History hub
History & Architecture
Few places in Charlotte carry as many industrial chapters on one site. This is a sourced summary; where sources are thin, we say so.
A sourced timeline
- 1924 — Architect Albert Kahn designs the first factory on the site for the Ford Motor Company, according to the operator. The 240,000 sq ft plant ran on three coal-fired boilers that still stand behind the Boileryard water tower.
- 1920s–1930s — The operator states roughly 300,000 Model T and Model A cars were built here.
- 1941 — During World War II, the U.S. Army adds five large warehouses and operates the site as a Quartermaster Depot supplying training camps across the Southeast.
- 1956 — In the Cold War era, production shifts to missile-related work and military vehicles. The Army's name for the site, the Charlotte Army Missile Plant, is the source of the CAMP name.
- 1967 — The Department of Defense sells the complex to Eckerd, which uses it for pharmaceutical distribution; the operator later says it was sold by Rite Aid. Many North End residents remember working here.
- 2016 — ATCO Properties purchases the 76-acre site.
- 2017 — The site opens to the public for the first time as Camp North End.
A note on dates
The operator's own history page places the Eckerd sale in 1967 under a heading labelled 1975. We use 1967 for the sale and treat 1975 as an approximate era marker until a primary source resolves it.
Not everything is from 1924
Only the first Ford building dates to 1924. Army-era warehouses came in the 1940s, later uses added and altered buildings, and contemporary construction continues. When you look at a building, ask which chapter it belongs to.
Verification
Facts on this page were checked against official sources on October 18, 2026. Business hours, events, and policies change; always confirm with the official source before you go.