Black Car Service in Matthews, NC

Matthews as a Regional Healthcare Center

One of the most important parts of modern Matthews that is easy to overlook is the town’s role as a regional healthcare center. Novant Health Matthews Medical Center, located on Matthews Township Parkway, has served the community for more than three decades and has continued to grow along with southeastern Mecklenburg County. The hospital provides a major medical presence not only for Matthews residents, but also for patients coming from nearby communities such as Mint Hill, Stallings, Indian Trail, Weddington, and other parts of Union and Mecklenburg counties.

That role became even more significant with the completion of a major hospital expansion in 2025. Novant Health opened a new four-story, approximately 150,000-square-foot critical-care tower that increased the hospital from 157 to 177 beds. The expansion added medical and surgical capacity, seven operating rooms, three procedure rooms, additional cardiovascular facilities, expanded imaging capabilities, and a larger intensive-care unit. It was a substantial investment in Matthews and another indication of how the town has evolved from a small agricultural community into a place that now provides major regional services.

Healthcare has also become an increasingly visible part of the Matthews business landscape. Medical offices, physician practices, rehabilitation services, specialty care providers, and related businesses have developed around the hospital campus and along Matthews Township Parkway. For visitors, this means Matthews is not simply a residential suburb of Charlotte; it has become a destination in its own right for medical care, employment, professional services, and family visits.

Schools and Education in Matthews

Education is another major part of everyday life in Matthews. The town is part of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schoolssystem, and several public schools are physically located within the Matthews community. Matthews Elementary School sits close to the historic center of town on East McDowell Street, while Elizabeth Lane Elementary and Crown Point Elementary serve other portions of the Matthews area. Crestdale Middle School is located on Sam Newell Road, and David W. Butler High School stands along Matthews-Mint Hill Road.

The locations of these schools also illustrate how Matthews has grown over time. Matthews Elementary remains close to the older center of town, while newer schools were constructed as residential development moved outward. Elizabeth Lane Elementary, for example, opened in 1996 as growth accelerated around Matthews and southeastern Mecklenburg County. CMS notes that the school has developed into a diverse community whose students represent more than 30 nationalities.

School assignments can change as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools adjusts attendance boundaries, so families relocating to Matthews should always verify a specific address directly with CMS rather than relying solely on the Matthews mailing address. Still, the number of schools, parks, recreation facilities, libraries, and family-oriented programs located throughout the community helps explain why Matthews has remained attractive to families even as the Charlotte metropolitan area has expanded around it.

Community Spotlight: Historic Crestdale

Just beyond the better-known historic downtown is another important chapter in Matthews history: Crestdale, one of the area’s historic African American communities. Its story developed alongside the railroad but followed a path very different from the commercial center of Matthews. The community became home to Black families who worked on farms, for the railroad, and in service occupations, eventually establishing homes, churches, and a neighborhood with an identity of its own.

Today, Matthews has made a deliberate effort to preserve and tell that history. The Matthews Heritage Trail: Celebrating Historic Crestdale, completed in 2021, extends approximately 1.5 miles from the rear of Matthews Town Hall and Library through the Crestdale community before connecting with Four Mile Creek Greenway at John Street. Historical markers placed along the route tell stories about the people, churches, families, and places that shaped the neighborhood. The Town of Matthews describes Crestdale as one of the oldest African American communities in North Carolina.

This is an important part of Matthews because it adds another layer to the familiar story of the railroad, cotton farms, and downtown merchants. Matthews was never just one neighborhood or one group of people. Communities such as Crestdale developed beside the growing town and contributed generations of labor, faith, family life, and civic participation. Preserving that story gives residents and visitors a more complete picture of how Matthews became the community it is today.

Arts, Theater and Community Life

Matthews has also done something many rapidly developing suburbs struggle to accomplish: it has found new purposes for some of its older community buildings instead of simply replacing them. One of the best examples is the Matthews Community Center. The building originally opened in 1907 as the town’s first public school. When it faced demolition decades later, Matthews undertook a major restoration, preserving a structure that is now designated as a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmark. Today, the building serves as a community and cultural center rather than a school.

