Things to Do in Levine Museum Of The New South

Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers Exhibition

Step into a recreated sharecropper's cabin where the rough pine walls feel cool against your fingers, while recordings of field hollers echo through the space. The exhibition traces Charlotte's evolution from agricultural hub to banking center, with interactive stations letting you feel the weight of cotton bolls and hear the clack of early adding machines from the city's first banks.

Oral History Recording Sessions

The museum hosts monthly sessions where you can record family stories while sitting in a cozy corner filled with the smell of old leather-bound books. Local volunteers guide you through prompts about migration, work, and community changes, creating an audio time capsule that becomes part of the museum's permanent collection.

Walking Tour of Brooklyn Neighborhood

Join the museum's guided walk through what was once Charlotte's largest Black neighborhood, where you'll stand on remnants of old brick streets and hear stories of businesses that thrived before urban renewal. The tour ends at the museum's Brooklyn collection, where you can touch original storefront signs and smell the musty leather of vintage baseball gloves from the local team.

Civil Rights Era Lunch Counter

Sit at a recreated Woolworth's counter where the Formica feels smooth and cold under your forearms, while recordings of sit-in protesters singing freedom songs play softly. The exhibit includes actual stools from Charlotte's protests, with scratches and coffee stains still visible from 1960.

New South Speakeasy Events

Monthly evening events transform the museum into a 1920s-style gathering with jazz trio performances and prohibition-era cocktails served in teacups. The smell of bourbon mixed with honey drifts through galleries while you explore exhibits by lantern light, creating an unexpectedly atmospheric way to experience Charlotte's prohibition history.

Uptown's Tryon Street corridor puts you walking distance to the museum with rooftop bars overlooking the skyline.

South End's former textile mills now house boutique hotels where you can still smell the old cotton in converted loft spaces.

Dilworth's tree-lined streets offer Victorian B&Bs near the museums

NoDa's music venues and craft breweries attract younger travelers

Elizabeth neighborhood provides historic homes turned into cozy inns

Myers Park if you prefer grand old mansions and country clubs