Latta Place

A groundbreaking ceremony in Huntersville on Monday marked the start of construction on an $11.2 million redevelopment project at a historic site that closed five years ago amid controversy tied to Juneteenth.

Mecklenburg County officials say Latta Place — formerly known as Latta Plantation — will undergo a redesign that places more focus on the people who lived and worked there, especially those who were enslaved.

New landscaping, fences, repairs and renovations could be coming to historic Latta Plantation as the county draws up plans for the historic site's reopening.

Mecklenburg County Commissioners will get an update Tuesday night on Historic Latta Plantation.

The Mecklenburg County Park And Recreation director gives an update on everything from funding to Latta Plantation and the controversy around a planned Juneteenth event that led to the historic site losing its funding and then being closed indefinitely.

Historic Latta Plantation in Huntersville is closed "until further notice," Mecklenburg County announced Thursday. The news comes after a community and local government uproar over a controversial event planned for Juneteenth at the historic site.

Mecklenburg County will not renew its contract with Historic Latta Planation after a planned Juneteenth event listing at the Huntersville 19th century home site caused an uproar on social media and was condemned by local government officials.

Some of this week's top stories from WFAE: Mecklenburg County and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools are headed to formal mediation over a county budget that withholds millions of dollars from the district pending a detailed plan on improving educational outcomes for Black and Hispanic children, a planned (and since-canceled) event at Latta Plantation set for Juneteenth drew condemnation from public officials and a defense from the organizer, and lawmakers are closer to delaying municipal elections in some North Carolina cities because of delays in census data.

One day after a Historic Latta Plantation Juneteenth event listing was removed from the website and condemned by local government officials as inappropriate and racist, the historic site manager posted a 1,348-word statement defending the program as educational about Reconstruction.

A racist description of an event planned at Latta Plantation on Juneteenth has been removed from the historic site's website and social media, and condemned by Mecklenburg County and the Park and Recreation Department.