Charlotte Museum of History

We were absolutely delighted by our visit here! The lady was sooo helpful when we arrived. She explained every indoor area of the museum as well as outdoors. We took our time and enjoyed every written, material, informative video presentations, and outdoor exploration of the museum! Everything is expertly arranged. A history buff's dream.

Informative exhibit on the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. The staff was personable and professional. My wife and I enjoyed visiting the original one-room school house as pictured.

Take the tour by the dude of the Rock House. Got an absolute excellent historically accurate tour, asked a bunch of questions he had all the answers to. Highly recommend.

Nicely decorated local museum focused on the foundation of Charlotte. Some uupgrades in progress. The rock house is impressive in the fall.

I visited the Charlotte Museum of History on Saturday, December 5th, and while my experience was mixed, the artifacts on display were excellent and taught me things I didn’t know about Charlotte even after living here for almost 20 years. The quality of the collection definitely makes this museum worth visiting. The Hezekiah Alexander House and outdoor kitchen exhibit was interesting to learn about. However, I’d recommend going on a weekday or outside the holiday season. During my visit, the Path of Portraits exhibit was closed for renovations, and the staff was busy preparing for holiday events. While everyone was very friendly, they were understandably busy which didn’t leave much opportunity for dialogue or questions. I was somewhat disappointed to pay full admission without access to the complete museum, but what I did explore interested me enough that I plan to return in the spring when things are less hectic and I can experience everything the museum has to offer.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Whoa! This museum was more than meets the eye. If I could do it all over again, I'd arrive two hours before the house tour so I could see the exhibits and walk the grounds. Also I would check for free or reduced entry programs like with Bank of America or SNAP benefits. The entry fee wasnt high, I just love free. The staff...amazing. They work well together and are approachable woth great conversation. You can tell they love what they do because they are super nerdy and cool and eager to go down rabbit holes with you. I have to go again because I didn't give myself enough time to enjoy everything!

Went here for the Bridgerton Ball and it was great! Easy to park, we didn’t wait too long, and there were plenty of interesting nooks and crannies. I would love to come back and have a museum day here. Katy Werlin is the artist who made these incredible historical gowns.

Thoroughly enjoyed the docent tour of the 1774 Rock House and impressed by the restoration of the Siloam School! Interesting rotating exhibits and events. The Museum is also a great meeting / event venue!

If you're a history buff, this might be worth a stop. Actually, even if you're not, this might be a good stop once at least. The grounds are beautiful and very peaceful. We visited on a Tuesday afternoon and hardly anyone else was there, so it was really quiet and relaxing. Most of the grounds have are shaded by trees, so even though it was a hot day (in the high 80s), it was pleasant walking around. What was a disappointment was that we couldn't enter any of the buildings, so the self tour was only to see the exteriors. The exhibits upstairs were interesting, too. One was on political cartoons and the other was on philanthropy; both worth a visit!

Parking is a breeze. It's a lovely structure. There is a flow to this place. We arrived about 2PM on a sweltering Friday in August. What a lucky day that for this entire month admission is free, and we were just in time for a guided tour! We viewed the grounds of Hezikiah Alexander's homestead. Our tour guide and group were all terrific. Everyone was eager to learn and respectful of the exhibition and each other. The tour lasted about an hour with great sensory experiences in the garden and it was just the right level of audience interaction. As an African American person, I was appreciative to the mention of the enslaved people who ran this massive house. The kitchen area was really interesting to me, but there were so many spider webs and bugs all around.... I was concerned. The maintenance/cleaning staff should come in there for a quick visit. At the end our tour, the guide rung a gigantic bell and explained the symbolism of the hornet for Charlotte, North Carolina. It was inspiring and quite bad a$$ery. As a British soldier beat a retreat out of town he remarked "this place is just a hornets nest of rebellion!" As an independent colony from the crown, Charlotteans have proudly sported the symbol of the hornet since then. The plight of indigenous people was very lightly addressed with a terrible exhibition of a red dress to bring awareness to missing and murdered indigenous women. They really should seek to create an exhibit more inclusive, relevant and respectful to the original inhabitants of this land. That too is the history of Charlotte.

