(bright music) - [Announcer] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

(gentle music) - [Jason] Small towns have always been known for their charm, their pace of life, and their community.

But many are now growing faster than anyone ever imagined.

(bright music) Towns like Mooresville, Mint Hill, Fort Mill and Belmont are all feeling the impact of Charlotte's thriving economy.

- Majority of people here are coming in from outside, relocating here to work in Charlotte.

- [Jason] While change can certainly be challenging, most people recognize the positive - Growth means we're going somewhere.

There's no growth, you're not going anywhere.

- [Jason] For those working to preserve the history of their small towns, rapid growth presents challenges, but also new opportunities.

- Each visitor to the museum has different experiences, different questions, different stories, and they in turn give me new information.

So I'm learning along with them - [Jason] Coming up, we'll visit these four towns that were once considered small, but are now facing explosive growth.

Along the way, we'll see how they're adapting to change while holding onto the pieces of history that make them unique.

All that and more on this episode of "Trail of History."

(bright music) (gentle music) Ah, urban life, apartment buildings soaring into the sky, traffic everywhere, always on the hunt for a parking spot and rarely knowing your neighbor's name.

A dream life for some, while others seek something a bit slower paced.

With inviting Main Streets and historic homes to lure folks away from the big city life, once traditional small towns near Charlotte offer a popular alternative for folks moving to the area.

With nearly 3 million people now calling the Charlotte region home, nearby towns like Belmont, Mooresville, Mint Hill, and Fort Mill are all in a crossroads, working to balance the rapid growth while protecting their historic identity.

Located 16 miles due south of Uptown Charlotte, you'll find the quaint downtown of Fort Mill, South Carolina.

Stroll past the shops and restaurants on Main Street, and you might get a feeling of nostalgia.

- It's got southern charm, it's got that small town feel.

It's so welcoming, it's so warm, it's so inviting.

- [Jason] Like many towns in the region, Fort Mills identity is closely tied to the once booming textile industry.

- [Christia] It shaped the town.

It built the town.

- [Jason] An old and now shuttered mill and neighborhoods of historic mill houses near downtown stand as reminders of a bygone era.

- Springs family, they originally Fort Mill manufacturing, then they became known as Springs Manufacturing.

They opened the first textile mill in 1888.

There were two here in Fort Mill.

- [Jason] But if you thought the town's name came from the humming textile mills, you'd be incorrect.

- In fact, the town actually has its name from a fort that was never built.

- [Jason] The region around Fort Mill is the ancestral home of the Catawba Nation during the French and Indian War, to strengthen the alliance between the British and the Catawbas, North Carolina's colonial government approved the construction of a trading and defensive fort.

- They got the trenches built and it actually was the governor of North Carolina who was funding it.

This was 1756 and they dug the trenches and we still have some of the original stones.

- [Jason] As for the mill in Fort Mill, it refers to a grist mill that once stood along the banks of nearby Steel Creek and at the time served as the center of the community.

Then in 1852, when the Charlotte and South Carolina Railroad built a depot just a few miles away from the grist mill, what we now know as Fort Mill, naturally started to grow around it.

21 years later, in 1873, Fort Mill received its official charter.

And according to Fort Mill History Museum volunteer, Kimberly Long, these cannons help define the town's early boundaries.

- They mark where the center of the town is and was.

So the original Fort Mill was a one mile radius around those cannons.

- [Jason] From that center point, with the textiles fueling the economy, Fort Mill started to thrive.

- Downtown Fort Mill was bustling.

People would come here on the weekends and they would get their hair cut and hear the latest gossip and buy some goods and all the things that one does in town.

- [Jason] But there were clouds on the horizon for Main Street.

- It was really bustling really until about the seventies.

The 1970s when malls started to come around was less bustling and less vibrant, and some of the stores started to shutter.

- [Jason] By the eighties and nineties, Fort Mill was changing.

As the textile industry declined, the town leaned into its proximity to Charlotte.

- [Kimberly] As Charlotte has expanded, Fort Mill has booed.

- [Jason] Affordable homes, low taxes and good schools drew families in, from 4,500 residents in 1970, Fort Mill grew past 10,000 residents by 2010 and nearly 25,000 residents by 2020.

- The growth is rapid, which is a good thing.

I mean, you want growth.

If you're not growing, you're dying and you don't want that.

