Myers Park Historic District
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Withers Building, Queens University campus, July 2007
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Location | Roughly bounded by NC 16, E and W Queens Rd., and Lillington Ave., Charlotte, North Carolina |
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Coordinates | 35°11′33″N 80°49′59″W / 35.19250°N 80.83306°WCoordinates: 35°11′33″N 80°49′59″W / 35.19250°N 80.83306°W |
Area | 597 acres (242 ha) |
Architect | Nolen, John; Draper, E.S., Asbury, Louis |
Architectural style | Colonial Revival, Bungalow/craftsman, Tudor Revival |
NRHP Reference # | 87000655 |
Added to NRHP | August 10, 1987 |
Myers Park is a neighborhood in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Though its boundaries originally coincided with the boundaries of the 1,220-acre (4.9 km2) John Spring Myers farm, the neighborhood, by 2008, comprised 2,200 acres (8.9 km2) and had a population of 9,809. Myers Park is bounded by Queens Road to the north; Providence Road to the east; Sharon Road to the south; and Park Road to the west.
Neighborhoods that border Myers Park include Dilworth and Sedgefield to the west, Eastover to the east, Charlotte center city to the north, and South Park and Foxcroft to the south.
Myers Park is widely considered to be the most affluent and reputable neighborhood in the city of Charlotte.
Charlotteans today know the Myers Park neighborhood as one of the city's prestige addresses, an area of fine homes, tree-lined streets, and curving drives. Few realize that the neighborhood's importance extends far beyond Charlotte. Myers Park is of statewide significance because it was the home of many of the textile, banking, and utility leaders responsible for developing the Piedmont Carolinas into a major American manufacturing region in the early twentieth century.
John Springs Myers had already carved off part of his farm to create the Cherry neighborhood in 1891. His new dream was to turn the rest of his large cotton farm into an elegant suburb. He spent many evenings discussing the plan with his family and especially with his son-in-law, George Stephens. Stephens, who came to Charlotte after graduating from the University of North Carolina, joined the insurance firm of Walter Brem in 1896.
A talented businessman, Stephens was able to take advantage of the excellent opportunities that turn-of-the-century Charlotte provided, and he quickly became involved in several schemes. He and Brem joined realtor F.C. Abbott and textile banker B.D. Heath in developing part of Elizabeth, and in 1901, Stephens, Abbott, and Word H. Wood set up the Southern States Trust Company (which became NationsBank). In 1911, he founded the Stephens Company with Word Wood and A.J. Draper, and began to turn his father-in-law's dream into a reality. Moved by the same fashion consciousness as E.D. Latta, the company hired a city planner to make the plans. They chose John Nolen, whose design for Independence Park had impressed Stephens a great deal. It was a good choice, for Nolen later became one of the nation's top planners with over 400 projects to his name.