Being a Charlotte native, this museum is awesome for new people to visit and learn abt the cities history. Even for me being a native there is still things for me to learn. The place is always clean and staff always extremely friendly.

The guided tour was a great amount of information! The property is just beautiful and the museum portion has great facts and interesting relics of the past!

Great event space and love the way the artifacts are displayed in the walls with texture elements. Came for a chocolate event and will def comeback with my kids to learn about my hometown with them.

A museum without out any well almost an thing to see. Building is a massive series of hallways. Don't waste your admission money!! Instead walk on the trail bring a picnic Perhaps donate any thing of local history please.

I'm always amazed of the rich history of the qc hearing from locals and what I've read but I really got a history lesson when I attended an event here that consisted of lots of special exhibits for kids to enjoy and several food vendors representing several different ethnic backgrounds, BBQ, Latin, Thai, etc. Everything was delicious but there is just so much history about Charlotte in this museum I guess I have been clueless and really needed another few hours just to read up on everything that was offered here, definitely worth the visit.

I attended the 3rd Annual American Indian Heritage Celebration presented by Many Journeys at the Charlotte Museum of History. This celebration had plenty of activities for kids and adults with hands-on crafts, free blood pressure/blood glucose health screenings from CMC, tours, free Hoop Dance workshops, and drum groups. There was supposed to be food from food vendors highlighting Native American ingredients and recipes, but they must have not have stayed all day. Overall, I enjoyed the attempt to bring native culture to Charlotte. Only complaint, was the lack of vendors. There were also non-native related vendors who had booths. For example, Thirty One Gifts had a table set up, and I felt this was a little out of place. Might return next year.

My husband and I are getting to know Charlotte and its history one attraction at a time. The Charlotte Museum of History was a nice way to spend an afternoon. Adult tickets are $6. They have a tour of the Hezekiah Alexander Homesite (which is the oldest surviving homesite in Mecklenburg County...you'll learn this on the tour). Make sure you sign up for the tour; it is included in your admission ticket. The tour lasts approximately 40 minutes and requires traveling a little bit of distance from the main museum building (it is wheelchair accessible). The main museum building has exhibits that help educate guests about the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community, artifacts that are being preserved, and some further history of Charlotte and the Rock House history. The grounds are tranquil. They have some picnic tables and benches along the little creek on the property. I thought it would be nice to pack a lunch and sit outside to eat during a break from the museum...maybe next time if I take my family members there. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon. It only took a couple hours to go through and I'm sure I could have sped up the process or have taken a bit longer to read through some of the exhibits. For $6 per ticket, it gives another good perspective on Charlotte.

Learned local history from the point of view of the city's oldest house (with other misc, more modern displays). Very glad it is OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK.

Great location and beautiful grounds well kept around the property. Gracious host for charity events with amazing staff.

Our family enjoyed the day at this Museum and gained a much greater understanding of Mecklenburg County and its connection to the Revolutionary War era. Be advised that the cost of admission is slightly steep ($10/adult, $8/senior) -- no breaks for students or those with disabilities. The woman in the gift shop was not particularly friendly so I metaphorically hit her upside-the-head with the comment that museums in Raleigh were free and Charlotte should follow suit. This didn't engage her though and she just looked off in the distance in a "I-don't-give-a-crap" type of way and said something unintelligible under her breath. However, our tour guide Ian was a horse of a different color - highly congenial, whip-smart, knowledgeable, great sense of humor, clearly someone who enjoyed his job. We had a wonderful tour of the "Rock House" (Hezekiah Alexander's former home which sits behind the museum proper) and learned a lot about the history of Mecklenburg County and its connection with the Revolutionary War era. He definitely had our complete attention at jump street but when he casually mentioned "watch out for the snakes, there are a lot of them here", I almost had my Mick Jagger 19th nervous breakdown. All I could think of when I was walking to that home was whether a copperhead was going to launch a serpentine attack on any of us. Being in that historical home gave me a huge appreciation for indoor plumbing since Ian told us that at that time people only had chamber pots and no privacy curtains behind which they could do their business. This from the San Francisco Bay Area gal could definitely not have dealt with that! The museums grounds are lovely and I can definitely see why the snakes would like to live there. NIce little streams where water moccasins can possibly hang out (remember: I'm snake-phobic). The walk to the house is an easy short distance although in the 87 degree heat was a bit of a challenge for me. The museum itself is lovely (high ceilings, lots of pictorial exhibits on its walls, immaculately clean) but I would have to say it seems less about Charlotte's history than about Hezekiah Alexander (who Ian told us signed his letters "Hez"). We love historic buildings and would have loved to have seen photos of those in the museum (since there seem to be so very few in Charlotte which appears to us full of "new" architecture and more & more banks). Also would have loved seeing costumed re-enactors on site who could have helped out with the self-guided tour a bit. All in all, a lovely place though with easy parking and super-clean bathrooms!

