One of Charlotte’s most historic neighborhoods:  The Cherry Community, one of Charlotte’s oldest communities and one of the few remaining historically African American Communities in this city, was platted in 1891, by John Springs Myers and Mary Rawlinson Myers, as the first community in Charlotte created to provide homeownership opportunities for laborers and working-class Black Americans.

The neighborhood was developed from the Myers family’s thousand-acre cotton farm which was located just outside Charlotte’s city limits. Cherry is among the oldest surviving African American residential areas in Charlotte. Contrary to local stories, Cherry was not built as a servants’ community for adjoining Myers Park. Rather, Cherry was platted at least 20 years before Myers Park was developed. 

Morgan School (1925) and Morgan Park (1927) were built on Baxter Street. In addition to a park and a school, the neighborhood also had several churches and small neighborhood stores, still in existence. These amenities made Cherry’s development unique from other African American neighborhoods. The park and the tree-lined streets were often noted as the most striking attributes of the neighborhood. The trees were so prominent that the name of the neighborhood and street are said to have been inspired by the real cherry trees that grew on the hillsides throughout the community.