But we have to remember that this area hasn't always been as built up as this, and honestly comes from rather rural roots!
So I put together a quick collection of historical photos to show how our neighborhoods have grown up! All images are from Google Earth, so you can go see them too, but unfortunately they only go back to 1993, so I have to stop there! Also, the quality varies depending on what's available, and you can see just how far aerial photography has come in the last 20 years!
This first one should look familiar, it's an aerial photo from 6/2015 and shows all these neighborhoods we know and love.
Now let's step back a bit in time to 2007:
Looks pretty similar, except if you focus in on a few areas....
Oh, wow, where the current Publix is (and formerly BiLo) and those associated businesses is just dirt right now! The CVS is in place, and you can see some of the nearby "pinwheel" community!
There's a bit more curiosity in here too. Let's take a closer look near the entrance of Francis Beatty park!
This is a closer view of the communities around the entrance to the park, from the 2015 aerial photo. Now, let's step back just a few years to 2002:
I left the 'roads' showing with labels, but you can clearly see how it was all just undeveloped country at the time, and even more interesting is that across the street the Chestnut subdivision was barely started and the expansion over towards Franklin Meadows wasn't even planned!
So back on track, let's go back to 2005. I circled a couple of areas to point out.
First, you'll see in the upper right that Canterbury Place subdivision is just now under construction! In the middle right, you'll see that Callonwood is under construction, with just the first part near the main entrance completed!
In the middle, across McKee from the Siskey Y area, you can see that Providence Hills and Weddington Ridge are complete, but Matthews Grove Matthews Ridge are just starting to be built out!
So let's jump back all the way to 1993:
You can see that the Harris Teeter shopping center exists, but without it's out-parcels like the BP or ABC store, and only the very first bit of development in Providence Hills. There's now Willowmere, no Callonwood, although Brightmoor stands tall!
What's fascinating to me is that the road system outside of the subdivisions all seem the same from these aerial photos, except for one major thing.
Let me turn off the road labels and take another look:
That's right! Life before I485 was even built!
Hope you liked this little walk down memory lane with me from these Matthews Historical Aerial photos!
-JP
