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In 1911, local real estate developer, George Stephens, began plans for a new suburb to be constructed south of Charlotte. Stephens purchased 738 acres from his father-in-law, John Springs Myers, for $2,355,000. Stephens hired John Nolen, a young landscape architect from Boston, to work on the project. Inspired by Frederick Law Olmstead’s designs for Central Park and the Biltmore Estate, Nolen set out to design a plan for the new neighborhood which he called “A Garden Suburb for Charlotte.”
The design featured a winding 110-foot wide boulevard following the natural topography with a streetcar line in its median connecting the suburb to downtown Charlotte. Because the suburb would be constructed primarily on farmland, the boulevard and substreets would be lined with the largest oak trees that could be planted. The suburb would also provide large homesites with deed restrictions that required houses to be set back from the street with fences prohibited between front yards providing the appearance of unbroken parkland. Furthermore, the suburb would be designed so that no lot would be “farther than two blocks distant from a playground or park area.” Stephens chose the name for his new suburb to be Myers Park. He held a contest to name the grand boulevard. Mary Armand Nash, a public school art teacher, suggested Queens Road and won a $25 prize.
Queens University of Charlotte began as the Charlotte Female Institute in 1857. The college was located at the corner of College Street and Ninth Street in downtown Charlotte. George Stephens approached the school in 1912 offering them a deal that would not only assist their struggling financial situation, but also serve as a catalyst to his grand endeavor to develop a new suburban neighborhood. Stephens offered to purchase the College Street property for $100,000 and donate 135 acres in his new suburb for their new campus. The college accepted the deal, immediately sold 100 acres and used the cash to construct a new campus on its remaining 35 acres. As noted in Dr. Mildred McEwen’s book Queens College: Yesterday and Today, “Many people in Charlotte wondered if the Presbyterians had not lost their minds to build the college so far away from town.”
A special committee of the college’s alumnae concluded that, “The name of Queens College on Queens Road three miles from the Queen City is believed to be peculiarly appropriate,” and the name of the college was again changed upon the move to Myers Park. In the fall of 1913, the college hired architect C.C. Hook to design the first five buildings known today as Burwell, Jernigan, McEwen, Hayes and Watkins. The construction contract was awarded to Blythe & Isenhour for $157,055. Queens College opened its doors to their new campus in Myers Park on Sept. 23, 1914.
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