Mooresville is a town located in the southwestern section of Iredell County, North Carolina, United States, and is a part of the fast-growing Charlotte metropolitan area.

Major Rufus Reid was the most prominent planter in the area, enslaving 81 African Americans on over 2,000 acres (810 ha) of land.

In 1856, a railroad was placed on a ridge that crossed the land of a local farmer by the name of John Franklin Moore.

A small-scale planter, Moore set up a depot on his land, and encouraged others to help establish a small village on the location in the late 1850s.

The Civil War hampered developments, with the railroad tracks being removed to aid the Confederate efforts in Virginia.

[5] The railroad brought growth to the town, which continued with the addition of the first water plant in the early 1890s, the establishment of a library in 1899, a phone company in 1893 and the first of many textile mills in 1900.

[6] In 1938, artist Alicia Weincek painted the mural North Carolina Cotton Industry in the town's post office, having won a WPA competition for the commissioned work.

The league ceased operations for two seasons due to World War II but was reorganized in 1945.

Selma Burke, a prominent sculptor during the Harlem Renaissance who was born and raised in Mooresville, created the bust of President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the Four Freedoms plaque on the Recorder of Deeds building in Washington, D.C.

On December 11, 2014, Duke Energy, to repair a rusted, leaking pipe, received approval from North Carolina to dump coal ash (containing arsenic, lead, thallium and mercury, among other heavy metals) from the Marshall Steam Station 10 miles (16 km) west of Mooresville into Lake Norman.

[7] On October 3, 2015, Duke reported that a sinkhole had formed at the base of the Marshall Steam Station dam on Lake Norman.

The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) says Duke placed a liner in the hole and filled it with crushed stone.

In addition to a number of historic sites including Mount Mourne Plantation, Johnson-Neel House, Cornelius House, and Espy Watts Brawley House, Mooresville is home to the following historic districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places:[13] The town of Mooresville is run in a Commission-Manager style of municipal government with the Town Manager being Randy Hemann.

The I-77 Express Lanes begin at Exit 36, and continue south through the Mecklenburg County towns of Davidson, Cornelius and Huntersville before terminating in Uptown Charlotte.