John William Martin (1861-1941) was a building contractor active in Elizabeth City in the early 20^th century. He was born in Martin County, the son of John Thomas and Sarah Martin. According to his obituary, he also worked in Martin and Tyrrell counties, but thus far no buildings have been attributed to him there.

In Elizabeth City, Martin built several large and impressive Queen Anne style houses, including the city’s premier example of the style, the Dennis M. Jones House, which he executed from a Norfolk architect’s designs. For the Southern Colonial style Dr. Isaiah Fearing House he worked from plans by the mail-order architect George F. Barber of Tennessee. In other cases, he may have developed the design himself, possibly from published examples. Typical of the turn of the century, many of his houses, such as the Martin-Williams House, which he built for himself and his family, blend Queen Anne style massing with classically derived “Colonial” detailing such as columns on the wraparound porch. In 1919, he moved to Norfolk, Virginia, where he continued his contracting business. He died in Norfolk and was buried in Elizabeth City’s Hollywood Cemetery.

• Charlotte Vestal Brown Papers, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina.
• Thomas R. Butchko, On the Shores of the Pasquotank: The Architectural Heritage of Elizabeth City and Pasquotank County, North Carolina (1989).
• Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch, Sept. 1, 1941.