Pineville Commercial Historic District

Pineville's commercial core lies on Main Street and Dover Street just east of the railroad tracks, roughly ten miles south of Charlotte. Its brick rows were built between about 1873 and 1956, when the town was a cotton-mill and mule-trading center. The oldest building is Younts General Store at 316 Main Street, dating to about 1873, built by merchant Samuel Younts, who became the town's first mayor. The north side of the street was developed first, with handmade brick, corbelled cornices and stepped parapets. The south side followed in the 1920s and 1950s, led by William Yandell's 1925 Yandell Hotel and Grocery, the largest building in the district. Many shopfronts keep their recessed entries, transoms and pressed-metal ceilings. The district is regarded as one of the most intact groupings of small-town commercial architecture in Mecklenburg County.