09/01/2026
Origins of Sharon Presbyterian Church:
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CHARLOTTE HISTORY: WHO WAS SHARON—and Why Is Her Name All Over Charlotte?
Sharon Road. Sharon Lane. Sharon View Road. Sharon Amity Road. Sharon Lakes Road. Sharon Woods Lane. Sharon Forest Drive.
With so many “Sharon” roads around Charlotte, it would be easy to assume they were named for an important woman.
But Sharon was not a person at all.
The story begins with Sharon Presbyterian Church, established in 1831 in what was then open countryside south of Charlotte. The surrounding landscape consisted mainly of farms, woods, and scattered country homes long before SouthPark Mall, office towers, and subdivisions arrived.
The church’s name came from the biblical Plain of Sharon, a fertile region described as a pasture for flocks and a place that would blossom abundantly. It was a hopeful and fitting name for a church surrounded by Mecklenburg County farmland. History South
In rural Mecklenburg County, churches were more than places of worship. They were some of the most recognizable landmarks in the countryside. People described routes according to where they led: the road to Providence Church became Providence Road, and the road to Sharon Church became Sharon Road.
The church gave the road its name not the other way around.
Another early route, Sharon-Amity Road, connected the Sharon Church area with Amity Presbyterian Church, which was established near Albemarle Road in 1882. The name was essentially a set of directions: the road between Sharon and Amity.
By 1905, a map of the area showed Sharon Church standing at a quiet country crossroads. There was no SouthPark Mall, Foxcroft, or modern business district—just roads crossing through farmland around the little church.
The community also had Sharon School, which operated on the church grounds and served local children through high school. One of its best-known graduates was Billy Graham.
The Sharon name gained even greater recognition during the twentieth century. Former North Carolina governor Cameron Morrison developed his large Morrocroft estate and farm nearby during the 1920s. Large homes followed, and after World War II, new neighborhoods began replacing fields and pastures.
Developers soon discovered that “Sharon” had become associated with one of Charlotte’s desirable suburban areas. They repeatedly used the familiar name for new streets, neighborhoods, apartments, and shopping centers.
That is how Charlotte acquired names such as Sharon Acres, Sharon Chase, Sharon Commons, Sharon Forest, Sharon Lakes, Sharon Oaks, Sharon View, Sharon Woods, and Sharonbrook.
The original roads served as directions to a country church. Many of the later names served another purpose: they helped advertise a connection to the growing and increasingly prestigious Sharon community.
Today, much of the farmland has disappeared beneath SouthPark and its surrounding neighborhoods. Yet Sharon Presbyterian Church remains on its historic site at 5201 Sharon Road, quietly preserving the origin of one of Charlotte’s most repeated place names.
So, who was Sharon?
She was never a Charlotte woman. She was a biblical landscape, a country church, and eventually the name of an entire part of the city.
Photo courtesy of Sharon Presbyterian Church.
