The rule the whole thing runs on
A statement gets published only if it has a source and a date attached to it. If we could not establish something, the page says so. There is no sentence anywhere on this site that exists because it sounded right.
What that produced
| Records | 2,526 |
|---|---|
| Sourced claims | 1,938 |
| Of those, independent | 622 |
| Sources | 1,087 |
| Images, each one looked at | 176 |
| Pages generated | 71 |
Three things we do differently
Current details stay with the operator
Use the responsible organization for current opening hours, prices, admission, menus and schedules. Some guides explain a dated offer, planning example or source disagreement; the check date and limits belong beside that information. Those examples are not a live operating schedule or a promise for your visit.
We check that a link still belongs to the business
Opening a link and reading what the page calls itself found 26 Charlotte businesses whose domains had been taken over — mostly by overseas gambling sites, all returning a perfectly healthy HTTP 200. A link checker cannot catch that. None of them are linked from here, and none of them are described as closed either, because losing a domain is not the same as shutting.
We looked at every photograph
Seven images passed a metadata check and failed a visual one — including a postcard of Antwerp filed as Charlotte, and a monument in South Carolina filed as a North Carolina historic site because the filename said so. A filename is a claim, not evidence.
What is deliberately absent
- An events calendar. It is the fastest thing on any local site to rot. We link to the people who maintain real ones instead.
- Neighbourhood crime rankings. We have no methodology that would make one honest, and a ranking would harm the places and people named.
- Age-restricted retail. A scope decision, not a judgement.
- Superlatives. Where a business calls itself award-winning without naming the award, we quote it and attribute it. We never repeat it in our own voice.
What is not finished
Most records in the directory are verified listings rather than researched entries, and the site shows you which is which — open the source count beside a record to see exactly what was established and from where. Images cover a small fraction of records, and there is no photograph at all of the three businesses this guide's publisher recommends. Of Mecklenburg County's 105 National Register nominations, 35 have now been read line by line; the remaining 70 are the best source of independent history still untouched.
Site build 2026-10-15.