What to See in Charlotte, United States: Free Audio Guide

Looking for things to do in Charlotte? The Queen City combines historic houses, African American heritage, modern art, science museums and NASCAR culture, with many of its best-known attractions concentrated in and around Uptown. Neywo has a free audio guide for Charlotte with 80 narrated places, so you can explore the city while hearing each story at the place where it happened.

What to See in Charlotte

Historic houses and early Charlotte

The Hezekiah Alexander House, also known as the Alexander Rock House, is recognized as the oldest house in Mecklenburg County. Built in 1774, it was completed by the Alexander family and later passed through the hands of various owners. Today, the Charlotte Museum of History serves as its steward.

The William T. Alexander House offers a different view of the area’s historic architecture. This two-story brick plantation house was built between 1820 and 1830, with both Federal and Georgian influences. It stands on a granite foundation and has three bays, a side-gable roof and a center-bay porch added in the 1920s. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

Several historic homes around Mecklenburg County show how the area developed beyond its earliest buildings. The James A. Blakeney House, near Providence, is a 1905–1906 farmhouse in the Colonial Revival style. Its two-story frame design includes a rear kitchen wing, a broad wraparound porch and a multiple cross-gable slate roof. A well house is also part of the historic property, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

The Neal Somers Alexander House is another historic house near Charlotte, located at 5014 North Sharon Amity Road. Together, these buildings form a broader picture of the region’s residential and rural history.

Biddle Memorial Hall and Billingsville School

Biddle Memorial Hall stands on the campus of Johnson C. Smith University. Built in 1883 as the main building of a school established by the Presbyterian Church in 1867 to educate African American students, it remains one of the university’s most distinctive landmarks.

The building’s Romanesque design gives it a fortress-like appearance. It is a three-and-a-half-story structure with brick and stone walls, a raised basement, a pyramidal slate roof and small bartizans at the corners. Above it rises the clock tower known as Big Johnson, whose Westminster Chimes play every fifteen minutes and can be heard as far as a mile away. The building received its current name in 1923, in honor of Mary D. Biddle.

Billingsville School, also known as the Grier Heights Community Center, preserves another important part of Charlotte’s African American educational history. Built in 1927, it served African American students and is recognized as a historic Rosenwald School. Its low, one-story form combines Bungalow and American Craftsman features, including a brick veneer, symmetrical façade and steeply pitched front-gable porch. A small flat-roofed brick addition was added in 1949.

Levine Museum of the New South

The Levine Museum of the New South traces the history of Charlotte and the greater Charlotte area from the Civil War to the present day. Its permanent exhibition, “Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers,” explores Reconstruction, industrialization and the Civil Rights Era through music, video, oral histories and historical objects.

The exhibition includes a reconstructed one-room tenant farmer’s house, the chapel of Good Samaritans Hospital, and recreations of Charlotte’s Main Street and lunch counters where sit-ins took place. Another exhibition, “It Happened Here: Lynching and Remembrance,” was created with the Equal Justice Initiative and focuses on lynchings across the United States, including two in Mecklenburg County.

Levine Center for the Arts

Several major cultural institutions are gathered in the Levine Center for the Arts.

The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art focuses on mid-20th-century modern art. Its collection comes from the Bechtler family, which assembled and inherited more than 1,400 artworks. The museum occupies a 36,500-square-foot building designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta. A four-story structure, it is marked by a glass atrium and a terra cotta exterior.

Outside, the plaza is home to The Firebird, also known as Le Grand Oiseau de Feu sur l’Arche. Created in 1991 by the Franco-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle, the tall bird-shaped sculpture uses mirrored and colored glass to reflect the surrounding light and movement.

The Mint Museum Uptown occupies a modern five-level building that opened in 2010. It brings together collections from the Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Contemporary Art, American Art and selected European Art. The craft collection includes works in glass, ceramics and wood, allowing art and design to be presented together in one location.

The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts and Culture presents exhibitions and educational programs about African American contributions to American culture. Formerly known as the Afro-American Cultural Center, it was dedicated in October 2009 as part of the Levine Center for the Arts. Its four-story modernist building was designed by Freelon Group Architects, with a design inspired by the Myers Street School in Charlotte’s Brooklyn neighborhood.

Discovery Place Science

Discovery Place Science is an interactive museum devoted to science, technology and the natural world. Hands-on exhibits and live demonstrations cover subjects including physics, biology, engineering and environmental science. Aquariums, an indoor rainforest environment, innovation labs and demonstration spaces make the museum especially suited to visitors who want to explore rather than simply observe.

The museum opened in 1981, developing from a small nature museum created in 1947 by local teacher Laura Owens. Its Charlotte Observer IMAX Dome Theatre, also known as an OMNIMAX theater, opened in 1991. The curved screen presents science documentaries, planetarium shows and blockbuster films, and is the largest IMAX Dome Theater in the Carolinas.

NASCAR Hall of Fame

For motorsports enthusiasts, the NASCAR Hall of Fame is one of the most distinctive things to do in Charlotte. It celebrates drivers, crew chiefs, owners, broadcasters and front office personnel, reflecting the sport’s strong regional presence and Charlotte-based teams and offices.

The attraction opened to the public on May 11, 2010. Its four floors include the High Octane Theatre, the Great Hall, Studio 43 and the Hall of Honor. Visitors can explore changing exhibitions, learn about television production and try experiences such as Inside NASCAR, transporter simulators and race car simulators. Heritage Speedway traces the history of NASCAR, while the building also includes a gift shop.

Sullenberger Aviation Museum and Cathedral of Saint Patrick

The Sullenberger Aviation Museum, formerly known as the Carolinas Aviation Museum, is located on the grounds of Charlotte Douglas International Airport. It offers an aviation-focused attraction in a setting closely connected with air travel.

The Cathedral of Saint Patrick is the mother church of the Diocese of Charlotte. Dedicated to Saint Patrick, it is a Catholic church with an important role in the religious life of the city.

Explore Charlotte with Neywo

A Charlotte self-guided walking tour lets you discover the city without joining a group or following a fixed timetable. Neywo offers three walking tours, one bus route and one bike route:

• “Uptown’s Crown, Spire and Steeples”: 1.47 km, 76 minutes and 12 narrated stops.
• “Art, Books and Bronze on South Tryon”: 1.51 km, 62 minutes and 9 narrated stops.
• “From Cotton Fields to Checkered Flags”: 3.58 km, 94 minutes and 9 narrated stops.
• “Uptown Arts and Heritage on CATS Route 5”: an 8.6 km bus route lasting 37 minutes, with 6 narrated stops.
• “Brooklyn, Banks and Racing by Bike Lane”: a 2.3 km bike route lasting 12 minutes, with 4 narrated stops.

The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Narration is available in 11 languages. Download Neywo and explore Charlotte through its historic houses, museums, churches, cultural landmarks and racing heritage.

Charlotte is part of North Carolina in the United States.