Tryon Street. Touch-Me-Not Lane. How some Charlotte streets got their names

Several Charlotte street names were recently changed after some were found to have ties to Confederate leaders, The Charlotte Observer reported.

A few streets The Charlotte Legacy Commission recommended in 2021 to be renamed were Jefferson Davis Street, W Hill Street, Stonewall Street, Jackson Avenue, and Phifer Avenue.

“During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, monuments were erected in public spaces, and streets were named for local and regional Confederate leaders,” The Legacy Commission wrote in their review of final recommendations.

Willie Griffin, a commission member, shared that in his review, many streets have ties to slavery as almost every person-named street that dates back before the 1880s commemorates a family that enslaved people.

Griffin mentioned street names with ties to slavery feature titles like Tryon, Alexander, Caldwell, Brevard, Johnston, and Rea, along with streets named after U.S. founding fathers like Washington, Madison, or Jefferson.

But what about streets like Tryon Street, W.T. Harris Boulevard, and Touch-Me-Not Lane?

How do Charlotte streets get their names?

The Charlotte Planning, Design, and Development Department says there’s a method to naming streets.

“Street names for new subdivision streets are proposed by the Developer responsible for building the street and approved by Mecklenburg County Addressing,” City of Charlotte program manager and subdivision administrator Joshua Weaver wrote in an email to The Charlotte Observer.

“The Planning Department coordinates the review and approval of new streets with many departments within the City and Mecklenburg County,” Weaver said.

“New streets/names are submitted by developers to the City of Charlotte NC Land Development, and approved by our GIS Addressing Program Supervisor and Mecklenburg County LUESA-GIS,” Charlotte Department of Transportation spokesperson Lawrence Corley III said in an email to The Charlotte Observer.

Outside of street names The Legacy Commission recommended for renaming, the city of Charlotte requires 75% of the signatures of property owners on that street.

The history behind the names

During World War I, Charlotte’s Camp Greene trained soldiers. Remount Road was the road that ran past the cavalry stables, according to Tom Hanchett, a community historian in Charlotte.

WT Harris was founded by Harris grocery stores in the 1930s, “which subsequently merged with the small Mooresville-based Teeter chain to become Harris Teeter,” Hanchett said.

Much later in life, Harris became Mecklenburg County Commissioner.

“He worked hard to win approval of a new thoroughfare that would connect Independence Boulevard and Interstate 85, running past UNC Charlotte,” Hanchett said.

Sharon Road is one of the city’s several “Presbyterian streets.” Many early European settlers here were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians.

“Their churches became geographical landmarks. Sharon Road went from the center city out to Sharon Presbyterian Church (still in existence just south of SouthPark Mall),” Hanchett said.

Other streets named for Presbyterian churches include Sardis, Carmel, and Providence.

Tryon Street was named for William Tryon, once a Colonial Governor of North Carolina and New York. Tryon Street “follows the route of a much older Native American trading path,” Hanchett said.

As for Touch-Me-Not Lane, Hanchett says he has “no idea.”