Uptown Charlotte Walking Tour: A Guide to the Heart of Queen City

Step into the shoes of the Queen City’s earliest residents on a walking tour from Independence Square, the highest point in Uptown Charlotte and the rumored cradle of American liberty. We’ll visit the Old Settlers Cemetery, where you’ll find the graves of American Revolutionary War heroes, and the predecessors of US Presidents. From there, you’ll get acquainted with the who’s who of Charlotte’s fearless patriots and hear the controversial and contested story of how North Carolina declared independence from the British a full year before the rest of the colonies!

I’ll tell you how North Carolina, and not California, experienced the first gold rush, creating a need for the first ever US Branch Mint. I’ll show you where the original Branch Mint was and where it was later moved, brick by painstaking brick. I’ll point out several churches including both St. Peter’s Catholic Church and St Peter’s Episcopal Church, and the former First Baptist Church which is now the McGlohon Theater. Along the way, we’ll pass the building where a dozen businessmen leapt to their deaths, the Dunhill Hotel, which locals believe is still haunted by their ghosts to this day.

During the tour, I’ll shed light on questions like:

• What exactly is Cheerwine, the North Carolina drink that’s been made for over a century, and is it worth drinking?
• How did Charlotte become the second largest banking capital in the United States?
• How much of the Hunger Games was filmed in the city’s literary-themed park, the Green?
• Why is NASCAR such a big deal in the city?
• Where is the most photographed spot in Charlotte?

By the time we reach Romare Bearden Park, where our tour ends, you’ll have a much greater appreciation for the Queen City, its history and its cultural corners. While this walk can be completed in 90 minutes, I suggest you take time to fully immerse yourself in the city and all that it offers.