So my bestie has been living in Charlotte for a few years now after getting married and I was visiting her. "Let's do something touristy" I said. So we found this museum. "Sure, why the hell not" Luckily we weren't there with all the children, apparently a lot of school groups do come by. It's a tiny museum. They had a display for the history of the policy department and a history of Charlotte itself. They had a tv with a video talking about the history of Charlotte on a loop. I'm pretty sure this video was made in the late 80s early 90s and clearly still on VHS. They have a tour, but it's limited to quite small groups and it's first come first served. Luckily we were able to get in on the tour. Without it, I don't think this place would have been worth the price of admission. We were able to go through the whole museum mostly while we waited for the tour. We were there only a few hours total. Our guide was dressed in period garb. Older gentleman, had a lot of information and was able to answer tons of questions. It was quite cool to see this old home and some other buildings they have on the property. As was mentioned by the guide, there isn't much in Charlotte that is "old" because everything seems to be torn down and rebuilt every few years.

The Charlotte Museum of History is an important part of the Charlotte community. It is dedicated to preservation of the Revolutionary War era of Mecklenburg County. The jewel of the museum is the Rock House - oldest house in the county. I have visited many times and really feel the staff does a great job. Go visit!

Went to the ice cream social hoping to see the museum but some inept staffer had booked a wedding for that day. Who does that? The one employee was giving out incorrect information that anyone with a bit of knowledge of history would know was incorrect. Is this place ever going to get it right?

Disappointed. I have been to this museum several times over the years and my visit last week was such a big let down. There were no EXHIBITS. No old anything. Before when I went they had all types of artificats from Native Americans and things like that but this time, there were posters/photos on the walls and exhibit on how Charlotte looked when it first became a town. They have the original house of one of the founding members of Charlotte but I am telling you. This is awful. I was so pissed. I wanted my 7 bucks back. What happened to the decline of this museum? If you want to see the first house in Charlotte and how life was, come here but the Levine Museum is soooo much better. This received a second star because the grounds are beautiful and it was a beautiful day and I was able to sit outside and meditate a little.

I say there are a couple of things one should do when you're moving to a new place and want to learn about it. First, ride around on the bus (check). Second, learn a bit about the area's history/culture. And that's precisely what you can do here at this spot. The permanent exhibits include one wing for colonial-revolution era living and explain a lot about how things came to be named, the founders and whatnot (Trade and Tryon, for example). Another wing describes post revolution, Civil War/Reconstruction and both World Wars. That's a bit to cram into one small wing so it's less developed than it could be. What I imagine to be less permanent were an exhibit about the history and workings of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police department (always interesting to me) and upstairs a fascinating look at church camp meetings. Now, not being southern or protestant this was a totally new thing for me to learn about. So maybe if you're local this is lame or old news, but the history and culture of camp meetings and "tents" was so interesting to me. Of course like any history museum of smaller size, there were things to be desired. If you're a "People's History" kind of person (you want to hear the voices of the oppressed or something) you probably won't be satisfied here. There's obviously mention of slavery and inequality but it isn't a dominant theme. Personally, I would have liked to see a positive representation of the growing Latino population in Charlotte (as of now the only clues are the Spanish language guides and a section on gangs in the police exhibit). But swinging back to the positive, one neat feature I think is that the "backyard" of the museum is the campus of the first or oldest house in Charlotte (I don't recall which). It includes their main home, some other buildings that were used for water storage and the like and you can take a tour of them with your cell phone. You dial a number for each house and get an audio tour. Or you can hold out for the guided tours that happen a couple of times each day. Benefits: quick historical overview, interesting grounds, and one good non-mainstream cultural exhibit. Flaws: mostly mainstream, a bit small. Overall? Yeah, I'd bring other visitors here.

