Brooklyn: the neighbourhood Charlotte demolished

Brooklyn

Charlotte's urban-renewal program destroyed Brooklyn over the 1960s and 1970s. Homes, businesses, churches and other institutions were removed, and the community was dispersed.

UNC Charlotte's Atkins Library research guide reports 1,480 demolished homes and 1,007 displaced families, many moving to the city's north and west. The university's Brooklyn Oral History project dates the broader renewal program to 1960–1977. Its timeline places the start of the fifth stage in 1969, so the guide's shorter 1960–1967 wording should not be read as the end of all five stages. These are the sources' reported figures; their differing dates and counting terms have not been reconciled here against the original redevelopment records.

What was there

After emancipation, formerly enslaved people settled in the area earlier known as Logtown. Brooklyn became a predominantly Black neighborhood with institutions serving a community excluded from many of the city's white institutions. Its schools, shops, churches, medical practices and other businesses were part of everyday life, not simply a list of landmarks. Levine Museum's account

• Myers Street School served Black children in Brooklyn. UNC Charlotte's Brooklyn timeline dates its opening there to 1886
• Second Ward High School opened in 1923 as Charlotte's first public high school for Black students. It was not the city's only Black high school until its 1969 closure: West Charlotte opened in 1938. Second Ward history, West Charlotte alumni history
• The Brevard Street Library opened in 1905 to serve Black readers. Charlotte Mecklenburg Library identifies it as the first library of its kind in North Carolina. The Carnegie Library's 1903 charter provided for the separate institution; Brevard Street became a branch of the Charlotte Public Library in 1929. Library history
• The A.M.E. Zion Publishing House produced denominational publications, including the weekly Star of Zion. Atkins Library's research guide describes the publishing house as a place where Black men could gain training and white-collar employment. That interpretation has a cited source in the guide; its underlying exhibit is no longer available. Atkins guide and footnotes, historical newspaper evidence

How it was taken

Road building, zoning and redevelopment reshaped Brooklyn. The university's timeline records Independence Boulevard cutting through the community, its industrial zoning in 1947, and the later renewal phases. Its chronology also records a 1962 federal warning about displacement and the need for low-income housing. Brooklyn timeline

The Atkins guide draws on Kelly Alexander's NAACP papers to describe residents' objections to relocation plans made without their participation and fears that they would lose homes without adequate alternatives. It reports that the renewal did not provide replacement homes for those demolished. These claims are attributed to the guide; the individual letters and redevelopment accounts have not all been independently inspected for this article. Guide and archival references

Calling a neighborhood “blighted” was part of the redevelopment authorities' case for clearance. It does not replace residents' accounts of the community they lost.

What survives

The Mecklenburg Investment Company Building stands at 233 South Brevard Street. Completed in 1922 for Black investors and professionals, it included offices and an upstairs lodge hall. Its National Register nomination credits William W. Smith as contractor and designer and describes the patterned brickwork. It does not identify him as a separately appointed architect. National Register nomination

The Second Ward High School Gymnasium, at 710 East Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, opened in January 1949. Mecklenburg County's landmark account separately labels its construction “ca. 1948”; opening and construction dates are different facts. It is the surviving building of the former school. County landmark history

Seeing Brooklyn today

South Brevard Street and the gym give a visit specific points of reference. View buildings from public space and check with the operator before planning to enter; a historic designation is not permission for public access. Do not infer today's occupancy or entry arrangements from a historical photograph.

The county operates Second Ward Gym for fitness, athletics, camps and other programs. Check its current program and visitor information before going. This guide does not promise a drop-in museum, interior tour, particular opening hours or an exhaustive count of surviving Brooklyn buildings.

Why this page exists

A cleared landscape can hide the community that once occupied it. Brooklyn's history is also a history of residents building institutions under segregation, opposing displacement and preserving their memories after the neighborhood was broken apart.

The Historic West End mapping project documents another part of Black Charlotte, including community survival and concerns about displacement. The two histories deserve to be read together without treating their neighborhoods as interchangeable.

Going further

Start with the Atkins Library guide for its bibliography and archival leads. The Brooklyn Oral History project offers interviews with former residents and people involved in the neighborhood's history. Their accounts add experiences that aggregate demolition figures cannot convey.

Rose Leary Love's memoir, Plum Thickets and Field Daisies, is another route into Brooklyn's everyday life. It is listed in the guide's collection references.

Sources and limits

Checked October 4, 2026, America/New_York. University guides, institutional histories and the building nomination do not always use matching periods or definitions. Exact demolition totals remain attributed; current redevelopment litigation, sale prices, new-school projections and visitor operations beyond the linked gym information are not settled by this article. Historical context and current access should be checked separately.