklenburg County Mapping.
5. 1930's Hayes Bus Line vehicles buses parked in front of Firestone Tire & Rubber on 5th street. These buses ran from Charlotte to Columbia, SC. Photo Courtesy of Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.
6. CTC/Arena Station on the the CATS LYNX Blue Line. The Blue Line opened in 2007 and is the first rail line of its kind in the southeast.
7. 1920s parade float sponsored by Charlotte company J&D Tires. A historic streetcar is visible in the background. Photo Courtesy of Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.
8. Cover of a 1914 Southern Railway timetable program. Photo courtesy of Tom Hanchett and Levine Museum of the New South.
9. Eadweard Muybridge, Running Man, part of the Animal Locomotion series of 1887-1888. Muybridge is famous for pioneering work in stop-motion photography and creating seminal work on people and animals in motion. His work here illustrates concepts of movement and technology.
10. A rare photograph of two women driving a horse and buggy from Thomas B. Hoover’s Livery Stable in Charlotte, circa 1905. The image was captured in front of the Church Street entrance of the luxurious Selwyn Hotel, open 1907-1964. Photo Courtesy of Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.
11. Checking out a bicycle from the B-Cycle Station outside the Wells Fargo atrium. Temporary bike rentals are a more modern means of transportation in the Uptown Charlotte area. Photo courtesy of the Charlotte Observer.
12. Newspaper Article from the Charlotte Observer, March 15th, 1938 about the last day the trolleys ran in Charlotte.
13. Scene with streetcar. Photo courtesy of NC Office of Archives and History, Public Service Branch.
14. Photo of Blandine M. Gray, Charlotte's first female bus driver circa 1970. A Charlotte Observer photo provided by Tom Hanchett of the Levine Museum of the New South.
15. Buses parked in front of trolley car barns on South Boulevard in 1936. Drivers are Paul Harris, R.H. McLendon, Harry Culp and Dowd McCrorie. Photo Courtesy of Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.
16. Piedmont and Northern Railway car #5101 with Pantograph instead of a Trolley Pole. This car was retired in the mid-1950s. Photo courtesy of the Charlotte Observer.
17. Charlotte and South Carolina Railroad Pass for the year 1868. Photo courtesy of Tom Hanchett and Levine Museum of the New South.