Eastover

E. C. Griffith House, photograph courtesy North Carolina State University Digital Archives

The E.C. Griffith company is the primary reason the Eastover neighborhood exists the way it does. With the help of urban planner Earle Sumner Draper, Eastover started in 1927 and lies inbetween Myers Park and downtown Charlotte, centered around Cherokee Road and Laurel Avenue. With the exception of one school, the Mint Museum of Art, and a church, the neighborhood consists mostly of single family architecture homes in Georgian and Tudor Revival styles. E.C. Griffith, whose house is represented here, had a significant impact on the creation of the neighborhood. The Griffith company, a prominent and successful real estate company, had to change the layout of the neighborhood once the automobile became a fixed item to the Charlotte subdivision. Martin Boyer designed the E.C. Griffith house in the Eastover neighborhood in 1929, which set the initial tone of the entire neighborhood. The placement of the house is the most impactful aspect of the work-- on the corner of Cherokee and Eastover, the entrance to the neighborhood. Completed in the Colonial-Revival style, the house was featured in the Architecture and Building News in the April 1929 edition.(1)

A. I. James House, photograph courtesy Jacquelyn McGuire

Just down the street from the E.C. Griffith house lies the A.I. James house. Constructed in the classic Georgian Revival style, Martin Boyer erected the home in the early 1930s. The emphasis on the five-bay symmetrical facade and red brick allowed the Eastover neighborhood to see a different type of single-family architecture than the E.C. Griffith house. (2)

Hamilton C. Jones III House, photograph Courtesy North Carolina State University Digital Archives

The Hamiliton C. Jones III House is the most influential structure in the Eastover neighborhood.  Located at the corner of Cherokee and Fenton Place, Martin Boyer proves himself a master architect by constructing a building outside of his typical Colonial-Revival, in the Tudor-Style proven by the asymmetrical facade and Tudor arches. This house represents the growing status of the Eastover neighborhood, arguably more prestigious than the neighboring Myers Park. Comparing this structure to the E.C. Griffith House, one can easily see how the styles changed and the houses grew, yet the neighborhood and architect stayed the same. (3)

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1. Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission, http://www.cmhpf.org.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.