Every city has a neighborhood that feels like a secret. In Charlotte it is the Fourth Ward, where gas-lamp streets, Victorian cottages and pocket gardens bloom in the shadow of the Uptown towers.
The Fourth Ward is one of Charlotte’s four original 19th-century wards, and its story is a happy resurrection: once fading, the neighborhood was lovingly restored from the 1970s on, its grand old homes painted in period colors and its shotgun houses turned into storybook cottages. The beloved Berryhill House and a canopy of willow oaks give the streets a village calm.
At its center, Fourth Ward Park rolls out three green acres of lawns, a splashing fountain children adore and one of the finest skyline views in the city, the towers rising just beyond the treetops. The neighborhood also hosts the annual Fourth Ward Holiday Home Tour, when residents open their decorated doors each December.
Come at golden hour, when the lamps flicker on and the skyline glows behind the gardens. The Fourth Ward proves a modern banking city can keep a Victorian heart, and Happy City News never tires of strolling it.