- [Jason] All around Fort Mill, there's signs of growth, new businesses and housing developments just about everywhere you look.

For downtown Fort Mill, the constant growth means opportunity, for folks like Dave Hipp who opened Bricks and Minifigs Fort Mill, a store specializing in aftermarket Legos right on Main Street.

- I'm a big fan of a small town downtown.

I love the feel of them, the vibe, the historic nature of them.

- [Jason] Even the building he's in has a story to tell.

- It was a Five & Dime back in the early days of Fort Mill and then it was an antique store.

And you know, just to know that I'm carrying on that tradition of a small business, being in a small town, it's very rewarding.

- [Jason] While Hipps certainly appreciates the history of his downtown space, Fort Mill's rapid growth has created a new challenge.

- Anytime that you have an influx of people who are from other places, they're gonna be somewhat removed from the history and culture of the town.

- [Jason] But the folks at the Fort Mill History Museum are optimistic.

- But I feel like most of the people who have moved here, especially the ones that we meet, have been very interested and engaged and have enjoyed becoming a part of what you know is becoming the new fabric of Fort Mill.

- [Christia] Our museum is free.

We want to educate our community and we want to educate anybody that walks through that door and tell them the rich history of Fort Mill.

- [Jason] Making it all run takes an army of volunteers.

- [Christia] A lot of our volunteers are not Fort Mill natives, but they love history.

- [Jason] Now, what might surprise you, the number of teenagers giving their time to help out.

- We have some amazing students that are communicating and they're telling Fort Mill's story and they're engaging with our visitors and it's just so wonderful to watch.

- [Jason] Two of those young volunteers, Krish Ramesh and Lina Baki.

- I first came to the museum about a year and a half ago and I was led around by a very passionate tour guide.

I was able to ask questions, directly engage with the history, and it just made me want to keep coming back.

So I decided to volunteer and then eventually I was the one giving the tours myself.

- I was a theater kid and being a tour guide, it's really just memorizing these stories and compartmentalizing them in your head so that you can draw a story whenever you need it.

And I like to go chronologically so you get the whole picture of Fort Mill and get to watch it grow from a tiny little milling town to the bustling town that it is today.

To promise to build a forts, to protect... - They're learning and they're sharing and they're engaging.

These kids could be on social media, on video games, hanging out with their friends.

We're planting seeds for them 'cause they will take this and they will have this for the rest of their life.

- [Jason] Fort Mill may not be so small anymore, but thanks to residents, business owners and the Fort Mill History Museum, the town story will continue to be shared, ensuring future generations know where it all began.

(upbeat music) It's hard to imagine a Main Street without a place to get a haircut.

- Main Street Barber and Hair Styling, we move here in North Carolina, 103 Main Street, Morrisville.

- [Jason] And for the past two decades, it's right here.

You'll find owner Eric Simelton most days, clippers and scissors in hand.

He's a Mooresville native.

- There's no places like home, you can't beat home.

(chuckles) - [Jason] Just a block away from the barbershop, entrepreneur Kim Saragoni is hard at work in her custom frame shop.

In 2006, she took a leap of faith, and open Four Corners Framing and Gallery.

- I did not know how to run a business, I just knew how to frame.

- [Jason] But beyond betting on herself, she bet on Mooresville.

- People have built relationships with us.

We frame for them for the 18 years we've been here, we're now framing for their kids.

- [Jason] However, unlike Simelton, she's not a Mooresville native.

- Born and raised in Boynton Beach, Florida.

When we first moved, we didn't know a lot about the area and we certainly didn't know what was possible here.

- [Jason] In 2020, Mooresville's population topped 50,000, big enough to lose its small town label.

But as Saragoni puts it... - You still have that quaint small town feel.

You can walk on the sidewalks and talk to the business owners that you shop at their stores.

You see people in the grocery stores, you see your teachers at restaurants.

That's what the draw is here.

People are coming here from all over the country.

(bright music) - [Jason] Now, before all the subdivisions, the interstate, the lake, and even before Mooresville was well Mooresville... - Our Main Street basically is an offshoot of The Great Road.

The Cherokee Catawba, Iroquois Indian tribes were in this area.

We were Western Frontier at the time.

This area was, the Scotch, Irish, Germans, came to this area - [Jason] Up until the 1850s.

