As part of historical research members of our neighborhood have recently been conducting, we generated this overlay map using a circa World War 2 aerial image of historic Westside Davidson to highlight local streets and historic landmarks. The open space in upper left corner of image just north of Armour Street is Hobbs Hill. Numerous historic landmarks exist thru-out the local area – four of the highlighted (yellow) structures visible in this image are officially “Designated Historic Landmarks” by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission. Other notable items include:
(1) Roosevelt-Wilson Park and its Pond system, as well as the Westside Terrace neighborhood were not yet built because that land was not acquired by Duke Power until the early 1960’s during the construction/development of Cowan’s Ford Dam and Lake Norman;
(2) “Sadler Square”, today a commercial property that is home to several of Davidson’s most popular businesses including The Egg and Our Town Cinemas Cafe & Taphouse – Davidson, was a baseball field during this era – the current building was not built until 1979;
(3) Several local roads that today exist in this area, including Beaty Street, Houston Street and Magnolia Street were not yet constructed during this era – Griffith Street did not extend beyond Sloan Street or Watson Street at this time because Interstate 77 was not built thru Davidson until the mid-1960’s;
(4) The site of the Armour Street Theatre-Davidson Community Players was originally an historic mill house before being replaced by the current brick building constructed circa 1960 as First Baptist Church.