When state legislator Stephen Cabarrus sought a compromise between quarreling Scotch-Irish and German settlers over the location of Cabarrus County's seat, his appeal led to a "concord" that gave birth to one of North Carolina's most charming cities. Not long after its 1796 founding, Concord began a transformation from an agricultural community into a textile-manufacturing mecca as captains of industry built empires exploiting the cotton that so abundantly sprouted from the region's fruitful soil. By the advent of the 1900s, textiles' prosperity encouraged an architectural renaissance within...