We came down to Charlotte for an academic meeting, and, because of its pre-revolutionary history, expected, at least , more historical sites, buildings than we had time for. Not the case! Old Charlotte has apparently been bulldozed to the ground by the bank/developers. The Charlotte Museum is a wonderful afternoon of time, well spent, viewing the installations of early life in the South and the history of the Carolinas. The adjoining homestead and tour is very impressive. The staff is very committed and well informed. The museum exhibits are for all ages. Rotating/temporary exhibits, such as the one from the Smithsonian on Native American Code communication in WW2 was fascinating. Hurray to those who made this happen! I am from a city that also destroyed its architectural treasures and put up a parking lot. Martin (Chicago)

I wish I could find something really nice to say about this place. Museums can be such wonderful places to visit. This one isn't. Oh yeah....I thought of something nice....if they served taco's, it would make a GREAT taco stand!

This was such a hidden gem! Charlotte really has a lot of unknown history that most are unaware of. Charlie Succop, our tour guide was so knowledgable, courteous, and humorous! Great trip for visitors, residents, and natives alike.

Every time I go to the museum, I fall in love with it all over again. I have gone several times since I was in grade-school, and still am impressed with how knowledgable the staff is! The outfits are fun, too! I highly suggest going! It doesn't look like much up front, but this place has so much more to offer than you'd think!

So my friend & I went to the July 4th "event" today. Waited around for someone to greet us so we could purchase a ticket. Finally some rude woman in the gift shop sold us tickets. The place is not a museum, it's an "art" gallery. Nothing was going on at the historic house. There was some sort of naturalization program taking place. A bunch of costumed volunteers standing around talking. Maybe about 10 visitors? Parents were using the colonial village as a sort of playground for their kids so we didn't go in that area. My friend & I thought there would be some sort of colonial themed something going on since it's a colonial era museum or should be. I was really surprised that none of the buildings on the historic site were open or had any activity. I would have asked for my money back but the rude woman seemed like she might scream if I did.

I wholeheartedly agree with Angie. I am also only giving a second star because of the house. My Dad & I visited the Charlotte Museum of History after my cousin's wedding today, what a HUGE disappointment. $10 to look at printed out posters, a miniature of colonial Charlotte & 4 or 5 artifacts (a few guns & a sword, no Native American artifacts whatsoever) (also includes a tour of a colonial house) How is that a museum??? The gift shop had more in it than the museum. It is a huge building & the majority of it isn't being utilized. We asked where all of the artifacts were? Their answer, in storage or on loan (where no one can see it). I see why they had to shut down 2 years ago if this is the quality they display. My dad mentioned that my personal collection is so much better than anything that place had & I agree. Mine is 100 times better! This also reinforces why I am very wary to donate anything to a museum. I would hate to donate something & it be put in storage where no one can enjoy it. I think I'll hold onto everything & sell it to private collectors before I die. At least then I know it will be cared for & appreciated. Charlotte has torn most of it's history down & represented it very poorly in their huge museum with nothing in it! It's very telling of the attitude Charlotte has towards history. SIf you want to know the history of Charlotte there are plenty of resources online for free. OK, I'll get off my soap box now.

Nothing beats this for a family/multi-generational positive experience. The ten acres - including picnic tables - along with the costumed guide and exhibits is very children friendly and accommodating to folks with mobility issues.