Echo Hills Neighborhood Assoc.

Echo Hills Neighborhood Assoc.

History of Echo Hills

Although the houses were built in the early 1950's, the official Echo Hills Neighborhood Associatin didn't begin until the early 1990's. The association works with residents, property owners, local businesses and police to keep our community vibrant, beautiful and safe.

Below, a few neighbors share their memories of Echo Hills.

Mrs. Evelyn Whitley, of Echo Hills, moved to her home on Cardinal Dr. in December 1955. She has two grown sons, Doug and Mike.

The neighborhood probably started around 1951 and by 1955 pretty much all the houses were built, although a few additions have been made over the years. Most of the houses sold for around 15,000 (not anyone’s actual house cost).

Wendover used to be called Brookeherst and was a two lane road (one in each direction), that was more narrow then Cardinal Dr (which used to be called “Red Bird”).

There was no bridge over Independence Blvd. it was a “Five Point Intersection”, where Eastway and Wendover just ran down hill to Independence, which was a four lane road (two in each direction) with a grass section in the middle.

Where the Texaco is, on Ind., was a field where kids had a go-cart track. Imagine being able to let your kids play right next to Independence!!!

Speaking of Texaco, gas was only 18 cents a gallon, and when Mrs. Whitley’s eldest son was old enough to drive it was 35 cents and eventually became 50 cents, which was considered an outrage!!! Some gas stations would have “Gas Wars”, where they fought for who would have the best price and it would sometimes get down to 25 cents!!!!

So much is changing around here and so much has already changed.
Gus ‘sir’ beef was a paint warehouse, which burnt down. Just Brakes was a service station and if you go inside some parts are still visible because they built around it. On the Eckerd property, was a restaurant called, Johnny’s Grill.

The Home Depot was a saw mill where they made lumber. They would dump their sawdust in one huge pile and the boys in our neighborhood would climb up in a tower and jump off falling about 30 feet and then landing on the sawdust.

The scraps from trees that they had used to make boards, the boys would take and drag over to the Arnold Palmer Center, which was just woods, and build forts. After Christmas when all the neighbors threw out their Christmas trees, they would collect them, drag them to the APC and build Christmas tree forts.

The creek down at the bottom of Hickory Nut St runs through storm drains under Independence all the way up to Chantilly and also in the other direction towards Albemarle. The boys in the neighborhood would take flashlights and crawl down there (they’re so big you can stand up straight), and walk along till they came to the storm drain that ran up to the Big Lots parking lot (which used to be a K-Mart). They would climb up the ladder to the sewer lid and when people would walk over, they would shout up to them. Imagine their confusion! Unfortunately, we have no idea what the girl’s were doing during this time.

Back then the “thing to do” was cut corners through people’s yards, with cars.
That’s why one of the first families that lived in the house, on the corner of June and Mayview, planted the five bushes alongside Mayveiw.

In the winter, people would come from all over Charlotte to sled on the hill by Cricket Arena (which used to be called the coliseum). They would build bonfires and stay all night. Another good hill to sled on was Cardinal Dr, start at the top and ride all the way down Hickory Nut’s hill and straight across Independence (the end of Hickory Nut used to be open to Independence) without stopping. In 1960 there were three snows in March, three Wednesday’s in a row; the snow lasted about the whole week, until the next snow.

One year it got so cold that the lake at Freedom Park froze over! Mrs. Whitley’s husband took his two sons down to skate on the lake. Soon everyone was skating!!!

It has been said that before and during the Civil War, there was a blacksmith shop in the valley between Vinewood and June, where they made carriage outfitting. They also made ammunition during the Civil War. People have gone back there and found musket balls!

From Essie Shealy

In the late summer of 1954, Essie and Dan Shealy were living on Commonwealth Avenue when neighbors, and friends, Ray and Christine Kimball told them they had bought a house on Hickory Nut Street. The Kimballs suggested that the Shealys check out the new neighborhood.

Shortly thereafter on a Sunday afternoon (after church and lunch), the Shealys decided to find this Hickory Nut Street and see what it had to offer.

Driving down Independence, at that time a two-lane road, they found Hickory Nut Street and turned onto it. They found a new house with a “For Sale” in the picture window, decided to look it over and peeked in the windows.

They liked what they saw (Mr. Shealy especially liked the fireplace) and on Wed, September 15, 1954 bought the house, the last original house built on Hickory Nut. Fifty-one years later, Essie stills lives in the immaculately maintained home.