This area was primarily small communities and farms, but something big was about to roll down the tracks.

- Everything outside of this door was John Franklin Moore's at one time, including the cemetery where he is buried.

He was a part of a meeting that took place at Shepherd's Crossroad just up the road from where the, AT&O Railroad, the Atlantic, Tennessee and Ohio Railroad, they came through seeking someone to share or sell some land to the railroad for a stop, a depot siding between Charlotte and Statesville.

John Franklin Moore stepped forward, said, "I have land a little further south of here."

- [Jason] The railroad took more up on his offer.

And by 1856, trains started rolling through what the railroad called Moore Siding.

When the town officially incorporated in 1873, its name was changed to Mooresville.

Railroads brought possibilities to communities like Mooresville by making them attractive to manufacturing.

And by the end of the 19th century, Mooresville got its first textile mill.

- Albert Sherrill was instrumental in starting the mill back here on Church Street.

January 1st, 1893, the mill had been built and it was up and running.

- [Jason] That first mill led to other mills and the jobs created by textiles meant a booming economy for businesses all along Main Street.

Meet lifelong resident Mike Cook.

- Well, I grew up on Cherry Street, which no longer exists.

Cherry Street is now Ireland Avenue.

When I was a kid, we lived at the bottom of the hill and I can remember the town being open on Friday night till like seven or eight o'clock.

Belk department store was the main, you know, thing downtown and the Dime store.

And you know, that was a big deal for us.

- [Jason] But the good times didn't last as the textile industry started to dwindle towards the end of the 20th century.

So too did Main Street.

- Belk was gone.

The theater, we didn't have a theater, Saturday afternoon, 4:30, 5:00, and the town was, I mean almost like a ghost town.

- The textile industry and all the things that had made this downtown healthy and vibrant had really gone away in the mid to late eighties.

So there were 50% of the buildings were probably uninhabitable or vacant.

It was kind of forgotten.

- [Jason] For many textile towns of the era, the loss of the mills meant hard times for the residents.

But Mooresville had options.

(water sloshing) The construction of Lake Norman encouraged the town to expand west toward both I-77 and to the lake.

The town even rebranded itself, not once but twice.

- Anybody that's grown up here for years remembers that it was Port City, everything.

It was even on our front license plate at one time.

Late eighties and nineties, that started to change because of all the race teams moving here became known more as Race City, USA.

- [Jason] Between the lake, the Motorsports industry, and several other high profile companies making the town home, Mooresville isn't so small anymore and today what was once a ghost town... - [Mike] Can't hardly find a parking place.

It's amazing.

- Property values have gone through the roof.

It is a coveted gem to own a Main Street building today.

Yeah, I think our occupancy rate in our three blocks here is virtually 98%.

- I would much rather see that than empty parking spaces.

- [Jason] With all the growth in and around Mooresville and new people moving to the area, there is at least one place working to preserve a bit of the town's past.

- [David] Everything you see in our museum has been 99% donated by Mooresville citizens.

- [Jason] Throughout the museum, you'll see items from just about every era, including textiles and a display celebrating the famous African American sculptor, Selma Burke.

- She was born on School Street here in Mooresville.

She created a statue of Martin Luther King in Charlotte.

President Franklin Roosevelt sat for her for three days while she sculpted his bust.

That still hangs in the registered up deeds in Washington.

- [Jason] The building housing the museum itself has a story to tell.

- The building as best we know, it was built in 1927.

It was originally a part of Barker Brothers lumber company and a lot of the wood that came through this building built buildings here in town and houses.

Chas Mack took this building over and it became Chas Mack Wholesale in 1938, I believe.

Get everything from bubblegum, cigarettes, to a can of tomatoes.

(bright music) - [Jason] Today, Mooresville continues to evolve and lifelong residents like Cook and Simelton agree.

While growth can be hard, the benefits are worth it.

- I graduated from high school in 1970, had 134 people I think in my class.

My granddaughter graduated two years ago with 500 plus people in her class.

I would rather sit through that 500 plus graduation and know that my granddaughter has the opportunity to get a job here, live here, work here if she chooses to do so.

- Growth means we're going somewhere.

You know, if there's no growth, you're not going anywhere.

