Category: Postcards

Time for another installment of “Where the Heel?.” Can you identify the location of this monument? If so, leave your guess in the “Leave a Reply” portion of the entry.

At the end of July 2008 thousands of people gathered in Denver, North Carolina, for the annual Rock Springs Camp Meeting. The oldest continuing camp meeting in North Carolina, Rock Springs traces its roots to a meeting held at Rehobeth Methodist Church in Lincoln County in 1794. Camp meetings grew out of the isolation of life in a frontier area and the strong revival spirit of protestant Christianity. Often churches of different denominations would combine to sponsor the meeting, and families would come from miles around to the campground for a series of preaching and singing events which lasted from several days to a couple of weeks. Some families have been returning to the same tents – actually small cabins – at Rock Springs for generations. The accompanying illustration, from our post card collection, shows the permanent “arbor” at Rock Springs. [Thanks to loyal NCM reader Kevin Cherry for this suggestion.]

It’s been too long since our last edition of “Where The Heel?,” so I picked (what I believe to be) a tough one.

Can you identify this building? Can you tell me where in North Carolina it is? (By the way, it is still standing.) If you have a guess, leave it in the comments for this post. We’ll let you know if you are correct!

The North Carolina Collection is a treasure trove of interesting and fun items (as well as an excellent research library–if we do say so ourselves). As a way of sharing some of these items, we are starting a “Where The Heel?” contest. Inspired by a similar feature in a 1937 issue of The State magazine (now Our State), every so often we’ll post a blog entry asking you, our readers, if you can identify a certain town. Though The State offered their winners a $10 prize (during the Great Depression, no less!), we can only promise you glory and honor.

To get things started, can you identify this city (ca. 1930-1945)? Leave a comment, and watch for us to comment back once we have a winner.

One of the greatest mysteries I’ve encountered here in the North Carolina Collection has revolved around this postcard of “Charlotte Speedway:”

Curious about this predecessor to today’s Lowes Motor Speedway, I sleuthed around a bit to learn more about the track. What I found was perplexing: most sources described Charlotte Speedway as a dirt track built near the old airport in 1949, where stock car races were held. And yet, pictured here was an indy race on a wooden track, and the card appeared to be much older than 1949. I kept searching for traces of the speedway, to no avail. It seemed that maybe this indy track had been utterly forgotten here in stock car country.

Months have passed since my initial investigation, but today while browsing the index to “The State” magazine, I spotted this listing: “First Speedway Race Track.” Though I expected this lead would end up yet another reference the 1949 stock car track, I had to give it a shot. When I opened that November 1979 issue, I saw it: an image of a wooden track identical to the one pictured in the postcard.

Sure enough, there was another Charlotte Speedway built in Pineville in 1924, where indy races were held. According to the brief article by Bugs Barringer, the track was made of green pine two by fours, so that the wood would cure and shrink, allowing ventilation between the boards and preventing the tires from burning during races. Apparently a few stock car races were held at the track but, ironically, they attracted too few spectators to be profitable.