Biography
Martin Evans Boyer was born in Virginia in 1893. He moved to Charlotte in 1908 where he started studying architecture. By 1917, he graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He worked for the US Navy as a part of the Design Division for a brief moment during World War I; however, by 1919 he was back in Charlotte working for Southern Engineering Company. Shortly thereafter, he opened his own architecture firm in 1920. Martin Boyer was the first Charlotte architect to join the American Institute of Architects.(1)
Boyer is Charlotte’s premier revivalist architect. Working in Neoclassic, Tudor-Revival, Georgian-Revival and Colonial-Revival, he created and renovated multiple residential homes in the Myers Park and Eastover neighborhoods, just south of downtown Charlotte. He is most famously known for the Luther Snyder House, which now resides as part of Queens University as well as the revised Mint Museum of Art in Eastover on Randolph which he renovated in 1936. During his career, he created over 50 buildings in Charlotte and left a lasting imprint in Myers Park, Eastover, Plaza Midwood, and Uptown.(2)
However, Boyer’s work was not only upscale residencies and art museums. He created floor plans, designs, and structures for buildings such as stables, lodges, high schools, gymnasiums, memorials, apartment complexes, churches, stadiums, banks, and hotels. The Martin E. Boyer collection as well as within the exhibits on this site provide an encompassing look at Boyer’s most famous projects to his least known, as well as a few that are no longer standing.(3)
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1. Martin E. Boyer Special Collections, J. Murray Atkins Library at University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
2. North Carolina State University Library Archives, Martin Boyer Collection as a part of Beaux Art to Modernsim, http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections.
3. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission, http://www.cmhpf.org.