(chuckles) (bright music) - [Jason] If you ever find yourself strolling along the 400 block of Catawba Street over in Belmont and look up, you just might see the sign for a comic bookstore called Doc's Basement, ironically, on the second floor, it's the brainchild of Sam Wilcox.

- Most folks just call me Doc.

(laughs) - [Jason] The Florida native originally moved to Belmont in 2005 to practice medicine.

In 2016, he opened the Comic bookstore as a side project.

- You are constantly getting in our new comics each week.

You know, obviously action figures of all types, card games, so the big Pokemon Magic gathering, stuff like that.

- [Jason] While he no longer practices medicine these days, he feels right at home in Belmont.

- It's a friendly little town.

Everybody wants to support the local little businesses.

I feel well supported and loved here.

(upbeat music) - [Jason] Located just over 10 miles from uptown Charlotte.

Belmont's picturesque main street draws folks in from all over.

- We see a lot more tags from outta states and it's this bustling little town and it just continues to grow.

- [Jason] But how did Belmont become Belmont?

For that, we headed to the town Historical Society.

Also on Catawba Street.

- When you come to the Belmont Historical Museum, the home was built in 1899 by R.L.

Stowe, Sr.

We have a kitchen.

The kitchen always was built outside the home, so if there was ever a fire, in that, it wouldn't burn your house down.

And then we also had a mill house and restored back to what a mill house would look like in the 1920s.

- [Jason] Just like Fort Mill, this area was originally inhabited by the Catawba Nation, but in the 1700s, European settlers started to arrive.

- This place was settled mostly by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, German Lutherans.

- [Jason] The son of one of those settlers would go on to fight in the American Revolution.

His name William Chronicle.

- He was a patriot, the Battle of King's Mountain that he led a group of young men from here on this peninsula that were just farmers and they referred to now as the South Fort Boys.

And when he stood up to lead a charge at the mountain, he took a a bullet and fell right there and was killed at Battle of Kings Mountain.

(lively music) - [Jason] Now a little known fact is, Belmont hasn't always been Belmont.

- 1872, we had the Atlanta, Charlotte Richmond Railroad came through.

They built a water tower and the man that built that named John Garibaldi.

And so they named it after him.

- [Jason] But the name was short-lived.

- They named it Garibaldi from 1872 to 1886, when it became Belmont.

- [Jason] So why the name change, you may ask.

Well... - Right outside of Belmont, the Catholic church bought land and the Catholics wanted to build a school.

Garibaldi was not a good name for the Catholic church and a man by the name of Leo Hay.

And he did not want, no part of that name Garibaldi being here where they were going to build their school.

- [Jason] So to seal the deal, the town came up with the name Belmont and the rest is history.

- We've got the Basilica here.

Belmont Abbey College here, one of the earliest in densest concentrations of Roman Catholics here in the south.

- [Jason] In 1895, the town officially incorporated and thanks to a man named Robert L. Stowe, Sr., the original owner of the house used by the historical society, Belmont was about to get a big boost.

- He built a chronicle mill.

It started running I think in 1902, 1905.

He built the next one, right across the track.

By 1930, it was 18 mill going in Belmont.

(engine roaring) - [Jason] The towns population surged from just a few hundred to almost 5,000.

And those people needed a place to live.

- [Brian] Each mill had its own little village and that the homes were, you know, fairly decent close together, just a basic four room house.

- [Jason] But for Belmont, those good times wouldn't last.

- The decline where it started the closure of it was in the nineties when they signed a NAFTA deal.

And that was the primary economy driving this town.

That was early nineties.

By late nineties, they were all closed.

- [Jason] Belmont had to pivot.

And for the one small town, location plays a key role in its continued growth, access to a major interstate, proximity to Charlotte and reinvestment in the downtown, Belmont's future looks bright.

- We're very grateful to Charlotte.

Charlotte's growth is what has made this place home, in the last 10 years in downtown Belmont.

It's like restaurant road.

Cautious, exciting, just to see this place buzzing and to have people start complaining about like parking.

- [Jason] For the 20th century, Belmont's identity was tied to textiles.

Today the town's developing a new identity and long time residents like former Mayor Richard Boyce have one desire for those moving to the area.

- I just hope people are attracted to Belmont.

Not only because they can buy a slightly bigger house here than they can across the river, but because of some of this history and heritage and they want to be a part of building the future heritage of this place.

(upbeat music) - [Jason] Under a warm summer sun, a crew from Griffin Masonry is hard at work on a new home.

