On this day in 1909: President William Howard Taft visits Charlotte for Meck Dec Day and the dedication of the 12-story Realty Building, the Carolinas’ first steel-frame skyscraper.
Just as a parade past Taft’s reviewing stand ends, a sudden downpour sends thousands running for cover. The president’s speech, moved indoors, opposes partisan politics in the federal judiciary. But it will be the “Taft rain” that Charlotteans remember.
Later, at what will become Johnson C. Smith University, Taft sits in a chair custom-built to accommodate his 325 pounds and urges blacks to continue pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.
These two postcards from the collection mark Taft’s visit to Charlotte.
The “Taft Chair” is still at Johnson C. Smith University, and is on display in the University Archives, located in the James B. Duke Memorial Library.
We wrote about it a few years ago on the DigitalNC blog: http://digitalnc.org/blog/william-howard-taft-visits-johnson-c-smith-university
Thank you Lew Powell.