Charlotte, North Carolina Local News
Restoring Charlotte’s ‘Black Wall Street’ – Charlotte Magazine
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Under Jim Crow laws in the first half of the 20th century, Black Charlotteans established neighborhoods like Biddleville and Greenville west of uptown near Johnson C. Smith University, the historically Black school founded in 1868. The area became known as West End.
Beginning in the 1960s, urban renewal and the development of Interstates 277 and 77 razed these neighborhoods or cut them off from the rest of the city. J’Tanya Adams realized how many places she’d visited and cherished as a child were disappearing from West End and, in 2010, founded a neighborhood nonprofit, Historic West End Partners. Her goal is to help restore West End’s commercial area along Beatties Ford Road to the center of Black business and opportunity it once was.
The building now houses Heat Press King, a screen-printing and embroidery business, and Sugar Dymes salon (below). Historic West End Partners, a nonprofit founded by J’Tanya Adams (right), is working to revive the Beatties Ford business corridor. Photo by Herman Nicholson
She’s had a strong start. With the help of volunteers and partners, Historic West End Partners has rehabilitated commercial buildings, helped business owners apply for grants, hosted community events, and commissioned murals. During COVID, she helped businesses navigate the U.S. government’s Paycheck Protection Program.
A decade and a half in, her nonprofit has more partners—and funding—than ever, including the Knight Foundation, LISC Charlotte, United Way of Greater Charlotte, Charlotte Center City Partners, Fifth Third Bank, JP Morgan Chase, and Lowe’s. Through those and other connections and knowledge, Historic West End Partners is tackling some of its most ambitious projects to date. Combined, Adams calls the series of projects “Thrive Hub.”
The collective goal of the projects, she explains, is to return the Beatties Ford corridor into a “thriving hub” of Black business as gentrification drives up housing prices and displaces longtime residents. The overall effort involves construction and renovation of buildings; efforts to attract more Black-owned business to the west side; establishment of small-business incubators and youth programs; opening markets and restaurants to improve access to healthy foods; improved access to transportation to complement the Gold Line, extended to Johnson C. Smith in 2021; and more.
“This was like Black Wall Street back in its heyday,” Adams says of the area. “We’re going to restore it.”
Four Thrive Hub Projects
1. BUILDING NEAR FIVE POINTS PLAZA
Name and address TBD
Historic West End Partners is working with 10 other nonprofits to renovate and outfit a six-story, mixed-use building near Five Points Plaza, where Beatties Ford Read, Rozzelles Ferry Road, West 5th Street, and West Trade Street intersect. Five Points is the historic gateway to West End; the plaza is a park and public space for cultural events that opened in 2022 with the help of a $6 million investment from the city. The building will be home to a food co-op; mixed-income housing; co-working space; a mobility hub, with scooters, bikes, and cars for rent as well as ride-sharing; and more—made possible in large part by a $394,000 grant from the Knight Foundation. Adams predicts the project will be completed by 2027.
2. THRIVE INCUBATORS
1111 and 1017 Beatties Ford Road
Last year, Historic West End Partners leased two houses it’s turned into incubators for up-and-coming businesses. In January, an herbal tea lounge, The Pauline Tea-Bar Apothecary, opened its second location inside 1017 Beatties Ford. It’ll share the building with local videographer Duvale Murchison, who’s opening a studio. Kemuel and Eunice Murray, who took over Morrison Cleaners and Alterations in SouthPark in 2017, are preparing to open 704 Cleaners & Alterations at 1111 Beatties Ford, alongside vision center Black Pearl Vision.
3. THRIVE FOOD & EVENTS
1121 Beatties Ford Road
In May, Historic West End Partners bought its first real estate, a small shopping center at 1121 Beatties Ford. It renovated a commercial kitchen with the help of DPR Construction and United Way of Greater Charlotte and funding from Uwharrie and Fifth Third banks, and turned part of the building into a restaurant incubator and events venue. In June, a New Orleans restaurant startup called Bite Your Tongue opened there. Beatties Ford Express, a convenience store on the other end of the shopping center, is partnering with Thrive Food & Events to carry more fresh foods and premade meals, all purchasable with WIC and EBT.
4. THRIVE TEAMERS YOUTH HUB
2600 Newland Road
Last year, Adams hired her first full-time employee, Program Manager Chris Troutman. A former middle school teacher, coach, and student engagement specialist for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and Wilson STEM Academy, Troutman now runs Historic West End Partner’s new youth program. In addition to providing events and programming for community kids and teens, the program has renovated a building on Newland Road with an $85,000 Lowe’s Hometowns grant. “We have a lot of kids in the neighborhood who are getting in trouble because they have idle time,” he says. “We’re trying to keep them out of trouble by giving them stuff they would like to do” and a safe place to hang out. The Youth Hub includes classrooms, a therapy room, and a weight room, and Troutman is also working to add a culinary program.
Eight West End Businesses
The Pauline Tea-Bar Apothecary’s second location, inside a Thrive Hub building. Photo by Herman Nicholson
Chef Martine Courtney Clark serves dishes from her native New Orleans, like gumbo, jambalaya, ya-ka-mein, and alligator. 1121 Beatties Ford Road
The Pauline Tea-Bar Apothecary
Sherry Waters opened this second location of her herbal tea lounge to be a calming third space with inviting decor and diffused essential oils. Waters offers teas and locally made sandwiches and pastries. (Its original location, on 2326 Arty Ave., opened in 2019.) 1017 Beatties Ford Road
The mechanic shop is adding rentable bays equipped with tools if you want to DIY. 2116 Beatties Ford Road
This counseling agency works to help “individuals, families, and communities heal from trauma following a domestic violence incident.” 1107 Beatties Ford Road, Ste. A
This vision center sells glasses from Black designers as well as contact lenses from its own facility in Florida, which owner Shante Williams says is the only Black female-owned contact lens manufacturer in the world. 1111 Beatties Ford Road
Formerly in NoDa, this juice bar is relocating to West End to sell its pressed juices and smoothies. 2020 Beatties Ford Road
Coming soon
Videographer and film producer Duvale Murchison is opening a studio for his business, Duvale Murchison Videography, which he’s operated out of Huntersville since 2016. 1017 Beatties Ford Road
704 Dry Cleaners and Alterations
Coming soon
In addition to dry cleaning, 704 will also offer jewelry and shoe repair, alterations, and embroidery when it opens later this year. 1111 Beatties Ford Road
About Historic West End Partners Founder J’Tanya Adams
Adams with the team at Bite Your Tongue restaurant. Photo by Herman Nicholson
Before she launched Historic West End Partners, Adams spent 21 years as an IT operations manager. But she already knew how to do community work because, the 60-year-old Charlotte native says with a laugh, “I’m a mom.” She pauses, then adds, “I’m a natural. I’ve always been involved in the community, always involved with the youth, their parents. And, having been a single mom, I understand how important it is to have access to resources to thrive.”
Adams grew up and raised her two sons in southwest Charlotte. “But I’d always had a connection, if you will, to this true West Charlotte. … When Brooklyn went through urban renewal, I was probably about 5. And I remembered that there were places that we used to go to when I was a child—East Stonewall AME Zion Church, and my babysitter went to the Mother House of Prayer, so I sat in the pews at one and sat on the steps at the other—and they weren’t there anymore.”
As she learned more about gentrification in west Charlotte, Adams began reaching out to local businesses and residents to see how she could help. She bought a home in West End in 2007, moved in 2008, and “hit the ground running.”
Tess Allen is the associate editor.
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Tess Allen
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