Monroe, North Carolina
| Monroe, North Carolina | |
|---|---|
| City | |
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Union County Courthouse in downtown Monroe
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| Motto: "a heritage of progress" | |
 Location of Monroe, North Carolina |
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| Coordinates: 34°59′20″N 80°32′59″W / 34.98889°N 80.54972°WCoordinates: 34°59′20″N 80°32′59″W / 34.98889°N 80.54972°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | North Carolina |
| County | Union |
| Area | |
| • Total | 24.9 sq mi (64.4 km2) |
| • Land | 24.6 sq mi (63.6 km2) |
| • Water | 0.3 sq mi (0.7 km2) |
| Elevation | 591 ft (180 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 32,797 |
| • Density | 1,067.5/sq mi (412.1/km2) |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| ZIP codes | 28110-28112 |
| Area code(s) | 704 |
| FIPS code | 37-43920 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0990144 |
| Website | www |
Monroe is a fast-growing city and the county seat in Union County, North Carolina, United States. The population jumped from 26,228 in 2000 to 32,797 in 2010. It is the seat of government of Union County and is also part of the Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC Metropolitan area. Monroe has a council-manager form of government.
In 1843, the first Board of County Commissioners, appointed by the General Assembly, selected an area in the center of the county as the county seat and Monroe was incorporated that year. It was named for James Monroe, the country’s fifth president. It became a trading center for the agricultural areas of the upland region, which cultivated tobacco.
Since the early 20th century, Ludwig drums and timpani have been manufactured in Monroe. The Ludwig brothers developed a hydraulic action timpani. In 1916 they invented a spring mechanism—the basis for the current Balanced Action Pedal Timpani.
Monroe had the typical segregation of the state following World War II, and local blacks, including Marine veteran Robert F. Williams, began to work to gain civil rights. At this time, the city had a population estimated at about 12,000; the press reported an estimated 7500 members of the Ku Klux Klan in the city. Williams became president of the local NAACP chapter and began to work to integrate public facilities, starting with the library and the city's swimming pool. These had been built with federal funds during the Great Depression of the 1930s and were operated from revenues derived from taxes on blacks as well as whites.
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