The Pumpkin Wall Lights Up Greenway Avenue Again. What to Know Before You Carve and Walk Over.

On Monday night, October 27, 2025, heavy rain soaked the ground under the Great Elizabeth Pumpkin Wall until the wall gave way. Axios Charlotte reported that about half of its 180 carved pumpkins went down with it. On October 30, after the rain finally stopped, organizers spent the day rebuilding. By evening the display was lit again, and a new plaque read: "Winds and rain destroyed the Pumpkin Wall here on Oct. 27, 2025, but the people of Elizabeth persisted and, like a phoenix from the ashes, the wall was rebuilt."

The wall returns on October 25, 2026 at 6 p.m., at 2017 Greenway Avenue, for its 22nd year. A lot of work happens before that first evening. The wall isn't a fixture that sits in a yard all year. Neighbors assemble it, carve it, vote on it, and sometimes rebuild it on deadline, all within about a week. Knowing how it gets built changes how you see it lit.

Built Every Year

The 60-foot wall is a set of wooden posts and shelves, and it doesn't stand year-round. WFAE reported in 2024 that the Elizabeth Community Association supplied roughly 200 pumpkins that year, which residents carved in a few hours before the finished jack-o'-lanterns went up side by side on the shelves. Volunteers assemble the frame, and the association provides pumpkins for a community carving party.

Those two counts, about 200 pumpkins in 2024 and 180 in 2025, give a sense of the scale. A hundred or so carved pumpkins falling at once, a few days before Halloween, is enough to end most seasonal displays. Elizabeth's wall was lit again three days later, before Halloween, because the same people who build it every year were still around to build it again.

The 2025 plaque marks that rebuild, on a structure that comes down every November 1.

From a Woodworking Group to the Whole Neighborhood

The wall's ownership has changed hands more than once, and each handoff widened who it belongs to.

1. 2004. A small group of neighbors who called themselves the Woodpeckers built the original posts and shelves.
2. The design. Architect Jeff Dalzell drew it, adapting an idea from a Chicago neighborhood where he used to live. There, neighbors had stacked boards and cinder blocks into a pumpkin wall.
3. The early years. The giant lettered word above the pumpkins started out as a political message.
4. 2013. The Woodpeckers gave the wall to the Elizabeth Community Association, which has since chosen community-minded words of the year.
5. 2022 onward. The wall has stood in the front yard of a Greenway Avenue home whose owners have hosted it since 2022.

Dalzell described the Chicago original to WFAE this way: "it was so much more than the sum of its parts. When it was all assembled and lit, and it was like, 'Oh my gosh.'" He added that "all you have to do is stuff them with twinkle lights, and people from the neighborhood would be attracted to it." The Elizabeth wall is still built from those same plain pieces, shelves, pumpkins and lights, and it depends on enough neighbors showing up to assemble them.

The Word Is a Vote

Every year the pumpkins are lit behind that year's Pumpkin Wall Word. Since the association took over, the word goes to a neighborhood vote. John Short of the Elizabeth Community Association told WFAE that the word "is typically something that celebrates the community, is about togetherness (or is) an inspirational message."

The 2024 vote picked "Thrive," with "Elizabeth" and "Forward" as runners-up, according to WFAE. The next year, Axios Charlotte's photos show ELIZABETH spelled out in large letters above the pumpkins. That was the 2024 runner-up, back on the rebuilt wall a year later. The 2026 event listing, published in late September, doesn't name this year's word.

How the 2026 Week Runs

The schedule is short, and the 2026 listing from Charlotte On The Cheap lays it out:

• Carving. Elizabeth residents carve the pumpkins. The carving party is for residents, though anyone may add a carved pumpkin to the wall. The listing doesn't give a separate 2026 date or location for the carving party.
• Lighting. Sunday, October 25, 2026, at 6 p.m., at 2017 Greenway Avenue.
• Nightly display. The wall stays lit every night through Halloween.
• Takedown. November 1.

The wall is open to more than residents. Visitors from outside Elizabeth can bring a carved pumpkin and add it to the display. If your household carves at home, a jack-o'-lantern walked over to Greenway Avenue becomes part of a wall that, by last year's count, holds well over a hundred others.

Don't be confused if you see a different date online. The Elizabeth Community Association's events page still carries last year's write-up, which mentions an October 26 lighting and the 21st year. For 2026, the dated listing above is the current one.

Making an Evening of It

Lighting night starts at 6 p.m., which leaves time for dinner a few blocks away. The 2026 listing suggests The Fig Tree at 1601 E. 7th Street, The Crunkleton at 1957 E. 7th Street, and Viva Chicken at 1617 Elizabeth Avenue.

The newest option on that strip is Taj House at 1535 Elizabeth Avenue, an Indian restaurant serving lunch, dinner and cocktails, which Axios Charlotte reported open in July 2026. It took over the space Big Ben left when the pub closed its Elizabeth Avenue location in November 2025. Last Halloween season that corner was a pub on its way out. This one, it's a new dining room open in time for the wall.

Getting around Elizabeth may look a little different this year. On September 16, 2026, the City of Charlotte announced that construction on both phases of its Seventh Street Parallel Bike Routes project was on track to start this fall. Tree removals for a new traffic signal had been scheduled, with construction to follow shortly after. The $1.5 million project, built by contractor United of Carolinas, includes:

• About 2.1 miles of sharrows, with wayfinding signs and new bike detection cameras
• Upgrades to two existing rectangular rapid flashing beacons
• Replacement of 14 wheelchair ramps
• A new pedestrian crossing at Pecan Avenue and Shenandoah Avenue
• A curb extension at Pecan Avenue and 8th Street
• A new full traffic signal at 7th Street and Bascom/Cameron, which is Phase 2 and follows shortly after Phase 1

The City hasn't published an exact start date or lane-closure schedule, and its page doesn't list which streets get the sharrows. So it's hard to say whether crews will be working on any part of your walk to Greenway Avenue the week of the lighting. If you plan to walk or bike over on October 25, a quick look at the City's project page that afternoon is the most reliable guide.

Like the pumpkin wall, the crossings, ramps and signal are shared infrastructure, built to make it easier to get from one part of Elizabeth to another on foot. The City's version runs on a construction contract. The neighborhood's goes up in one October week and comes down on November 1.

At Carolina Precision Builders, we spend our working days on structures meant to last a century, so a wall Elizabeth rebuilds from scratch every October has our respect. If you're thinking about a front porch, an outdoor room or a renovation that respects how your Elizabeth street already gathers, request a complimentary project consultation and we'll walk the site with you.