How things change: Photos of Charlotte’s NoDa neighborhood from the early 2000s.
The first time I remember “discovering” NoDa Charlotte was around 2003. A friend had just purchased a house on Alexander Street. It was a 1-bedroom mill home with a renovated kitchen, chock full of character.
Crawling around NoDa was fun back then, in a different way than it’s fun now. Our friend group would visit Mellow Mushroom (remember the furnished upside down rooms, glued to the ceilings?), Wine Up, and Smelly Cat (still a neighborhood favorite!) back when it was open til midnight. Other neighborhood haunts and retailers over the years that have come and gone include Real Eyes Bookstore, The Boulevard at NoDa, Upstage, Solstice Tavern, Salvador Deli and Dammit Janet.
I moved to the neighborhood my dad likes to remind me was “just called North Charlotte, back in my day!” in 2012. I still feel like a newbie here, about 12 years later.
And the neighborhood that began as a community for mill workers and then became a thriving arts and nightlife destination is still growing and changing, tenfold these days it seems.
[LET’S KEEP REMINISCING: Check out your favorite nightclubs and bars from the ‘90s and early ‘00s!]
CharlotteFive photographer Alex Cason moved here in 2006, and — of course — he had his camera with him back then, too. Recently, he rounded up some of his old photos, showing NoDa from the early 2000s and 2010s. Let’s walk down memory lane with him! What are your favorite memories of these places? Email us at charlottefive@charlottefive.com and let us know.
Uniquely Charlotte: Uniquely Charlotte is an Observer subscriber collection of moments, landmarks and personalities that define the uniqueness (and pride) of why we live in the Charlotte region.
This story was originally published January 4, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
