North Mecklenburg
The History of Huntersville, North Carolina
A town of 431 people in 1890 is a town of nearly 70,000 today. Almost all of that happened in living memory, and all of it happened because of two things laid across the same ground eighty years apart: a railroad and a lake.
When it was Craighead
The settlement here was first called Craighead, for the Reverend Alexander Craighead of Sugaw Creek Presbyterian Church in Charlotte. The surrounding country had been settled by Scots-Irish and German families in the middle of the eighteenth century, arriving overland from Pennsylvania.
In 1873 the name changed to Huntersville, for Robert Boston Hunter, a local cotton farmer and landowner from a prominent family, and the town was incorporated the same year. Sources differ on whether to say chartered or incorporated, and none of them gives a day or month.
The railroad
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission puts it flatly: the Atlantic, Tennessee and Ohio Railroad tracks provided the impetus for the town’s development. They still run parallel to Main Street. The A.T.&O. was incorporated in Tennessee in February 1852 and in North Carolina in February 1855, and its 45-mile Charlotte to Statesville line was finished in 1860 at five-foot gauge.
In 1863 the Confederate government pulled the railroad up and used the rails and iron to build the Piedmont Railroad. It was rebuilt with state bonds and reopened in 1871 — two years before Huntersville took its name. The line later became part of Norfolk Southern.
Cotton and schools
Anchor Mills, a cotton spinning plant, opened in 1898. Huntersville High School Academy had opened twenty years earlier in 1878 and is described as one of the first two high schools in western North Carolina. The building at 100 Main Street originally housed the North Mecklenburg Bank.
One widely repeated claim about the town’s origins — that it grew up around a cotton weighing platform beside the tracks — appears only on commercial and real-estate pages. No landmarks commission, state or National Register source supports it, so treat it as local tradition.
What still stands
Huntersville has no National Register historic district. What it has instead is an unusual density of individually listed properties and roughly thirty-six locally designated landmarks. The National Register listings include Cedar Grove (1972), Latta Place (1972), Holly Bend (1972), the Benjamin W. Davidson House (1976), St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (1984), Ramah Presbyterian Church and Cemetery (1991), Hopewell Presbyterian Church and Cemetery (1996) and Ingleside (2020).
Hopewell is where General William Lee Davidson is buried after he was killed at Cowan’s Ford in 1781. The Hugh Torance House and Store on Gilead Road began as a log structure built between 1780 and the early 1800s, with a frame house added in 1796. Hugh Torance was an Irish immigrant who arrived about 1763; at his death in 1816 he held more than 1,400 acres and owned thirty-three enslaved people.
Latta Place was built about 1800 by James Latta, an Irish immigrant who came to America in 1785 and began as a traveling merchant hauling Philadelphia and Charleston goods by Conestoga wagon. He turned to cotton, and at his death in 1837 owned at least twenty-five enslaved people. The site closed in 2021 after controversy over a planned event and is under an $11.2 million county renovation.
Torrence-Lytle
The Torrence-Lytle School on Holbrooks Road was built about 1937, the original section under the Public Works Administration, to serve north Mecklenburg’s Black students. It opened with 181 students and five teachers. It was renamed in 1953 for Isaiah Dale Torrence and Franklin Lytle, both instrumental in founding it. Isaac T. Graham was its only principal, from 1937 until 1966, when the school closed on desegregation and its students were reassigned. It was listed on the National Register as Huntersville Colored High School in August 2009.
The growth curve
The town roughly doubled between 1980 and 1990, then grew more than eightfold in the 1990s. By the 2020 census it stood at 61,376, with a 2025 estimate of 68,535. Lake Norman arrived in the early 1960s and McGuire Nuclear Station in the early 1980s; the interstate did the rest. A cotton depot became one of the fastest-growing towns in the state inside forty years.
Huntersville, year by year
The town Adkins Law works out of has a documentary record that is unusually good for its size, largely because Mecklenburg County has designated so much of it.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| c. 1750s | Scots-Irish and German families settle the Hopewell area west of the Catawba |
| 1780s–1796 | Hugh Torance’s log store goes up, with a two-story frame house added on the south side in 1796 |
| c. 1800 | James Latta builds Latta Place; at his death in 1837 he owned at least twenty-five enslaved people |
| 1860 | The Atlantic, Tennessee & Ohio completes its 45-mile Charlotte–Statesville line |
| 1873 | The settlement, until then called Craighead, is renamed for the cotton farmer Robert Boston Hunter and incorporated |
| 1878 | Huntersville High School Academy opens, described as one of the first two high schools in western North Carolina |
| 1898 | Anchor Mills, a cotton spinning plant, opens |
| c. 1937 | The Huntersville Colored High School opens with 181 students and five teachers under its only principal, Isaac T. Graham |
| 1953 | The school is renamed for Isaiah Dale Torrence and Franklin Lytle |
| 1966 | Torrence-Lytle closes after desegregation; students go to integrated schools including North Mecklenburg High |
| 1980–2000 | The town grows from 1,294 people to 24,960 |
| 2020 | 61,376 at the census, with 68,535 estimated for 2025 |
Two things often said about Huntersville that this article does not repeat. The first is that the town grew up around a cotton weighing platform beside the railroad: that appears on commercial blogs but in none of the archival or state sources, so it is local tradition at best. The second is that the Hugh Torance House and Store is the oldest standing general store in North Carolina — a tourism claim the county landmarks commission itself does not make. And note that Huntersville has no National Register historic district; it has individually listed properties and roughly thirty-six county-designated landmarks, which is a different thing.
Frequently asked questions
What was Huntersville called before?
Craighead, after the Reverend Alexander Craighead of Sugaw Creek Presbyterian Church. It was renamed Huntersville in 1873.
Who is Huntersville named after?
Robert Boston Hunter, a local cotton farmer and landowner.
When was Huntersville incorporated?
1873. Sources give the year but not a day or month.
Is there a historic district in Huntersville?
Not a National Register district. Huntersville has thirteen individually listed National Register properties and roughly thirty-six county-designated local landmarks.
How fast has Huntersville grown?
From 1,294 people in 1980 to 61,376 in 2020, with the sharpest jump in the 1990s, when the population grew more than eightfold.
Sources for this article
A Huntersville practice, on Sherrill Estates Road
Adkins Law has been serving north Mecklenburg families for years, from an office in the town this article is about. Divorce, custody, support and protective orders.
Adkins Law, PLLC · 9620 Sherrill Estates Road, Huntersville, NC 28078
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This article is local history, offered for general interest. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship. Historical accounts are drawn from the sources listed above; where sources disagree, that is noted in the text. For advice about your own situation, speak with a licensed North Carolina attorney.