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Town Hall Meeting Set On The Future Of The Excelsior Club

Sarah Delia
/
WFAE

In west Charlotte, the Excelsior Club was important to cultural life in the African-American community for more than 50 years. 

Initial plans to save the site as a historic landmark fell apart in October when the Mecklenburg County Commissioners rejected the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission's bid to buy the club. 

Tonight, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Black Heritage Committee is hosting a town hall meeting to galvanize support for the club.

Kelley Eaves-Boykin is the chair of the committee and says the meeting at the Rameses Temple on Beatties Ford Road is about creating a call-to-action. 

“Now, let’s get everybody at the table,” Eaves-Boykin said. “Let’s come to some kind of agreement as to where (the Excelsior) can go and what it can be."

The owner, State Representative Carla Cunningham, could sell the club or demolish it next summer. She says there is a lot of renovating that needs to be done.

“When I got it back, it was in very, very bad shape, and that’s where it came in that the $400,000 some dollars was needed for restoration,” Cunningham said. “It’s just not operational right now.”

The meeting will start at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Cunningham and members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission will attend.

Cole del Charco is a journalist, writer and radio producer from Hickory, North Carolina.