Hope Valley

W. K. Boyd House, 3313 Devon Road (razed)

Dr. And Mrs. W. K. Boyd had this two-story Colonial Revival style frame house constructed in 1933. The main facade facing the golf course remained intact and featured sheathing of horizontal flush boards, a delicate multi-panned trabeated entrance suround and a monumental two-story full-facade portico with box posts and a Chippendale railing around the top of its roof, until it was razed. Dr. Boyd was a noted professor of history at Duke University and was famous for his book, A History of Durham. Mrs. Boyd was a librarian, who is said to have designed the house herself as a copy of her family home in Georgia. The Adamesque mantel-piece in the living room and the unusual winding staircase in the entrance hall were authentic elements of the Georgia home which Mrs. Boyd installed in her house. After Dr. Boyd’s death shortly after its completion Mrs. Boyd leased the house for several years. In the 1940s it was purchased by the, Dr. And Mrs. Grimson. Dr. Grimson was a retired Duke Hospital surgeon. The Grimsons executed several alterations to the house, all on the street side. French doors were converted to a large picture window, two bedrooms were added to the second story and a one-story utility wing was added to the northeast corner. After 1982 the house was purchased by Norman Mason, a self storage magnate, and he had it razed to build Hope Valleys first significant infill home. None of the historic elements, including the mantles or stairs from Mrs. Boyd's Georgia home are known to have survived. This teardown signaled the beginning of a trend to replace historic homes on premier lots with new construction and Hope Valley's awakening to its historic significance resulting in a 2009 listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Alyea House

3102 Dover Road This large Tudor Revival style dwelling is probably the most truly Tudor house in Durham as it is the only house identified in the inventory as built according to Tudor construction methods. The lengthy three-year construction period is explained by this reversion to medieval techniques. E. Hayes Clement, who was the principal stone contractor for the West Campus of Duke University, began construction of this house for his own residence in 1932, according to designs by Charlotte, N.C. architect M. E. Boyer, Jr. Clement used only the very best materials, including New York slate, leaded zinc gutters, limestone and flagstone. The house is timber framed with the same eight-inch by eight-inch oak beams that were used in the Duke Chapel. The brick walls are twelve inches thick and the construction of much of the upper stories is authentic half-timbering with pegged beams and stucco infill. Cut limestone was used for the porch surround and the windowsills. A principal feature of the main facade is the enormous double-shouldered chimney with polygonal chimney pots. Clement, who constructed more than 200 houses in his career, lived in this house for only two years before financial difficulties forced him to sell the property. He was succeeded in the home by Dr. and Mrs. Edwin P. Alyea. Dr. Alyea was the first Chief of Urology at Duke Hospital. A Charlotte landscape architect landscaped the large yard with multiple terraces and seventy five different kinds of shrubbery.
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