Belmont is a small suburban city in Gaston County, North Carolina, United States, located about 9 miles (14 km) east of Gastonia.

Settlement in the Belmont area began around the colonial-era Fort at the Point, built in the 1750s by Dutch settler James Kuykendall, Robert Leeper, and two others near the junction of the South Fork and the Catawba River.

[9] Founded by Jasper Stowe and Associates in 1853, it was one of the first three cotton mills in operation in Gaston County.

He built a Greek Revival home (still the oldest known structure in Belmont) and opened a small mercantile store.

He later became postmaster and town depot agent for the new Atlanta and Richmond Air-Line Railway, which was constructed in 1871.

The station was named for John Garibaldi, who had supervised construction of a water tank near the new railroad.

[11] Existing settlers in the South Point community moved north to be closer to the railroad.

[5] In 1872, Father Jeremiah O'Connell, a Roman Catholic missionary priest, purchased a 500-acre (2.0 km2) tract known as the Caldwell farm, less than one mile (1.6 km) north of Garibaldi Station.

The land was then donated to the Benedictine monks of Saint Vincent's Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, for the establishment of a religious community and school.

[12] In 1895, by an act of the North Carolina General Assembly, an area within a 1/4 mile radius from the intersection of Main Street and the railroad was incorporated as the Town of Belmont.

The organization of Chronicle Mills in 1901 marked the beginning of Belmont's development as a textile center.

It was founded by Robert Lee Stowe Sr. (1866–1963), his brother Samuel Pinckney Stowe (1868–1956), and Abel Caleb Lineberger (1859–1948, son of Caleb John Lineberger, who had founded Gaston County's first textile mill, the Woodlawn, or "Pinhook", Mill in Lowell, North Carolina in 1848[13]).

Adjacent to Belmont, the rivers make up two arms of Lake Wylie and form a peninsula on which the city is situated.

Areas to the west of the center of town are part of the South Fork Catawba watershed.

Daniel J. Stowe, a retired textile executive, set aside the property and established a foundation to develop the garden.

Roughly bounded by the former campus of Sacred Heart College, the Norfolk Southern Railway line, Main, Glenway, and Bryant streets, Keener Boulevard, and Central Avenue, the district covers 1,700 acres (6.9 km2).

It includes the Colonial Revival-style former US Post Office at 115 N. Main Street, now the Belmont City Hall.

Built in the German Gothic Revival architectural style, the basilica was the largest Catholic church in North Carolina at the time of its construction.

The original art glass windows of the Basilica were designed and executed by the Royal Bavarian Establishment of Francis Mayer and Company of Munich, Germany.

Displays include furnishings, artifacts, and pictures which tell the history of Belmont from the time of its Native American inhabitants through the textile age.

The U.S. National Whitewater Center is located just across the Catawba River from Belmont in Mecklenburg County.

Situated on the east bank of the river, the Center [sic] is a non-profit outdoor recreation facility for whitewater rafting, canoeing, and kayaking.

The downtown area of Belmont has expanded and added new attractions like restaurants, bars, and shopping.

The large textile facilities that once employed thousands of local workers have been torn down or converted to other uses, including housing.

Duke Energy operates the G. G. Allen Steam Station on Lake Wylie (the Catawba River) south of Belmont.

The First United Methodist Day Care Center also operates Pre-K and Kindergarten programs.

A spur off the S-Line carries coal to Duke Energy's Allen Steam Station south of Belmont.

The Gastonia Express (Route 85X) offers Monday-Friday bus service to/from uptown Charlotte, via the Abbey Plaza Shopping Center Station.