Historic Potters Road in Charlotte NC

Excerpt from : http://plancharlotte.org/story/discovering-charlottes-past-potter-road

Some well-known intersections in the city hide the remnants of a now forgotten, but once major highway through the Carolinas. It was known as Potter Road and its name referred to the one-time pottery industry in western Lincoln County. Today, after neighbors pushed the city to save a piece of the old road's route, an obscure patch of trees at Central Avenue and Kilborne Road is all that’s left to tell the story.

During its settlement in the 18th century, two main roads crossed through what is now Mecklenburg County, the Great Wagon Road and Old Potter Road. These roads crossed at today’s intersection of North Tryon Street and Eastway Drive.

Today, traces of Old Potter Road are visible in Evergreen Nature Preserve in east Charlotte, just north of the wooden footbridge near Tarrington Drive. On the 1886 deed of nearby Amity Presbyterian Church, which is framed and hanging on the wall of the Church's history room, the road is labeled "Old Potter Road" where it passed the Church. The road is also depicted on maps of 1808, 1833, 1888, and 1911.

The name “Potter Road” originated during the early 19th century when commercial potters in western Lincoln County, N.C., began using this route to transport wares to markets in Charleston, S. C. (see Charlotte Observer editorial below).