Boney, Leslie N., Sr. (1880-1964)

Leslie Norwood Boney, Sr. (October 29, 1880-September 18, 1964), was a highly prolific Wilmington architect whose practice covered a wide range of building types but concentrated on educational facilities including some 1,000 educational buildings and additions. Although much of his work was in eastern North Carolina, his designs appeared in 51 of the state’s 100 counties.

Leslie Boney was born in Wallace, North Carolina, one of six surviving children of William Joseph Boney (December 27, 1839-September 13, 1911) and Lou Ellen Alford Boney (August 12, 1841-July 11, 1924) of Robeson County. William Joseph Boney was a well-known Duplin County merchant, farmer, and surveyor. Leslie worked on his father’s farm until he was eighteen years old. He gained his primary and secondary education from Samuel Wilson Clements, a private schoolmaster employed by local families, who was Boney’s only teacher until he entered the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (present NCSU) in Raleigh in 1899.

Boney enrolled in the textile school, probably at the suggestion of his uncle, Gabriel James Boney, a Wilmington merchant and miller who saw a bright future in this emerging industry. During his junior year, Boney visited a textile mill for the first time, and after determining that the noise, confinement, and dust would not suit him, he decided against a textile career. He enjoyed drawing, and his talent, probably inherited from or at least encouraged by his surveyor father, was recognized by the college faculty. At that time, as noted in Architects and Builders in North Carolina: A History of the Practice of Building, the college did not have a degree program in architecture; the only architectural training courses offered were those in engineering and mechanical drawing. (An architectural engineering program was added in 1920.) Boney took all the architecturally related courses he could and in 1903 received a bachelor’s degree in textile engineering, as did architect James M. Kennedy.

After completing his college work, Boney worked in several different settings before establishing his architectural practice in Wilmington. Upon graduation, he was offered a position with Cone Mills but decided instead to work in a Greensboro architect’s office (thus far unidentified). He soon moved to Wilmington where from 1904 to 1906 he was an architectural draftsman for Charles McMillen, who had moved to the city a few years earlier and was a leading figure in the city’s profession. Boney particularly credited McMillen with giving him a sound knowledge of construction.

Family tradition holds that in 1906 Boney returned to Wallace where he worked as assistant cashier of the Bank of Wallace and its successor, the Consolidated Bank of Duplin, until 1909. During these banking years he is said to have designed several bank buildings in southeastern North Carolina including the Bank of Wallace and others in Burgaw, Jacksonville, and Rose Hill. He may also have designed a brick school in Wallace. Boney is also said to have practiced architecture in Goldsboro planning several buildings including the Borden Building and the North Goldsboro Fire Station, as well as additions to the Temple Oheb Sholom Synagogue, and the Odd Fellows Home. From 1919 to 1920, Boney worked with architect William J. Wilkins of Florence, South Carolina. In an especially prominent project during his association with Wilkins, he supervised construction of the New Hanover County High School (1920-1922), an imposing and up-to-date facility that symbolized the city’s investment in education. (Boney also planned three major additions to the high school over the following decades.) In 1922 Boney worked as a draftsman with Wilmington architect James F. Gause. During his time with Gause he planned the Cape Fear Country Club in Wilmington and at least seven elementary and high schools from the coast to the mountains. Among these were New Bern’s Riverside Elementary School and Ghent School Elementary School , which were credited as being the first “fire resistant” elementary schools in eastern North Carolina. These projects were underway when Gause died in June 1922, and Boney saw to their completion.

By 1924 Boney opened his own architectural office in Wilmington and he practiced continuously under the name of “Leslie N. Boney, Architect,” until his own death in 1964. His three sons, Leslie N., Jr., William J., and Charles H. joined him as partners as each graduated from NCSU. Their firm was described as the only architectural partnership in the nation at that time consisting of a father and three architect sons. (Note: The Boney family practice after the death of the founder of the firm will be the subject of another biographical entry in the future.)

From early in his career, Boney was motivated to study and devote his talents to school design, which proved to be a wise choice in the early to mid-20th century era of widespread school construction and consolidation. Lenoir County, which was among the first counties in the state to inaugurate consolidated high schools in the 1910s, built several large and small schools during the Progressive Era, employing Boney to design a good number of them. These included the Moss Hill High School (ca. 1917), the first and one of the largest of Lenoir County’s consolidated high schools, and Kinston’s Grainger High School (1926), which was among the region’s premier urban public schools of its day.

