Belmont is a small suburban city in Gaston County, North Carolina, United States, located about east of Gastonia. The population was 15,010 at the 2020 census. The area was once known as Garibaldi Station, namely after the railroad stop created in the early 1870s. This was named after John Garibaldi, the engineer who oversaw the construction of the railroad and construction of the first water tower in town.
Belmont is home to Belmont Abbey College.
History Settlement in the Belmont area began around the colonial-era Fort at the Point, built in the 1750s by Dutch settler James Kuykendall, Robert Leeper, and two others near the junction of the South Fork and the Catawba River.Belmont Chamber of Commerce website . Retrieved 2008-07-01Piper Peters Aheron. Images of America: Gastonia and Gaston County North Carolina. Arcadia Publishing, 2001 ()Minne Stowe Puett, Historian of Gaston County. History of Gaston County. The Observer Printing House, Inc. Charlotte, NC, 1939 ()https://archive.org/details/historyofgastonc00puet/page/n7/mode/2up The fort was built because of ongoing hostilities with the Cherokee, but it was apparently never attacked.
The South Point Community, located about miles south of present-day downtown Belmont, was the site of Stowesville Mill.South Point UMC History . Retrieved 2008-07-03 Founded by Jasper Stowe and Associates in 1853, it was one of the first three cotton mills in operation in Gaston County.Pre-1860 Textiles , NC Business History. Retrieved 2008-07-03
Abram Stowe (1842–1897) returned to the area after serving in the Civil War. He built a Greek Revival home (still the oldest known structure in Belmont) and opened a small mercantile store. He later became postmaster and town depot agent for the new Atlanta and Richmond Air-Line Railway, which was constructed in 1871. Additional stores were soon built near the community's railroad stop, Garibaldi Station. The station was named for John Garibaldi, who had supervised construction of a water tank near the new railroad.History of Belmont . Retrieved 2008-07-20 Existing settlers in the South Point community moved north to be closer to the railroad.
In 1872, Father Jeremiah O'Connell, a Roman Catholic missionary priest, purchased a tract known as the Caldwell farm, less than one mile (1.6 km) north of Garibaldi Station. The land was then donated to the Benedictine monks of Saint Vincent's Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, for the establishment of a religious community and school. Belmont Abbey, officially named "Mary Help of Christians Abbey", was founded in 1876 by Bishop Leo Haid, and still functions today. The abbey operates Belmont Abbey College, a liberal arts college.
In 1883, the name of Garibaldi Station was formally changed to Belmont. It was named for the New York banker August Belmont. In 1895, by an act of the North Carolina General Assembly, an area within a 1/4 mile radius from the intersection of Main Street and the railroad was incorporated as the Town of Belmont.
Belmont was still a small town at the turn of the century, with a population of only 145. The organization of Chronicle Mills in 1901 marked the beginning of Belmont's development as a textile center. It was founded by Robert Lee Stowe Sr. (1866–1963), his brother Samuel Pinckney Stowe (1868–1956), and Abel Caleb Lineberger (1859–1948, son of Caleb John Lineberger, who had founded Gaston County's first textile mill, the Woodlawn, or "Pinhook", Mill in Lowell, North Carolina in 1848). Chronicle was the first of the nearly twenty mills built in Belmont through 1930, expanding the town population to 3,793.
Geography Nestled in the southern Piedmont region of North Carolina, the town of Belmont is flanked by two rivers, the Catawba River and its right tributary, the South Fork Catawba River. Adjacent to Belmont, the rivers make up two arms of Lake Wylie and form a peninsula on which the city is situated.
Areas to the west of the center of town are part of the South Fork Catawba watershed. Eastern parts of Belmont north of the Norfolk Southern Railway belong to the Catawba Heights watershed, while those to the south are in the Paw Creek watershed. Areas of unincorporated South Point Township south of Belmont belong to the Neal Branch-Beaverdam Creek watershed.Watershed Map , Gaston County government website.
Belmont is located west of Charlotte and east of Gastonia. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 0.25%, is water.
Demographics
2020 census +Belmont racial composition Race Number Percentage White (non-Hispanic) 11,586 77.19% Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 1,459 9.72% Native American 50 0.33% Asian 515 3.43% Pacific Islander 13 0.09% Other/Mixed 643 4.28% Hispanic or Latino 744 4.96% As of the 2020 census, Belmont had a population of 15,010. The median age was 39.0 years. 21.4% of residents were under the age of 18 and 15.7% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 92.9 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 89.4 males age 18 and over.
93.8% of residents lived in urban areas, while 6.2% lived in rural areas.