The Community Center is also home to the Fullwood Theater and Matthews Playhouse, bringing live theater and performing arts into the heart of town. Nearby, the McDowell Arts Center occupies another former school-related building dating from the 1920s. The facility now provides gallery space, arts programs, classes, and a home for the Matthews Artists Guild. Together, these buildings create a small cultural district that feels far more connected to the town’s history than a newly constructed entertainment complex would.

The town’s public library contributes to that sense of place as well. Matthews Town Hall and the Matthews branch of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library were developed through a partnership and dedicated in 2001. The library contains a history mural telling the story of Matthews, while public art, exhibits, theater productions, festivals, and community programs continue to give downtown a civic function beyond shopping and dining.

A Serious Destination for Amateur and Professional Sports

The Mecklenburg County Sportsplex at Matthews deserves more than a passing mention because it has developed into one of the Charlotte region’s significant athletic facilities. The complex contains 11 lighted multipurpose fields, including nine synthetic-turf fields and two natural-grass fields, along with a stadium that seats approximately 4,300 spectators. The stadium includes lights, a videoboard, locker rooms, and meeting and team space.

The Sportsplex regularly brings athletes, coaches, parents, tournament organizers, and spectators into Matthews from outside the immediate area. Its fields accommodate organized and recreational competition, while the stadium hosts higher-level soccer and other events. The facility’s 2026 calendar includes matches involving Charlotte Independenceand Crown Legacy FC, as well as regional soccer tournaments that can occupy multiple fields over an entire weekend.

That activity has a broader effect on Matthews. Tournament weekends bring families who need hotels, restaurants, shopping, and other services, while larger matches draw spectators from throughout Greater Charlotte. It is one more example of how Matthews now functions as much more than a bedroom community for people commuting into Charlotte.

Greenways Becoming Part of the Town’s Transportation Network

Matthews’ greenways are increasingly being designed as connections between neighborhoods and destinations rather than isolated walking trails. Four Mile Creek Greenway, for example, includes approximately two miles of paved trail and connects with Matthews Community Center, Matthews Elementary School, Fountain Rock Park, Squirrel Lake Park, the Matthews Heritage Trail, and the Matthews Sportsplex. In practical terms, those connections allow portions of the community to be reached on foot or bicycle without depending entirely on major roads.

That approach reflects a broader effort by both Matthews and Mecklenburg County to create recreational corridors that also serve a transportation purpose. Greenways provide places for exercise and recreation, but they can also connect homes with schools, parks, downtown areas, and other community destinations while preserving natural corridors and stream buffers.

For a town that developed during an era when suburban growth was heavily automobile-oriented, the gradual creation of these connections represents a different approach to future development. Matthews is still very much a driving community, but its planning increasingly recognizes that residents also want the ability to walk or bike between neighborhoods, parks, schools, and downtown.

Planning for the Future of Matthews

One of the challenges facing Matthews is the same challenge confronting much of the Charlotte metropolitan area: how to accommodate continued growth without losing the character that made the community desirable in the first place. Matthews is no longer the isolated farming town it once was, and the roads that pass through it now carry regional traffic as well as local residents. Future planning therefore involves more than simply adding lanes to roads.

A good example is the continuing discussion surrounding the John Street corridor. Town planning documents have examined improvements between Matthews Township Parkway and the eastern side of Matthews that would create what planners call a “Complete Street”—a road designed not only for automobiles, but also for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users. Proposed concepts have included additional sidewalks and shared-use paths, upgraded pedestrian crossings, improved transit stops, landscaping, drainage improvements, and connections between Four Mile Creek Greenway and downtown Matthews.

The project illustrates the larger question Matthews will face in the coming decades. Growth is almost certain to continue around southeastern Mecklenburg County and neighboring Union County, but preserving a recognizable town center, older neighborhoods, historic buildings, and walkable community spaces will require careful planning. The Town’s development and transportation plans increasingly emphasize pedestrian connections, bicycle access, mobility choices, and maintaining the character of Matthews while accommodating the realities of a growing metropolitan region.

That balance between old and new may ultimately be one of Matthews’ greatest strengths. Few people looking at the community today would imagine that its population numbered only 191 people in the 1880 census. The town has changed dramatically, yet pieces of nearly every stage of its development can still be found—from historic Crestdale and the old school buildings to modern medical facilities, sports complexes, greenways, and new transportation projects. Matthews is still changing, but it has made a noticeable effort to carry its history forward rather than leave it behind.