As do most who lived in the area at the time, Essie remembers the McDonald’s that stood at the corner of Independence and Hickory Nut. She also remembers that many patrons of the restaurant were not too considerate and would throw their litter onto the street as they drove down Hickory Nut. As a result, Essie wasn’t unhappy when McDonald’s closed when Independence was widened years later!

When the Shealys bought their home, the openings of Oven’s Auditorium and the coliseum were still a year or two away and the Charlotte Merchandise Mart was about eight years away.

When the Shealys moved in, no one on the street had air conditioning and few had televisions. They were one of the first to get air conditioning and were the first on the street to get Piedmont Gas, which replaced the heating oil stored in tanks in the back yard.

At that time, Charlotte had two daily newspapers, the morning paper was the Observer and the evening was the Evening News (or something like that). Neighborhood youths would deliver the papers to the porch and collected on Saturdays…30 cents a week!

Essie, who was a manager at the Deb Shop in downtown Charlotte, also remembers that neighbors would sit on their front lawns and visit with one another after work and dinner. Occasionally, residents would have cookouts and invite their neighbors over.

Essie has the same telephone number she’s had since she moved into the house, but recalls that originally you had to dial only the seven digit number to make a call. Later you had to preface the seven digit number with “ED” (for Edison), then finally had to dial the area code along with the number.

Other memories include pumpkins and other produce being sold from the lot at the corner of Monroe and Eastway…the houses on either side of Eastway being torn down when Eastway was widened…the seafood restaurant that stood near Oakhurst Hardware (which has been there for decades)…going downtown to shop as there were no neighborhood shopping centers.

Essie has seen lots of neighbors come and go during her 51 years on Hickory Nut (in fact, she’s the only original resident still living there) and says she has always enjoyed living in the neighborhood. There have been a lot of changes in those years and she considers it a wonderful place to live.

From the Horners

In 1955 we bought the house at 908 Fugate Avenue from an Eastern Airlines pilot who had lived there for five years and had made various improvements during the time he had off. I believe the pilots were only allowed to fly 30 hours a month. The price of the house was $14,000.00 which we paid at $73.66 per month on a 25 year mortgage @ 4 1/2 %.

We moved in the first day of summer in 1955, with no air conditioner. It was miserably hot and we were exhausted. We heard a knock on the back door and there was our new next door neighbor, Catherine White, with a large pitcher of iced lemonade, cups and a plate of cookies. We knew we had found our HOME and made our first friend, with her husband Murray and their three children.

Our family consisted of we, the parents, a three year old daughter and a one year old son. Our new friends lived at 900 Fugate (at the corner of June). There were many other older children around then, so we were able to get a babysitter with no problem.

When Bunny went back to work (a Registered Pharmacist at Walker Drug, then on Hawthorne Lane) we were able to hire a full timenanny/housemaid to care for the kids. I was a CPA working with Haskins & Sells and was out of town quite a bit.

Since we both worked it took a while to get to know all our neighbors. In 1980 & 1981 the area (Fugate especially) suffered a number of break-ins. Connie Lasch, who lived at 626 Fugate, suggested that we form an "Echo Hills Community Crime Prevention Program."

The first meeting was held on 3-21-81 and Connie was elected Chairman. Our meetings were held in the Fellowship Hall of St. Johns Methodist Church on Monroe Road, with several Policemen present to give us advice and instructions on how to qualify for "Crime Watch" signs to be posted on all our streets. Since everyone was involved we made many more friends, but it took three break-ins in one night to get the job done.

Of course, during the years, we have lost many of these friends, as have we all, because of death and moving.

When we moved to Echo Hills Hickory Nut Street ran all the way to Independence and there was a McDonalds on Independence at the intersection. There were no bridges at Eastway or Briar Creek and one could turn left on or off Independence.

As we recall, Independence was four lanes and Monroe was two lanes. There were two service stations at the intersection of Fugate, where the used car lots are now, a Texaco and a Gulf. At the other end of Fugate there was a cafe on the corner of Monroe Road.

The Coliseum and Auditorium were being built and were almost complete. After they opened we enjoyed many of the offerings, weekly Broadway plays, Ice skating, Basketball tournaments (ACC and NCAA) and Concerts of famous bands. All of this was within walking distance, so we had a number of visitors. One, an auto dealer from West Virginia, who came to see Jerry West play, was astounded to see the parking lot fee which was fifty cents. Who says we aren't a world class city?

On June 21, 2005, the first day of summer, we celebrated our 50th anniversary in our "Echo Hills Home."