WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC-Crews demolish historic Coffee Cup restaurant

Crews demolish historic Coffee Cup restaurant

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - The historic Coffee Cup restaurant in center city Charlotte crumbled to the ground early Thursday morning.

The Coffee Cup was one of the first places in Charlotte where both black and whites gathered on a regular basis following segregation in the 1960s.

"It wasn't a beautiful building, but it was an artifact," said Dr. Dan Morrill who leads the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission.

"It was one of the first places that African-American people and white people could come together and enjoy a home-cooked meal," Morrill said.

The restaurant was on a small piece of land near Bank of America Stadium.  Beazer Homes was planning to build a housing development on the land, but they pulled out of the project last year after local reporters discovered the company arranged loans some buyers couldn't afford and violated federal lending laws.

Now Beazer want the land the Coffee Cup sits on - it's up for sale. But, it knocked the building down anyway. The Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Landmark Commission is upset, saying Beazer should have allowed the buyer to decide the restaurant's fate.

The world around the Coffee Cup actually started crumbling more than two years ago.

Beazer wanted the owners out and a series of meetings were held to save it.  The restaurant received temporary historic designation but the restaurant moved to northeast Charlotte near UNC-Charlotte.  Eventually, all that was left was an abandoned building and even its signature sign was stolen.

Former city councilman Malachi Greene said, "The big dogs sat down and rubbed shoulders and ate by little dogs."

"Everybody was served the same food by the same people, and was talked to them the same way by people who was serving them," Greene recalled.