Lincolnton North Carolina

Looking for a home in the friendly historic town of Lincolnton NC.

Located on the quiet side of Charlotte, Lincolnton NC is a delightful surprise to visitors. Our distinguished downtown, engaging history and quality accommodations will leave you wondering why it took so long to find us.

Premiere Lincolnton NC Real Estate Agents

	Specializing in developing a unique and dynamic relationship with the client in order to meet their relocation needs from Lake Norman to the North Carolina Mountains. It's all about the client not the commission! Phillip S. Payseur  - Marc 1 Realty Cell: 704-674-0794 Office 704-489-1339 ext 134 www.marc1realty.com
	Proudly serving Lake Norman, Lincolnton, Denver, Mooresville, Davidson, Cornelius and Charlotte areas. COMPLIMENTARY Area Information Package and Relocation Package. FREE Home Warranty offered to Buyers and Sellers! Search the local MLS from my website! Wendy Moosavi - ABR Cell: 704-400-9210 Office:704-489-6959 www.southlakerealty.net

With a population just over 10,000, Lincolnton has maintained its small town charm while providing big city opportunities.

Ask a dozen residents what makes Lincolnton so special and you'll get a dozen different answers. One will describe an atmosphere and way of life you thought had disappeared. Another will smile at the opportunity to talk about the way residents treat each other and newcomers and visitors like family. A third will delight in describing our stately courthouse and classic downtown. But all will agree that our location-with hiking and horseback riding in the nearby South Mountains, sailing and fishing on Lake Norman, North Carolina's largest lake, and our close proximity to Charlotte, North Carolina's largest city-makes us North Carolina's Best Kept Secret.

Lincolnton was established as the county seat of Lincoln County in 1785. It was laid out with a central courthouse surrounded by a grid plan of streets, blocks, and lots with four primary streets—East Main, West Main, North Aspen and South Aspen—leading from the court-house and dividing the town into quadrants. Over time, development in Lincolnton filled the original grid plan, expanded it, and eventually moved beyond it while maintaining the four principal arteries like compass points. Due to a steady influx of pioneers to North Carolina’s backcountry, by 1840 Lincoln County was one of the largest and most populous counties in North Carolina. It led the state in the value of many farm products, including wheat, orchard products and dairy products and was among the top producers of cotton and livestock statewide. In the late eighteenth century, forges and furnaces in Lincoln County were among many that were established in the western Piedmont. By 1849, the county’s ironworks lead the industry in North Carolina, producing large quantities of iron castings, bar iron, and wrought iron tools. Other manufacturing activities such as saw mills, grist mills, tanneries, paper mills, and potteries bolstered the economy.

Of particular significance, around 1813 Michael Schenck established the first successful textile mill south of New England. In 1816 it was destroyed by a flood, but three years later Schenck, James Bivens, and John Hoke erected a larger plant, the Lincoln Cotton Mills, on the South Fork of the Catawba River, which operated until the Civil War.

Lincolnton grew into a prosperous center of trade, culture and government. In 1800 forty-eight whites and forty-four slaves lived in town. In 1816, growth had continued to the point where the General Assembly authorized the laying off of additional lots in the town on land previously set aside, reserving tracts for an academy and a church. By 1820, the number if town lots had expanded from the original 100 to 161. The sale of town lots provided for the construction, ca. 1821, of the Pleasant Retreat Academy for male students. Several years later a female academy was constructed (Brown and York, 262).

Lincolnton continued to grow. According to the Lincoln Courier, by 1845 five attorneys maintained offices along East Main Street, six physicians had their offices along both East and West Main Street, and merchants surrounded the courthouse. Additionally the town supported four hotels, four grocers, three tailors, a watchmaker and jeweler, a printer, three saddle and harness makers, five coach factories, five blacksmiths, a cabinetmaker, two tanners, two hat manufacturers, two shoemakers, and a coppersmith, as well as five carpenters and two brick masons (Brown and York, 263).

Political developments in the 1840s, however, had a sobering effect on Lincolnton’s future. In 1841 Cleveland County was formed out of part of Lincoln County, followed by the creation of Catawba County in 1842 and Gaston County in 1846. As a result Lincoln County was reduced from over 1800 square miles to 305 square miles. In the 1840s’ partitions, Lincoln County lost prime farmlands and important factory sites to the new counties, and much of the county’s momentum for growth was curtailed (Brown and York, 244,263).

Growth in Lincoln County’s population remained static during the mid-nineteenth century and progressed at a slow pace throughout much of the second half of the century. In 1887, the editor of the of the Lincoln Courier wrote that “Lincolnton is not dead. Her condition is simply comatose….” (Brown and York, 271).

With the beginning of a new century, Lincolnton began to flourish once more. A variety of new businesses improved the local economy, yet they were surpassed in their impact by a growing number of textile mills located in and around Lincolnton that took advantage of the South Fork of the Catawba River and two rail lines. The town’s population increased from 828 in 1900 to 2,413 in 1910; by 1920 it had reached 3,390. The early twentieth century saw building activity greatly increase in Lincolnton, with brick stores replacing frame structures around the court square.

Today Lincolnton’s history is reflected in its downtown and residential historic districts adjacent to downtown.

South Aspen Street National Register Historic District
The South Aspen Street Historic District is a cohesive and distinctive area where over 70 historic resources form a microcosm of Lincolnton’s residential and institutional development from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century.

The West Main Street National Register Historic District
The West Main Street Historic District possesses among its eighteen primary and eight secondary resources the largest surviving collection of buildings erected in Lincolnton during the nineteenth century prior to the Civil War—that period when the county seat experienced its greatest period of prosperity and influence. The buildings reflect the Federal and Greek revival styles of architecture. Complementing the buildings from the first half of the nineteenth century up to the civil war, the district also contains houses from the first three decades of the twentieth century that are good representatives of the transitional late Victorian/Colonial Revival, Colonial Revival, bungalow/Craftsman and period cottage styles popular during those years.

Phillip, Laura A.W., “Lincolnton Historical Background”
West Main Street National Register
District Nomination 2002

National Register of Historic Places
Lincoln County has 23 historic resources listed on the National Register of Historic Places including six downtown church buildings

Caldwell-Cobb-Love House
Emmanuel Lutheran Church
Emanuel United Church of Christ
Former First Baptist Church
First Presbyterian Church
First United Methodist Church
William A. Graham Jr. Farm (Round Barn)
Ingleside
Lincoln County Courthouse
Loretz House
Magnolia Grove
Methodist Church Cemetery
Mount Welcome
Old White Church Cemetery
Pleasant Retreat Academy
Rock Springs Camp Meeting Ground
Salem Union Church and Cemetery
Andrew Seagle Farm
Shadow Lawn
St. Luke’s Church and Cemetery
Tucker’s Grove Camp Meeting Grounds
Vesuvius Furnace
Woodside

Source: Lincolnton NC