There were 5,936 households in Belmont, of which 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 48.9% were married-couple households, 17.7% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 28.0% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 30.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. There were 2,922 families residing in the city.
There were 6,426 housing units, of which 7.6% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.5% and the rental vacancy rate was 6.9%.
2000 census As of the census of 2000, there were 8,705 people, 3,348 households, and 2,226 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 3,552 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 84.39% White, 10.07% African American, 0.26% Native American, 2.98% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 1.26% from other races, and 0.99% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.49% of the population.
There were 3,348 households, out of which 30.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.6% were married couples living together, 13.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.5% were non-families. 28.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 2.97.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 22.8% under the age of 18, 11.7% from 18 to 24, 31.9% from 25 to 44, 20.2% from 45 to 64, and 13.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.8 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $38,819, and the median income for a family was $46,765. Males had a median income of $32,388 versus $25,213 for females. The per capita income for the city was $20,065. About 6.9% of families and 9.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.3% of those under age 18 and 14.1% of those age 65 or over. Arts and culture
The Daniel Stowe Conservancy is a botanical garden located on New Hope Road southwest of Belmont. Daniel J. Stowe, a retired textile executive, set aside the property and established a foundation to develop the garden. The first gardens opened to the public in 1999.
The Downtown Belmont Historic District has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1996. Roughly bounded by the former campus of Sacred Heart College, the Norfolk Southern Railway line, Main, Glenway, and Bryant streets, Keener Boulevard, and Central Avenue, the district covers . It contains 264 buildings and two structures built between 1850 and 1949, including examples of Tudor Revival, Bungalow/Craftsman, and Colonial Revival architectural styles. It includes the Colonial Revival-style former US Post Office at 115 N. Main Street, now the Belmont City Hall. The Belmont Hosiery Mill at 608 S. Main Street is also listed on the National Register.National Register of Historic Places - Gaston County . Retrieved on 2008-07-18
The Belmont Historic District, Belmont Hosiery Mill, and Belmont City Hall are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Stowe Manor, at 217 South Central Avenue, is the 1920s mansion built for textile magnate S.P. Stowe.
The campus of Belmont Abbey College has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places as an Historic District since 1973. The Abbey Basilica of Mary Help of Christians is the central feature of the campus. Built in the German Gothic Revival architectural style, the basilica was the largest Catholic church in North Carolina at the time of its construction. The monks of Belmont Abbey did much of the construction work themselves. The original art glass windows of the Basilica were designed and executed by the Royal Bavarian Establishment of Francis Mayer and Company of Munich, Germany. They were painted then heat-fused, allowing for greater detail than was possible with stained glass. The windows were part of a display that won four gold medals at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1892. The Basilica held cathedral rank from 1910 to 1977. It was elevated to the rank of a Minor Basilica on July 27, 1998.Abbey Basilica of Mary Help of Christians , Council of Independent Colleges Historic Campus Architecture Project. Retrieved on 2008-07-18.
The Belmont Historical Society Cultural and Heritage Learning Center is located in the former R.L. Stowe home at 40 Catawba Street. Built in 1899, it is believed to be the third oldest home in Belmont. The property also contains a free-standing kitchen, a mill house, and a garage. Displays include furnishings, artifacts, and pictures which tell the history of Belmont from the time of its Native American inhabitants through the textile age.
The U.S. National Whitewater Center is located just across the Catawba River from Belmont in Mecklenburg County. Situated on the east bank of the river, the is a non-profit outdoor recreation facility for whitewater rafting, canoeing, and kayaking. It opened for public use in 2006.
The downtown area of Belmont has grown; responding to the needs of an increasingly large and affluent population. A variety of boutique stores, restaurants, and bars have been added. Highlight include:
The Station: A popular casual restaurant and bar housed in the converted train station featuring indoor and covered outdoor seating with a firepit bar Belmont Bookstore: Designed for lingering, this local bookstore features a children's reading loft, a puzzle table and comfortable reading chairs, while beverages sold on site can be sipped while reading. Cherub's Café & Candy Bouquet is an outreach of Holy Angels and is a café that provides vocational training and meaningful supported employment options for individuals with intellectual developmental disabilities.Cherub's Café of Holy Angels , Cherub's Café of Holy Angels. The New York Butcher Shoppe & Wine Bar: A combination butch shop, wine store and restaurant where dining patrons can select a specific cut of meat for their selected entree from the butcher counter, select a bottle of wine in the wine section (paying retail wine store price; not restaurant price), and sit down for dinner
Economy