- [Scott] It's just a fantastic house with a beautiful brick facade.

It's got some stone on it, it's got all kinds of other materials on it.

- [Jason] The new home represents a sign of growth in Mint Hill and a welcome change of pace for Griffin Masonry co-owner Scott Griffin.

- You had to go to to other towns and other areas around the community just to work.

As of recently, our growth started going and instead of having to drive to Lake Norman to do our work every day, now some days we actually get to stay in Mint Hill.

- [Jason] A native of Mint Hill, he's seen the town change over the years, but says the pace is certainly picking up.

- I think 485 made a huge impact on Mint Hill and our growth and created us to have good growth.

- [Jason] It's no secret that with growth comes change.

So the folks at the Mint Hill Historical Society actively work at preserving Mint Hill story and they do so here at the Carl J. McEwen Historic Village, - This is a collection of buildings that have been moved from around the area to a central location to basically preserve them and be able to bring the memories and the history and the anecdotes that surround these buildings to a new generation of people.

- [Jason] Making this village happen, truly takes a village of dedicated volunteers.

Even Scott Griffin, whose parents have long supported the historical society, has gotten his hands dirty through the years.

- I was still in high school, I think, when we moved the first doctors museum here, and we were a part of that and got to do some of the foundation and the steps and the chimney, and we put some roof on there and we did all kinds of pieces of it.

- [Jason] A few buildings that make up the Carl J. McEwen Historic Village include a country doctor's office, a general store, a gold office, highlighting Mint Hill's connection to early gold mining in the region.

And what village isn't complete without a one room schoolhouse.

- And it's filled with slates and chalkboards and flag and dunce cap and switch, and different things (chuckles) that were part of the early days of education in our country.

(bright music) - [Jason] Originally inhabited by Native Americans, the first European settlers to the area around Mint Hill were mainly Scotch-Irish Presbyterians.

- This area was very agricultural, was very rural, really grew as a result of, not only the water and the trees and the land, but the church that was built here, Philadelphia Church.

- [Jason] Many of those early settlers to the area were buried in the church's cemetery with graves dating back more than 200 years.

- So John Ford, John Alexander and Adam Query were all original signers of the Meck Dec and were buried here in Mint Hill.

- [Jason] Just like churches, schools often play a critical role in a community's foundation.

For Mint Hill, it was the Bain Academy.

- Bain School was an absolute and still is a cornerstone of the community.

John Bain built Bain Academy on church property in 1889.

He died in 1897.

The school burned in 1903 and the Trust Fund paid for rebuilding the school.

The church session ran the school for 47 years.

They turned it over to the Mecklenburg Board of Education in 1924.

So Bain Academy, as it was originally known with four buildings, continues today as Bain School, which many folks that are admittedly biased here in Mint Hill still consider to be, you know, the best elementary school in Mecklenburg County.

(gentle music) - [Jason] Now there's one final question to answer about this small town in Southeast Mecklenburg County.

Just how did it get its name?

- Mint Hill got its name when Joshua Waters, who was the postmaster, and he was asked what this area would be named.

And he loved mint tea.

And so even though Mint Hill did have a big role in the gold history of this area, it was the postmaster who named the town and had a love of mint tea.

And now we have Mint Hill.

- [Jason] As Mint Hill expands into the 21st century, those who call it home know why it's so attractive to others.

- There's different reasons why people will come to an area, the warm people, I think that that's a hugely important part of what still animates Mint Hill and makes it special.

- I love other places in Mecklenburg County.

I love South Carolina.

I have a lot of connections and ties in South Carolina and you know, and people ask sometimes, you know, is this where you're going to be?

And, I really can't imagine being anywhere else.

I couldn't imagine what that would look like.

I can't imagine where that would be.

I think that I always look forward to getting, coming home regardless of where I've been.

(bright music) - [Jason] The idea of what defines a small town changes depending on who you ask.

Some see it in the numbers, others in the size of main street, but maybe the real measure of a small town is its sense of community.

So when you visit places like Mint Hill, Belmont, Fort Mill, or Mooresville, take a moment to notice the spirit that still makes them small towns at heart.

Thank you for watching this episode of "Trail of History."

(bright music) (bright music continues) (bright music) - [Announcer] A production of PBS Charlotte.