CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A longtime recreation center in Charlotte sits empty after closing last year.  

What You Need To Know

  • Hawthorne Recreation Center near Independence Park has been closed for more than a year

  • The center served as a community hub for people living near Uptown

  • A group of friends are calling on the city to re-open it

For more than 60 years, Hawthorne Recreation Center at Independence Park served as a community hub for people living near the city’s Uptown neighborhood.

Now, a group of friends are calling on the city to re-open it.

Calvin Cooke, 81, grew up in the city’s Plaza Midwood neighborhood.

“Everything has changed,” Cooke said. “A lot of houses are being demolished … to build condos.”

Cooke recalls spending much of his teenage years at Hawthorne Recreation Center.

“If we had it with our mom and dad, and we couldn’t stand it anymore, and we had to go,” Cooke said. “Everybody, I believe, knew that we could find a home – all we had to do was go to the center.”

Cooke says he heard about the center’s closing through word of mouth. Shortly after learning the news, Cooke picked up his phone and left a passionate voicemail for the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department to request a reunion with his old friends inside the defunct center.

“I wasn’t sure whether I was going to go to jail or accomplish something, and luckily the latter was the option,” he said.

On a hot July afternoon, Cooke and nearly a dozen others gathered under the same roof that some called "home" nearly 60 years ago.

“It’s not changed much in here,” Cooke said. “Of course, the only real change is me.”

Cooke says he and some of his friends are trying to get the city to re-open the center as they know firsthand the importance of a neighborhood hub.

“I really believe it helped a lot more people later in life,” Cooke said.

As the group tries to make a difference with Park and Recreation officials, Cooke says he’s just grateful for this moment to reconnect.

“It’s a wonderful thing, it’s a great thing to see we’re still here,” Cooke said. “We lived through the polio epidemic, AIDS epidemic, a world war… and we’re still here!”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation said in a statement, “The center has been closed for more than a year, and the Park and Recreation Department is evaluating for its future use.”