Historic Downtown Kannapolis
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Description
A walking tour of the revitalized downtown of what was a mill village built to support Cannon Mills
1. Mill Village of Kannapolis
Mill villages abound across North and South Carolina. The region, fertile for cotton, also became the home for massive textile mills, built by wealthy entrepreneurs who found the region’s abundant land and flowing creeks and rivers the perfect area to invest their capital. The mills owners, requiring a massive, local workforce in the late 1800s and early 1900s, before widespread automobile usage or standardized roads, built villages to house their labor force.
2. First Baptist Church
First Baptist Church, founded in 1908 as the Missionary Baptist Church, has been a staple of downtown Kannapolis for well over a century now. First meeting on the second floor of the F.L. Smith Drug Co. building on the main street in Kannapolis, the church quickly outgrew its humble temporary home and moved to its current location, at the corner of First St. and Main St. in 1912.
3. Main Street
While West Avenue, just a block away, is the newer of the central shopping districts, Main St. has a long and storied history in Kannapolis. Early photographs of Main Street dated from 1910 show a very simple, unpaved path with no automobiles and only basic buildings serving as shops. The intersections of 1st St. and Main St., where First Baptist Church now towers over, was affectionately known as “The Square” due to a unique 5-way intersection that featured a diagonal street leading to the main mill facility in the location that Veterans Park now sits, in front of First Baptist Church.
4. Dale Earnhardt Plaza
The Intimidator, namesake of the tallest rollercoaster at the Carowinds theme park and the former name of the minor league baseball team in Kannapolis. The Intimidator was none other than NASCAR driver, Dale Earnhardt. Born in Kannapolis in 1951, Earnhardt is perhaps the most famous son of the mill village.
5. West Avenue
West Avenue, and its offshoot streets, such as West G St., offer a compelling glimpse into early Kannapolis commerce. While Main St., running parallel to West Ave. just one block away, was the main commercial center of early Kannapolis, West Avenue today maintains the most well-preserved shops and structures in downtown Kannapolis. Today, West Avenue is a park-like setting with boutique shops lining one side of the street, and the newly constructed Atrium Ballpark on the other.
6. Gem Theater
The Gem Theater was originally built in 1936 but after a fire six years later, it was rebuilt to its current appearance in 1948. A single screen movie theater, The Gem, as it is called locally, was one of four theaters in Kannapolis built by the Cannon Mills Company to serve the mill workers living in the town.
7. Atrium Ballpark
Baseball, much like auto-racing, has a long history in Kannapolis. The local YMCA, built by Cannon Mills and sporting one of the largest memberships in the country, sponsored various sports teams including basketball and baseball. Photos depict baseball players from the YMCA wearing uniforms that proudly display a cannon, the logo for Cannon Mills, and a Y for the YMCA.
8. David H. Murdock Research Institute
Today, the North Carolina Research Campus sits upon what used to be the sprawling Cannon Mills. In 1905, James William Cannon began construction of a small mill village to be used to house workers for what was to become one of the largest textile mills in the state of North Carolina. Three years later, Plant 1 opened, creating towels made from terrycloth. The mill complex continued to grow, and by the end of World War 1, it had become the largest towel producer in the country.
