Raleigh, North Carolina
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Every house type included in the thematic description is represented throughout the neighborhood. The large Queen Ann/ Colonial Hybrid and the Colonial Box, in both its forms, tend to be located along Boylan, Butler, McCullough and at Dupont Drive near Montfort Hall. 102 and 106 Dupont Drive are rather standard examples of the Queen Anne/ Colonial Hybrid as is 420 Cutler Street, 408 South Boylan and 510 South Boylan. More variety and complexity of Queen Anne, Colonial and Victorian motifs are represented by 709/711 McCullough, 402 South Boylan, and 425 South Boylan. The Colonial Box, in it's three-bay, two story variety, is represented by 311 and 510 Cutler Street and by 316 South Boylan. More predominant is the two-bay, two-story Colonial Box. Most have the hip roof like 322, 315, 407 Cutler Street. 412, 414, 416, 418 South Boylan are essentially the same house with differing porch treatment. This popular model is also present in a bungalized form of which 418 Cutler, 104 Dupont and 913 West South Street are good examples. 415 South Boylan with its jerkin head roof affords a look at the Dutch Colonializing influence. As the examples demonstrate, there are sufficient tall, substantial, but architecturally conservative, large wood framed dwellings in Boylan Heights. Boylan Avenue, in particular has an air of dominance in the neighborhood which is a result of these tall houses on narrow lots. Nevertheless, it might be said that Boylan Heights is the suburb of the bungalow. The generous numbers of this type in an amazing variety of scale and realization demonstrate its importance as a staple form for house the rising middle class. The popular one-story, wood frame, shingled house with its gable end to the street, with an attached porch nestling under a second gable, off center, is represented by 1002 West Cabarrus, 906 and 1002 West South Street and 1110 West Lenoir in a smaller, less expensive version. The design constant appears as the façade porch combination under deep overhanging eaves on brackets. Related to this type is the single gable, end to street, with an attached porch whose shed roof is full façade, creating an additional shadow line that is comparable to a second gable. 315 Kensey, 622 West Cabarrus and 1012 West Cabarrus are good examples of this basic type. An important common feature is the use of continuous piers or posts with faint Colonial revival recollections rather than the stumpy bases and tapered box posts more frequently associated with the bungalow. This treatment gives a cottage-like, late 19th century vernacular flavor to this type which probably has some origins in the one-story Triple-A (307 Cutler Street) occasionally found in Boylan Heights and Glenwood which is a predominant house type from the agarian society of the late 19th century. In this same category are the houses whose porch is engaged, or cut back under the single gable, to form a deep, shadowed relief from the mass of the rectangular box of house. Like the other single gable form, the tendency is to use plain posts or box piers connected by balustrades to articulate the porch. Two other important features are the usually clearly articulated entablature above the post and the deep eaves resting on brackets. But what is perhaps most significant about this type is that it is a three-bay house with a center entry. The other two types described above are side entry plans. In this and the subsequent houses described, there is this regularization of the façade which usually does not affect the plan, producing an interior arrangement that recalls the traditional vernacular hall and parlor plan of the 18th and 19th centuries. This bungalow/cottage marriage is also explained by the two other variants. The first is represented by 421 Cutler which is a quintessential horizontal, low, heavy bungalow form. The gable end perpendicular to the street shows the great spread of roof under which the deep porch is placed. Great brick piers with stubby, tapered box piers support the overhanging roof. A bracketed, pedimented dormer peers out from the center of the long sweep of roof. As a basic type it ranges from 421 Cutler Street to 401 Kinsey, to 403 Kinsey, to 908 West South Street a duplex set on a high basement; to 809 West South Street to the plain, modest cottage which is 1102 ½ West Cabarrus, also a duplex. In this form again is represented the sympathetic reception of a popular type. The sweep of the roof was also characteristic of the familiar rural, vernacular coastal cottage. Similarly, the hip roof bungalow with a central, gabled or pedimented dormer, is derived from the bungalow, the coastal cottage and the Colonial Box. It may be a two, three or four bay house. It can be imposing when set on a high basement with plain posts supporting the entabulature of the engaged porch like 904 West South Street, 1006 West South Street, 1030 West South Street, or 518 South Boylan. It may also appear plainer (414 Cutler Street, 411 Kinsey), or 1003 West Cabarrus, but no less interesting, by virtue of the height of the roof, dormer and porch treatment. And it may be reduced to a small cottage, like 1100 West Cabarrus where its thin members and exposed beam-ends emphasize the member frame construction which had made all these possible. 112 and 114 West Lenoir Street is essentially the same house, on the periphery of the neighborhood. They represent the simplest variants on the bungalow. From here to the shotgun cottage is but one room removed, for these are still hall and parlor plans. There are a few true shotguns that can be clearly identified in Boylan Heights. Some duplexes exist which in plan are shotgun side by each but the duplex creates a very different appearance and atmosphere. The bungalow cottage forms are the matrix of Boylan Heights. There is large garbled Dutch Colonialized dwellings (502 South Boylan, 912 South West Street, 435 Cutler, and 401 South Boylan) and a few other striking houses with stucco, shingles and brick that have a slightly different flavor. But the wood frame, occasionally shingled, stuccoed story or story and half bungalow is the chief ingredient in this suburb's flavor. The presence of the other house types provide punctuation and contrast which serves to enhance the variety of the bungalow/cottage forms. The red brick school, built in 1926, and somewhat Jacobethan in flavor, provides further contrast in materials and scale. As described in the statement of historic significance, Boylan Heights has derived significant protection from its relatively isolated location. A small grocery store on Cutler Street and a few shops at the top of Boylan Avenue, were early and important additions to the neighborhood. The few businesses along Montford and West Lenoir streets do no significantly detract from the residential ambience, being themselves residential in scale and materials. The most unfortunate events have been those occasions when in the late 1940s and 50s, tract house types have been built as infill. 310 Cutler and 320 South Boylan are representative of the scale and materials of that type of dwelling which, although determinedly domestic, intrude on the consistency of the neighborhood. There have been other alterations: aluminum siding and wrought iron have replaced weatherboarding, shingles and boxed or turned posts in a few places but there has been no relentless destruction of the domestic fabric by institutional or commercial intrusions. Today an energetic neighborhood association encourages gentrification and resident ownership. The essentially pedestrian scale of Boylan heights, originally established by the sidewalks, streets, trees and service alleys, is still maintained and the wide, curving sweep of Boylan Avenue from Montford Hall presents an avenue of trees and receding house facades. This sort of grand entry focuses the neighborhood in a way that occurs neither in Glenwood or Cameron Park. Its maturity and simplicity, and it's housing stock reflect the original owners and their ambitions-to have a place of quiet and security in the city. Source: The National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form for Boylan Heights. This form was submitted to request that the Boylan Heights neighborhood be made historic district. Submitted by William B Bushong, Historical Researcher and Dr. Charlotte V. Brown, Architectural Historian. July 8, 1982Copyright 2003-2008, BoylanHeights.org |