Boylan Heights

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Boylan Heights
Boylan Heights entrence sign monument in Raymond Lanier Memorial Park.jpg
Boylan Heights entrance sign monument in Raymond Lanier Memorial Park
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LocationRoughly bounded by Norfolk & Southern RR, Mountford, Martin, and Florence Sts. and Dorothea Dr., Raleigh, North Carolina
Coordinates 35°46′26″N78°39′7″W / 35.77389°N 78.65194°W / 35.77389; -78.65194
Area82 acres (33 ha)
Built1907-1935
ArchitectMultiple
Architectural styleBungalow/Craftsman, Colonial, Queen Anne
MPS Early Twentieth Century Raleigh Neighborhoods TR
NRHP reference No. 85001671 [1]
Added to NRHPJuly 29, 1985

Boylan Heights is one of eight historic neighborhoods surrounding downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. [2] Mainly developed in the 1920's it was one of the earliest planned suburbs in the city. From its apex at Montfort Hall, the neighborhood slops gradually south-east towards Western Boulevard. After petitions from residents, the neighborhood was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district on July 29, 1985.

Contents

The national historic district encompasses 252 contributing buildings and was developed between 1907 and about 1935. It includes notable examples of Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and Bungalow / American Craftsman style architecture. [3]

History

Boylan Family 1818-1907

Boylan Heights is named after the Boylan family who first moved to Raleigh in 1799. Originally from a prominent family in New Jersey, William M. Boylan Sr. moved to Halifax, North Carolina to work for his uncle sometime before 1797. After a short relocation to Fayetteville in 1797 the pair moved to the newly created state capital to publish Federalist Party newspapers, the North Carolina Minerva and Raleigh Advisor. [4]

In 1818 Boylan Sr. purchased 197 acres of land for $3,000 [5] , which included what was the mainhouse of Wakefield Plantation, formerly owned by Raleigh and Wake County founding father Joel Lane. [6] Along with his first wife Elizabeth Stokes McCulloch, who died in 1825 and his second wife Jane Elliot, he would live in the Joel Lane House until his death in 1861. [7]

Boylan Sr. deeded his son William M. Boylan Jr. 100 acres in 1855. The boundary for the newly divided track was less than a quarter mile away from the Joel Lane House. [3] Three years later Boylan Jr. hired English architect, William Percival and Raleigh builder Thomas H. Briggs Sr. Construction of Montfort Hall started shortly thereafter and was completed by 1858. [8]

When Union Army soldiers set up camp at Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh during April 1865 as many as 30,000 soldiers scattered across the hospital's campus, with some spilling over onto Boylan Jr's land. [9] Montfort Hall was of the few surviving grand mansions left in Raleigh from the pre-Civil War era.

Following William Boylan Jr's death in 1899 the property passed to his wife Mary along with the majority of his holdings. When she passed two years later she bequeathed Montfort Hall to her children. She stated in her will that it was her wish that her own son William would purchase the home from his siblings and take care of it for the rest of his life. [10]

William Boylan Jr's heirs sold the house and its surrounding land totaling over 100 acres to the Greater Raleigh Land Company for $48,000 on June 15th, 1907. [11]

Greater Raleigh Land Company 1907-1915

In Media

Boylan Heights was explored in the book Everything Sings: Maps for a Narrative Atlas which maps the neighborhood in unusual ways. Maps include the location of jack-o'-lanterns on porches, radio waves permeating the air, the light from street lamps, and other attributes of Boylan Heights that cannot be mapped in a traditional way. [12] The book was written by resident and critical cartographer Denis Wood.

Indy pop/rock band and Raleigh nativies, The Connells named their second album Boylan Heights after the neighborhood in 1987. [13]

Notable structures

Notable residents

See also

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References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. "Raleigh Historical Districts".
  3. 1 2 unknown (n.d.). "Boylan Heights" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved June 1, 2015.
  4. "NCpedia - William Boylan".
  5. "Deed recorded 4/16/1818 between William Boylan & Thomas Henderson Book 2 Page 100". Wake County Register of Deeds.
  6. "Joel Lane, Raleigh's "Founding Father"". North Carolina History Project.
  7. "William Boylan (H69". NC Department of Natural & Cultural Resources.
  8. "Montfort Hall". North Carolina Architects & Builders. - NC State University Libraries.
  9. "Final Report Adopted by the Dix Legacy Committee 08/28/2018" (PDF). Dorothea Dix.
  10. "National Register of Historic Places -- Nomination Form -- Montford Hall" (PDF).
  11. "Recorded deed between heirs of William Boylan Jr & Greater Raleigh Land Company - Book 219 Page 546". Wake County Register of Deeds.
  12. Wood, Denis (2013). Everything Sings: Maps for a Narrative Atlas. Los Angeles: Siglio Press. ISBN   978-1-938221-02-6.
  13. "Boylan Heights Album". The Connells.