Mecklenburg County officials and local stakeholders broke ground Monday on new construction at Latta Place in Huntersville, marking the next phase of a years-long effort to rebuild the 16-acre former plantation site into something county leaders say will finally tell the full story of who lived and worked there. The site has sat closed since 2021, and the new construction is aimed at reopening it to the public next year.
WFAE reported that the $11.2 million redevelopment includes a new visitor center, an upgraded farmhouse and an interpretive trail loop. County commissioners budgeted the figure for the redesign and reinterpretation project, according to WFAE, which also reported that the county unveiled finalized master design concepts at a public meeting in Huntersville. Mecklenburg County selected general contractor Elford Inc. in January 2025 to manage construction on the facility and site renovations, local journalist Liz Miller reported.
A Site That Closed Amid Outcry Over a Juneteenth Event
Latta Place has been closed since 2021, when the county severed its relationship with the nonprofit that had managed the property. The break followed public condemnation of a Juneteenth event listing titled “Kingdom Coming,” whose contractor-written event description included planned stories from “the massa himself,” “white refugees” and Confederate soldiers, and which critics said downplayed the suffering of enslaved people.
County Park and Recreation Director W. Lee Jones terminated the operating agreement with vendor Historic Latta Inc. that same month, ending third-party management after the political blowback, per the same WFAE account. The site's former manager, Ian Campbell, responded at the time with a 1,300-word statement taking full responsibility for the event while declining to apologize, arguing the program was meant to present Reconstruction-era history from multiple viewpoints — a defense local government leaders rejected as offensive and racially insensitive.
From Plantation to Place
In February 2022, the county formally renamed the property from Historic Latta Plantation to Latta Place. Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Special Collections documents that Latta built the Federal-style house around 1800; WFAE reports that the property included a 742-acre plantation.
The county's master plan for the redesign was approved in 2023, guided by a steering committee that advised the redesign process, and Mecklenburg County says it is collaborating with experts in historical interpretation to develop new exhibits and programming. The redeveloped site is intended to tell a more inclusive story of enslaved people, Native peoples, tenant farmers and plantation owners alike, rather than centering only the landowning family.
Officials Frame Groundbreaking as a Moral Commitment
Mike Bryant said the county has a moral obligation to share the site's history honestly, sensitively and without bias, and that the project's real impact will ultimately be measured by what visitors do with what they learn rather than by the buildings themselves. Leslie Johnson said the goal is to create an educational destination that gives voice to everyone who lived at the site while welcoming all visitors, and described the groundbreaking as the moment the project shifts from planning into cultivating a new version of the historic resource.
A separate artistic component is also taking shape alongside the construction. The Arts & Science Council commissioned artist Maxwell Emcays to build a memorial sculpture at Latta Place dedicated to at least 65 known enslaved individuals who lived and worked on the land, according to CLTure. The outlet reported that the design process included community engagement sessions and meetings with descendants of enslaved residents who once lived on the property.
The Site and What Comes Next
Latta Place occupies 16 acres within the Latta Nature Preserve.
County officials say Latta Place is intended to help ensure that its difficult history, and similar histories elsewhere, are never repeated. The site is expected to reopen to the public in 2027, and more information is available at latta.mecknc.gov.
