City Departments

Planning Department

History

Starting Out

Gastonia, centered in the middle of Gaston County, began as a railroad junction settlement between the Charlotte and Atlanta Airline Railroad, now the Southern Railway, and the Chester and Lenoir Narrow Gauge line. The location of the railroads in Gaston County shifted the focus of the land from essentially agriculture to what would become one of the greatest centers for textile production in the world. By 1876 a population of a little more than 200 people made this junction crossroads, called Gastonia Station, their home. With the increase of employment and social opportunities the community petitioned the North Carolina General Assembly to grant a charter of incorporation. On January 26, 1877, Gastonia incorporated with its limits extending 1/2 mile from the railroad junction.

By 1910 Gastonia was home to 11 cotton mills, a public school system, electric lights and began paving roads. Hence the town of Gastonia grew and slowly outdistanced its neighbors as the central hub of political and social activity and in 1911 replaced Dallas as the county seat.

Also in 1911, Gastonia doubled its size when it annexed the huge Loray Mills and its surrounding settlements (to the west of the city limits). Another significant annexation occurred in 1964 when the city annexed a large tract of land to the east and increased its size again by about one half. This area also includes what is now the retail center for the region.

Drawing courtesy of the Gaston County Museum of Art & Natural History

In 1911 the Piedmont and Northern Railroad (P&N) an interurban line began running from Gastonia to Charlotte and furnished the city with its first and only streetcar. The streetcar ran directly along Franklin Avenue starting at Webb Street and continuing to Church Street. The line continued to Groves Mill before connecting with the P&N. In later years with the increased use of the automobile this location became a source of aggravation for many motorists and in 1948, Gastonia retired its last street car. In the late 1920’s Wilkinson Blvd. was built and became North Carolinas first four lane highway.

Physically, Gastonia has many influences, past and present, affecting its development. Originally people and industries settled along the rivers because of fertile lands and water power. After the technology for steam power became available, factories no longer depended on their location next to water and began setting up along the rail lines to take advantage of their easy and affordable transportation. Naturally, villages followed the mills and Gastonia developed as a collection of dispersed communities complete with their own shopping, civic and religious centers, usually tied to the mill itself. As the population increased and industries diversified, Gastonia began to fill out. Like many other cities that developed under the influence of the automobile Gastonia witnessed a decline of commercial and residential uses in its central core and an increase of strip developments along major thoroughfares. A movement of residential uses to the periphery has also been evident.

The P & N Streetcar traveled on Franklin Blvd. from 1911 to 1948.

By 1930 the population had increased to 17,093 with about 22% of that population employed in the textile mills. Before the end of the year one of two mill workers was unemployed and most employed workers were on part-time schedules. Mill workers brought in from the mountains, skilled only in farming and factory work, were idle unless they could return to the land. December of 1930 saw half of the population unemployed, and the First National Bank closed its doors followed by four other local banks. Textile mills either combined, incorporated, or closed.

Physical and Environmental Setting

Gastonia is located in the Piedmont, a region of rolling hills, frequent streams and rivers, and red clay soils. The Piedmont rises out of the Atlantic Coastal Plain and follows a general northeast to southwest axis, extending from south central Virginia to northeast Georgia. To the west of the Piedmont lie the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains. An oak and hickory forest once covered the region. The original virgin forest has been virtually eliminated through clearance for agriculture, pasture and urban development. Replacing the original forest in undeveloped areas is a second or later growth forest of mixed hardwoods and evergreens. Tree species cultivated today are those that provide benefit to urban areas through beauty, erosion control, privacy and shade. Such trees include oak, maple, dogwood, evergreens, and flowering trees.

Crowders Mountain dominates the horizon as seen from West Hudson Blvd.

Geology

Gastonia’s landscape is a series of rounded hills and ridges that follow a general northeast to southwest direction, with elevations rising toward the west and southwest. The drainage pattern of the watercourses such as Long Creek, Crowder’s Creek and the South Fork River result from the shape and direction of the land in Gastonia and Gaston County. The water also has shaped the land, by cutting through rocks that have unequal resistance to erosion, resulting in a varying pattern of broad and steep valleys. This is what makes the Catawba River such an excellent site for the hydroelectric dams that now straddle it: where the river cuts through resistant rock, it forms a narrow valley that is easily closed off by a dam.

Another dramatic example of the varying resistance of the rocks underneath Gaston County is Crowders Mountain. This mountain, like Kings Mountain, Spencer Mountain and others that jut out from the rolling land around them, are called monadnocks, because they are not part of a range, but are instead the ancient remnants of a time when all the land in this area was at a higher elevation.

A number of important minerals are located in Gastonia and its general vicinity. Gold was first discovered in the region on the Reed farm in Cabarrus County in 1799. For the next 140 years gold was mined with varying success throughout the Charlotte region, including Gaston County. Iron ore was another commercially important resource found in Gaston County. It was found in a belt that extended from Iron Station in Lincoln County southwest to Cleveland County.

Water

Water is of great importance to Gastonia, literally supporting all the life we have. Beyond the use of water for drinking and growing things, it also supports industry in Gastonia and provides opportunities for recreation. Our location near the Catawba River is one of Gastonia’s most important natural features. The Catawba has three man-made lakes which are in close proximity to Gastonia: Lakes Wylie and Norman and Mountain Island Lake. Gastonia draws its drinking water from Mountain Island Lake, which is considered the best source in the region due to its location below Lake Norman, which acts as a large settling basin, allowing sediments and pollutants to drop out of the water. The water released into Mountain Island Lake is thus cleaner and clearer than that of Lake Norman. All three lakes provide recreational opportunities, wildlife habitat, and enhance the quality of life in Gastonia.

The Region

Gastonia lies at the heart of the Piedmont region, equidistant from Atlanta and Raleigh. The Piedmont forms a crescent from south-central Virginia to northwest Georgia, following the corridors of Interstate 85 and the old Southern Railroad. The region has both rural and metropolitan areas. The major metropolitan areas include Raleigh-Durham, Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, Greenville-Spartanburg, and Atlanta. The rural countryside between these metropolitan areas tends to be more densely populated than rural areas in other regions, with an abundance of small farms, homesteads and small towns.

The Piedmont region is the growth engine of the South. Over the last two years, the Southeast has gained 23,000 jobs during a period which saw the loss of 450,000 jobs in the Northeast and West Coast. This gain in jobs in the South has been almost an entirely metropolitan phenomenon, with 90% of the job gain outside Florida and Texas occurring in the metropolitan areas. The Piedmont of the New South has a strong bias for growth, using such tools as relocation incentives, worker training, and wage differentials to attract industry and economic development. The region has been successful in a series of national competitions, from Atlanta’s 1996 Olympics to Greenville-Spartanburg’s BMW plant to Charlotte’s NBA and NFL teams.

Population

In little more than a century, Gastonia has grown from a railroad junction to a large, industrialized city with a diverse population. The chart below shows Gastonia’s population growth from 1880 to 1990.

A moderate, steady and deliberate rate of growth can be the best of both worlds: taxes can be kept low, people remain employed and Gastonia’s community facilities are not stretched to the breaking point, as they are in some dramatically growing communities. Gastonia doesn’t face the traffic, overcrowded schools and other quality-of-life problems of “explosive growth” communities.