Belk gets a statue on the Trail of History

The story

A statue of Belk stores founder William Henry Belk will be unveiled Tuesday on the Trail of History near the Metropolitan development just outside of uptown.

The statue is the fifth of a planned 21 on the Trail of History, which will stretch a little more than a mile along Little Sugar Creek Greenway from Seventh Street at Central Piedmont Community College south to Morehead Street.

The facts

-Belk opened a small shop in Monroe called New York Racket in 1888. He was 26 years old.

-That store turned into a department store chain with more than 300 stores in 16 states.

-The statue is 7-feet tall and weighs 700 pounds.

-The unveiling is not open to the public, but the family expects up to 100 of his descendants to attend.

-Statues already on the trail: Early settler Thomas “Kanawha” Spratt, Catawba tribal chief King Hagler, Revolutionary War figure Capt. James Jack and 19th-century hospital founder Jane Renwick Smedberg Wilkes.

-The next statue planned for the trail: Thaddeus Lincoln Tate, whose investments made way for a growth spurt in black-owned Charlotte businesses in the 1920s. He also co-founded Grace AME Zion Church.

They said it

“The choice to put him on the Trail of History makes perfect sense, because all people on the trail are game changers. They helped transform a crossroads in the woods into one of the biggest cities in the South. The trail is putting a human face on that history.” -Historian Tom Hanchett, Levine Museum of the New South.

C5’s take

Belk is probably the most recognizable name on the trail to current Charlotteans. He introduced radically new retail ideas, like clearly marking all merchandise with a price tag to prevent haggling and allowing returns.

That definitely seems worthy of a statue.

Photos: Mark Price/Charlotte Observer; T. Ortega Gaines/Charlotte Observer

This story was originally published May 11, 2015 at 10:05 PM with the headline "Belk gets a statue on the Trail of History."