M. E. (Martin Evans) Boyer, Jr. papers

Collection

Identifier: MS0094

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Nearly one half of this collection consists of architectural drawings, project files, photographs, and printed material related to Boyer's projects. An office fire in 1922 destroyed many of the records of his earliest projects. Records are also lacking for some later projects. Biographical information, correspondence, and catalogs comprise the remainder of the papers. Included is a series on Herschel V. Johnson, U. S. diplomat and brother of Boyer's wife, Arabelle. Collection consists of much photocopied material.

Dates

Creation: 1910 - 1993
Creation: Majority of material found within 1920 - 1970

Creator

Boyer, M. E. (Martin Evans) (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Some material may be copyrighted or restricted. It is the patron's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections.

Biographical / Historical

Martin Evans Boyer Jr. was born in Glen Wilton, Va. on July 22, 1893. His family moved to Charlotte in 1908. He studied at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) where he was trained in the Beaux Arts tradition and graduated in 1917. Volunteering his services, Boyer worked for the U. S. Navy's Designing Division in Gulfport, Miss. during World War I. He returned to Charlotte in 1919, where he was employed by Southern Engineering Company. That same year he married Arabelle Johnson of Charlotte. Boyer opened his own office in Charlotte in 1920, which he maintained until his retirement in 1966. During World War II, he closed his office and went to work as an architect and lieutenant for the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers in Wilmington, N.C. The first Charlotte architect to become a member of the American Institute of Architects (which he dropped during the Depression and never rejoined), Boyer is best known for the homes that he designed for the Eastover and Myers Park neighborhoods. A nephew of noted Charlotte architect J. M. McMichael, Boyer is principally remembered as the designer of stately Georgian Revival homes for the rich and famous in Charlotte and its environs. His other local masterpieces in this style include his own residence at 246 Fenton Place, and such imposing Myers Park homes as the J. Luther Snyder House (1901 Queens Rd.), and the Dr. J. Rush Shull House (1242 Queens Road West). In 1977, a home tour in honor of Boyer, sponsored by the Charlotte Garden Club, identified 25 Boyer-designed houses in Myers Park and Eastover. Boyer was also the architect for S. & W. Cafeterias, the William R. Davie Memorial in the Cemetery of the Old Waxhaw Presbyerian Church in Lancaster County, S. C., and superintended the rebuilding of the former U. S. Mint Building in Eastover in 1936 after his efforts to avert the demolition of the Charlotte branch of the U. S. Mint building in 1932 resulted in the structure's relocation and preservation as the Mint Museum of Art in the Eastover neighborhood. Boyer died in Charlotte on February 17, 1970. Scholars still regard him as "the city's finest revivalist architect."

Extent

2.25 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Papers documenting approximately 160 projects by a Charlotte architect best known for homes he designed in the Eastover and Myers Park neighborhoods. Includes architectural drawings, project files, photographs, printed material, correspondence, and trade catalogs. Also includes information on the preservation of the Charlotte Mint and material on Boyer's brother-in-law, diplomat Herschel V. Johnson. Many of the documents are photocopies.

Arrangement

Organized into five series: I. Biographical, 1911-1977. II. Works: divided into five subseries: 1. Renderings. 2. Sketches. 3. Drawings. 4. Files. 5. Photographs.|All subseries arranged by project number.|aII Correspondence, 1920-1967: divided into five subseries: 1. Architects Incorporated, 1945-1946. 2. American Institute of Architects, 1920-1931. 3. NC Chapter of the American Institute of Architects 4. Society of Beaux Arts Architects. 5. General correspondence. IV. Herschel V. Johnson. V. Catalogs.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Miles J. Boyer, 1983; gift of Mary Boyer, 1991; copies from Mary Boyer, 1994; gift of J. Alex McMillan, 1996.

Separated Materials

Photocopy of WWII era ration book and stamps belonging to Boyer moved to World War II Ephemera collection, ms 539. Photocopies of Charlotte Civitan, vol. 1, nos. 3 and 5, moved to Charlotte Civitan Club Records, ms 213. Appointment of provisional second lieutenants in the infantry, cavalry, field artillery and coast artillery corps, Regular Army, 1917 (Rare UB412 .A2 U55 1917)