Allen Tate is proud to be a part of more than 40 local communities throughout the Carolinas – each unique in their own ways. Here’s a glimpse into how some of the wonderful cities and towns we call home got their unique names.
Our Charming Towns
Once known as Garibaldi, early residents near the current site of Belmont, NC began to set up their homes around the colonial Fort at the Point, built in the 1750s by Dutch settler James Kuykendall and others Although never attacked, the fort was reportedly built because of ongoing hostilities with the Cherokees. Years later, the town was named in honor of August Belmont, a prominent New York banker.
There are several theories on how Powdersville, SC got its name. One is that the Powdersville area general stores sold gunpowder, which could be seen on the ground about town, causing travelers to remark, “This must be Powdersville.” Similarly, the settlement served as a gunpowder storage area during the Civil War, which may have given it its name. Or, it could be that it was a stopping point for lady travelers to “powder their noses.”
Originally home to the Catawba Indians, Fort Mill, SC has been continuously settled since the arrival of Thomas “Kanawha” Spratt in the mid-1700s. Originally called Little York, and later Fort Hill, Fort Mill eventually took its name from a colonial-era British fort and gristmill located on nearby Steele Creek.
Back in the late 1700s, in what is now Concord, NC, there was a disagreement between the German and Scots-Irish settlers in the area over where the county seat of the newly formed county of Cabarrus should be located. The new county seat was founded in 1796 and named Concord, meaning “harmony,” to reflect the spirit of its founders’ willingness to work together toward an agreeable resolution.
The town of Asheboro, NC was named for Samuel Ashe, North Carolina governor from 1795-1798 (as was Asheville, NC).
High Point, NC got its name because the railroad and the main road in the newly formed town intersected at the highest railroad point.
Located eight miles from Greensboro, Oak Ridge, NC gets it name as the location for Oak Ridge Military Academy (ORMA), a private, coed, college-preparatory military boarding school. Founded in 1852, it is the third-oldest military school in the nation still in operation, and it is the official military school of North Carolina, as designated by the state legislature.
The site of Greer, SC was originally called the old Blakely Place, a 200-acre farm owned by James Manning Greer.
Our Bustling Cities
Sir Walter Raleigh
Greenville, South Carolina, like many cities in the Carolinas, found itself in the middle of the brutal southern front of the Revolutionary War. In 1786, it is thought the state legislature formed Greenville (originally spelled Greeneville) County, naming it for General Nathanael Greene, the legendary hero of the American Revolution southern campaign. However, other sources say the county and city were named either after the early settler Isaac Green, or simply the beauty of the area.
Greensboro, North Carolina is thought to also have taken its name from Nathaniel Greene, whose influence obviously reached far and near in both our area and United States history.
Raleigh, North Carolina was called the “Cittie of Raleigh” as far back as 1587, named for its founder, English explorer and adventurer, Sir Walter Raleigh.
The city of Winston-Salem is over a century old, but at one time stood as two separate cities with two separate origins. The Town of Winston was named to honor Colonel Joseph Winston, another Revolutionary war hero who helped the American colonies break away from British rule. Its Moravian settlers named the town of Salem after the biblical city of the same name. It is derived from the words “shalom” and “salaam,” meaning “peace.”
The Queen City, best known as Charlotte, North Carolina, was named after the wife of England’s King George III in 1768. She was the German-born Queen Charlotte from the kingdom of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Charlotte was descended directly from an African branch of the Portuguese Royal House, Margarita de Castro y Sousa, making her Britain’s first African-American queen.
Nicknamed the “Southern Part of Heaven,” Chapel Hill was named after New Hope Chapel once located on a hill at the crossing of two main roads (where you’ll find The Carolina Inn).
In 1805 the area around what is now Wake Forest, NC was designated as the Forest District, largely for the enormous forest north of the Neuse River. The area was also sometimes referred to as the Forest of Wake. Dr. Calvin Jones, who owned a 615-acre plantation (the land most of the town stands on today), began heading his letters as coming from Wake Forest
Out in the Counties
The Falls of Neuse area in Wake County runs along the road of the same name. The “falls” are really no more than rapids, which existed on the Neuse River near the Falls of Neuse bridge until the completion of Falls Lake in 1983. Most of the falls are submerged under Falls Lake, though the stretch of the Neuse surrounding the bridge still runs through some rapids.
The popular and growing Ballantyne area of Mecklenburg County was named for developer Smoky Bissell’s aunt, Barbara Ballantyne.
Lake Norman, named for retired Duke Power president Norman Atwater Cocke, is bordered by four counties: Mecklenburg, which was named for the home province of Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III; Catawba, which was named for the Catawba Indians, (who actually called themselves Eswataroa, meaning great river); Lincoln County named for Benjamin Lincoln, not Abraham Lincoln; and Iredell named for James Iredell.
In 1899, Dr. Walker Gill Wylie, a physician, and his brother, Dr. Robert H. Wylie, conceived a plan to build a hydro station at India Hook Shoals in York County, SC to generate power to a nearby textile mill. That plan became Lake Wylie. Reaching into Mecklenburg and Gaston County, NC, Lake Wylie is the drinking water source for both Belmont and Rock Hill.
Do you know local lore about how the place you live got its name? Share with us!
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