Dig out your  snapshots, postcards, and documents containing pictures of old Gastonia landmarks and events. This is the place to share them with Gastonians worldwide and to have fun in the process. Your name can appear with your contribution to this page if you wish. The same items can also be offered  for sale through our Retail Partners .  Contact us  for more information.

(Click thumbnail to enlarge.)

SPINDLE CITY SCENES SPOTLIGHT

UPTOWN GASTONIA CIRCA 1963
Street scenes around Main Avenue and Marietta Street, photographed by
Rev. John Bates and provided through the courtesy of his daughter, Rita Bates Jones. (Special thanks to Deb Lewis Ogden for sending these pictures along with many others. Some of those will eventually appear on this site.)

(Click on image to see slideshow.)

 UPTOWN GASTONIA 1973
Three Main Avenue scenes (before the Matthews-Belk relocation and the devastating 1976-77 "renovation") captured August 1973 by Paul Planer.

(Click on image to see slideshow.)

SOUTHERN RAILWAY UPTOWN PASSENGER AND FREIGHT STATIONS,
CIRCA 1964
Click on the image below for a series of views of the Southern Railway passenger/freight complex that once stood between the rear of the West Main Avenue buildings and the Southern main line tracks.

FIRST NATIONAL BANK / LAWYERS' BUILDING

The magnificent  seven-story home of Gastonia's First National Bank opened for business, accompanied by great fanfare, on July 28, 1917. It operated as the headquarters of FNB and its Great Depression-produced successor, the National Bank of Commerce, until the latter's relocation to the 100th block of West Franklin Avenue at South Marietta Street in 1956. (See the Journal page for that story.)

In the late 1940's, the bank expanded by building a nondescript addition on its west side, where a walkway between Main Avenue and the Southern Railway station had existed since the building's construction. The limestone-faced box housed the loan and bookkeeping departments. When the bank moved, that incongruous appendage became just another commercial storefront. By the late 1990's, the skyscraper's final tenant had moved, and the structure stood gaunt and forlorn, mocking hopes of an Uptown rebirth.

With a new century came new dreams. The Lawyer's Building (as it has been known for more than fifty years) is coming back to life. Current, enlightened ownership envisions the landmark as a keystone to the vibrant, bustling Uptown/Downtown of the future.

Recently the 1940's addition was removed, revealing bygone splendors for the first time to those of the Post World War II Baby Boom Generation and younger. To stand below the previously hidden boardroom windows and gaze upward to the sky gives one the feeling of being in a great cathedral. The First National Bank Building's story is told in the following picture albums.

GOODNIGHT BROTHERS WHOLESALE GROCERS BUILDING, JUNE 1985  
     "The derelict buildings of the Goodnight Brothers (three buildings, five brothers) Wholesale Grocery Company on East Main Avenue as they appeared in a June 1985 photograph. These were among the structures demolished for a new railroad spur connecting the Southern main line tracks with the former Carolina and Northwestern line. The spur is used little, so, instead of providing homes for trendy shops or start-up businesses, the land is now largely wasted." From A Glimpse as It Passed, published 2004 by Trenton Creative Enterprises and available through our Retail Partners. 

   

REMOUNT ROAD, NOVEMBER 1974
"In November 1974, after hearing of pending development on Remount Road, I drove out to the eastern fringe of the city to get some pictures...of one of its last eastern rural tracts. It is hard to believe that where now is concrete, steel, hustle and bustle, there once lay pastoral scenes, a farm house, a barn, a pond, and cows." From A Glimpse as It Passed, published 2004 by Trenton Creative Enterprises and available through our Retail Partners.

NEW GASTONIA HIGH SCHOOL
Newly-constructed Gastonia High School, South York Street, circa 1922. Submitted by Deb Lewis Ogden.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE MAIN POST OFFICE, 1935-36
(Click on image to see slideshow.)

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS UPTOWN
(Click on image to see slideshow.)

Many of these images are protected by copyright. Please do not break the law by copying them. Contact our Retail Partners to order any of the ones on this page. Thank you for your cooperation.

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