South Union Street in 1898 not only was a gateway into downtown Concord’s center of commerce, but it also led to the Odell Manufacturing Company, the massive textile mill at the road’s north end. In this bird’s-eye perspective from a building top across from the tree-obscured Cabarrus County Courthouse, a bumper crop of cotton is hauled by mule-drawn wagons up the grubby, unpaved road. (Courtesy of the Kannapolis Public Library.)