A history of Shelby,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Shelby from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The area was originally inhabited by Catawba and Cherokee peoples and was later settled around 1760. The city was chartered in 1843 and named after Colonel Isaac Shelby, a hero of the battle of Kings Mountain (1780) during the American Revolution. Shelby was agricultural until the railways in the 1870s stimulated Shelby's development.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Shelby’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
4 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewMonazitemineshelbync, 1906: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Shelby
See all 48 →
Shelby, decade by decade
1990s
15 historic places in Shelby
Shelby has 15 listings on the National Register, and they protect 553 historic buildings, because Central Shelby Historic District alone counts 185.
Where they are
When they were listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Monazitemineshelbync (1906) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (10) and the National Register (2). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.