I caught up today with Dan Morrill, historian-about-town (he’s a UNC Charlotte history prof and consulting director for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission) and he offered perspective on the Wachovia debacle and how Charlotte has faced similar economic crises in the past. (A quick tip o the hat, also, to Charlotte historian Tom Hanchett’s book “Sorting Out the New South City,” which I used to fill in some details.)
“The current situation is serious. It is catastrophic. But is is hardly unprecedented,” Morrill told me.
Charlotte was once a gold town — gold mines, companies that supported mining, even a mint making gold coins. Then came the California gold rush. “All the gold mines left, and the gold mining companies left,” Morrill said. The banks declined.
Three Charlotte men — lawyer J.W. Osborne, physician C.J. Fox, and merchant/lawyer William Johnston — decided the city needed revitalizing and they pushed to build a railroad. In 1852 the first passenger train of the Charlotte & South Carolina Railroad arrived. In 1854 the North Carolina Railroad arrived. “It made Mecklenburg for the first time a functioning part of North Carolina,” Hanchett wrote. The railroads, Morrill said, “made Charlotte what it is.”
The Civil War was an economic catastrophe for Charlotte, he said. So was the Great Depression.
After the Civil War, Edward Dilworth Latta and D.A. Tomkins launched the region’s industrial age with cotton mills.
After the Depression, mayor and businessman Ben Douglas pushed for an airport. That built the city’s role in commerce and distribution.
In each case, Morrill said, the decisive factor was assertive leadership.
Ahem. Who will play that role today? Politicians, who must always look to the next election, usually have a hard time taking a long-term view. The business oligarchy — is that really the best leadership model for the 21st century?
My prediction is we’ll see nonprofits — foundations and philanthropic funders — stepping in to play an expanded role.