By Sonja Whitemon
Drive up U.S. Highway I-77, take exit 23 in Huntersville, N.C., and you enter a small slice of American history. The historic Pottstown neighborhood was created by formerly enslaved people after the Civil War.
Pottstown is named for Ortho Potts. “He was a very prominent man. He moved here from around the Asheville area. He was a farmer and a brick mason, and he was highly sought after for his brickwork,” explained Pottstown historian and author Bee Jay Caldwell.
According to Caldwell, when Mr. Potts migrated to the Huntersville area, free Black people, such as indentured servants and descendants of the enslaved people were relegated to a certain area of town.
“The slave quarters,” she said were about a block from the area where Mr. Ortho settled. “It is near where central Piedmont’s north campus is now.” Those families built their churches, their schools and their homes there. Many of those buildings still exist. St. Phillips Missionary Baptist Church, built in 1876 in Huntersville, celebrated its 148th anniversary this year; also, Huntersville AME Zion Church was built in 1898. Ten churches in the area were built by formerly enslaved people more than 100 years ago. During this period after the Civil War ended in 1865, and throughout the Jim Crow era, Black Americans were restricted in even the most basic aspects of life. Segregation was strictly enforced in areas that included public parks, restrooms, and restaurants; so Black children certainly were not allowed to attend schools with white children.
There was no school for Black children in Huntersville. They had to travel to schools in other parts of Mecklenburg County, some even moved in with relatives who lived near schools designated for Black students. Most Black children only attended school three months out of the year because they helped plant and harvest crops. Cotton was a major industry. Julius Rosenwald, a very wealthy philanthropist and businessman, was a part owner and president of Sears Roebuck. He was instrumental in bringing schools for Black children to southern states. Rosenwald believed that the Black American’s struggles were much like those of Jewish people throughout history. Upon meeting Booker T. Washington, a former slave and renowned educator and leader of Tuskegee Institute, Rosenwald was convinced to use his wealth toward educating Black children. Through the Rosenwald Fund, an elementary school was developed but there still was no high school for Black children in Huntersville.
The Huntersville Colored School opened in 1937. It was later named Torrence-Lytle High School and was the only high school for Black children in northern Mecklenburg County. Torrence-Lytle was the glue that brought people together. Children came from surrounding cities to attend high school. The school closed in 1966, but the building is still there. It has been recognized as a historic landmark.
The town of Huntersville was incorporated in 1873. Historically known for its cotton farms, today Huntersville is one of the fastest-growing cities in North Carolina and offers upscale living to professional athletes and other highly paid professionals.
The cost of a single-family home in Huntersville can start in the mid-$300,000s and go well above $1 million. With its continued population growth, new commercial and residential developments are sprouting everywhere; so much so that Pottstown residents became concerned about losing their neighborhood to developers. Gentrification had come for Pottstown.
The term gentrification was first used in London in the 1960s to describe the influx of a new “gentry” of wealthy people into low-income neighborhoods. A Brookings Institute report defined gentrification as “…the process by which higher-income households displace low-income residents of a neighborhood, changing the essential character of that neighborhood.”
Gentrification has become common in neighborhoods across the U.S. When it hits, old established neighborhoods are bought out, sometimes house by house, replacing the stability of older neighborhoods with wealthier residents, a higher cost of living and higher property taxes. Often displacing Black residents and creating housing instability and even homelessness for some.
Much of the land and homes in Pottstown are owned by the descendants of the formerly enslaved and free Black people, such as former indentured servants and sharecroppers who owned the land and built the homes in the 1800s. The residents, former residents, descendants and their families want to retain their land and homes as well as the culture and history of Pottstown.
“[Pottstown] is rich in history,” said Latoya Rivers, member of the Huntersville Board of Commissioners. “The structure [of the houses may not be much but the land is rich and people don’t understand,” she said. Rivers said she can track the beginnings of gentrification in Pottstown to about 20 years ago.
“I remember a developer came in and he purchased a lot of land around the community,” Rivers said “He would offer people maybe like $20,000 to purchase their homes and some people felt like that was plenty for them and sold. So, to sell out and not really understand the value of what you have or what your ancestors created for you is really disheartening.”
In 2022, residents were concerned about a proposed subdivision called Valea Village. They worried about increased traffic and likely tax increases among other concerns. The development was to be a community of 36 single-family homes on 30 acres of vacant land that borders Pottstown.
Ultimately, Mecklenburg County Commissioners unanimously voted to purchase the property for $1,724,000. At the time, County Commissioner Pat Cotham was quoted as saying, “It was just the right thing to do. We believe in equity and diversity and the history. It just made sense for us to do this and protect it for history as we have protected other properties.”
The County is working with residents to determine future plans for the property.
