My Memoirs

J. B. Ivey (1864-1958) belonged to a distinguished list of storekeepers who came to Charlotte at the turn of the century to take advantage of the booming cotton mill economy. He opened a small store room in rented space near the Square on West Trade Street on February 18, 1900, and over the following decades, with Charlotte’s ever-increasing population, J. B. Ivey & Company grew into a big store and rapidly growing business. Ivey’s went on to dominate not only the retail business of uptown Charlotte, but also continued to expand all over North Carolina and down as far as Florida. This is the biography of North Carolina’s grandest department store magnate himself.