HUNTERSVILLE, N.C (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — It’s been a while since neighbors could visit what’s now known as Historic Latta Place, and when they do go back, it’ll look completely different. It’s part of Mecklenburg County plans to create a new chapter in the site’s history.
And community members were eager to hear the new plans for the site that fronts Mountain Island Lake. It had been closed since 2021 after a proposed controversial Juneteenth event forced county leaders to rethink how they wanted to showcase the property it was then leasing to the nonprofit. It even came with a name change.
“It feels like a relief,” said Kendall Kendrick, executive director of the Charlotte Trail of History. “We’ve been doing this research for three-and-a-half years now and putting so much effort and energy into what’s to come.”
Mecklenburg County’s Bert Lynn was the project’s capital planning director. The Park and Recreation division director says they wanted to present the site in a way that represents truth, transparency, compassion, transformation and unity.
He says the design concept took about three years to compile using more than 120 responses from residents, historical research, and analyses.
The site will also pay tribute to the predominantly Black community that flooded out when Lake Norman was created in the 1960s.
“It’s about remembering things that were that aren’t anymore and making sure that we tell stories that reflect in a truthful way the way that this land was used, specifically the land kind of around this whole site was used over the years and making sure that we identify and pay tribute to the folks who were affected and impacted not just by the homestead or by settlement in general, but also by the modernization of the damming of the river there,” Lynn said.
The indigenous community with ties to the land will also be recognized, and there will be an interpretive trail for more education. Prioritizing history from the perspective of those enslaved at Latta was the most requested aspect of the site.
Janelle Travis has lived in the area nearly her entire life.
“I’m looking forward to seeing all of it,” said Travis. “I mean, it’s just the whole package looks exciting.”
Kendrick was a Latta board member prior to the creation of the controversial event. Since she was a descendant of slave owners from the plantation, she says the reimagination of the site is personal to her.
“I have been part of this site actually for almost eight years,” she said. “And so from the very beginning that I was part of this site, it was my goal to come in and to be honest about that, to admit that and to know that we have a place where we can do some healing together as a community, people who come to see the site and I’ve and I’ve witnessed it and I’ve seen it happen.”
Construction is projected to begin in late 2025, hoping to open for visitors in 2026.