As his son Leslie, Jr., recalled, Leslie, Sr.’s major contribution was as a “school architect who could take an owner’s needs and his budgets and quickly deliver a new school within the funds available. He was especially interested in the statewide effort to improve schools and became a leader in the development of consolidated schools to replace the previous era’s many one-room schools.” Boney was noted as an accomplished draftsman, “whose speed and accuracy enabled him to accomplish a great deal of design work. Sometimes he, like other architects, would illustrate a point by drawing on whatever was handy for his pencil, be it a 1x6 plank on the job or a paper napkin on the train.” Boney’s school designs were “always simple. His schools of the 1920s and 1930s were usually of red brick with bearing exterior walls, white trim, and classical porticoes. A favorite ornament, a row of three diamonds or lozenges, is an identifying characteristic of his schools. The interior framing was of wood, and the typical plan included smoke towers and vestibules on the ends of the corridors. When he employed built-up roofs, he typically used a steep slope to the rear which eliminated ponding and reduced leak potential. The drawn plans were straightforward and readily understood by the builders. The student and the public readily comprehended his buildings, find the entrance, and proceed through the spaces in a logical manner.”

Many of Boney’s solidly built, classically detailed brick schools, once centerpieces of their communities, have been razed within the last few decades as new standards for school planning have been adopted; a few have been maintained and renovated as schools, while others have been put into new uses. The attached building list includes only a sampling of the firm’s educational output; more examples are shown in the Leslie N. Boney Collection (Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries).

In addition to the firm’s many public schools, Boney also planned large college buildings. Described as the state’s largest college dorm of its day, his 820-bed Bragaw Dormitory (1955) at his alma mater, NCSU, modeled an 8-student suite plan that became a popular form for student housing. (After his death, his firm was commissioned in 1965 to plan an 808-student NCSU dorm to be named for Boney, but it was not built.) One of his last projects, aptly, was the new campus for Wilmington College Campus (1963) planned as a series of courts on a suburban site outside Wilmington; the school is now the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Here Boney used his favorite, formal Neoclassical Revival style of red brick buildings in Flemish bond brickwork, sloping slate roofs, and columns featuring the Tower of the Winds order which he had long admired.

Beyond the specialty in schools, during his forty years of practice in Wilmington, Boney’s firm planned buildings of many different types in Wilmington and across the state. His residential work included several substantial residences in Wilmington and other towns, as well as beach cottages as Wrightsville Beach near Wilmington. A prominent local project shortly after he established his own firm was the New Hanover County Courthouse Annex (1924-1925), in which he was associated with consulting architect Herbert C. Chivers of New York; the stone-faced, Beaux-Arts classical design features a full-height portico with columns in the order of the Tower of the Winds, an order long favored in Wilmington (see John Norris and James F. Post) and which Boney employed frequently. A pioneer in large-scale housing, in 1939 Boney designed New Brooklyn Homes (Taylor Homes) in Wilmington as one of the state’s first public housing projects. Boney was both architect and part owner of Wilmington’s Oleander Court Apartments (1941), a garden type apartment complex of 92 units, which featured classical styling, spacious rooms, and generous site planning.

Boney’s church designs included the Wallace Presbyterian Church (1909) planned during his banking years there; and Trinity Methodist Church (1920-1921) in Wilmington, probably designed during his association with Wilkins. For St. Andrew’s on the Sound, an Episcopal church serving residents of the nearby old soundside resort communities, he employed a cheery Spanish Revival style. When the sanctuary of Wilmington’s long-established congregation of St. Luke’s A. M. E. Church burned in 1944, Boney provided a design for their new building, which was completed promptly despite wartime limitations on building materials. The firm’s Little Chapel on the Boardwalk (1951) at Wrightsville Beach, for which Leslie’s son Charles was lead designer, was hailed as the first “contemporary” church in the state east of Raleigh, won state and regional AIA design awards, and was featured in Progressive Architecture.

At a time when health facilities were expanding statewide, Boney like other architects designed numerous hospitals and medical facilities. In 1938 he designed the Columbus County Hospital, and in 1960, an addition. Probably in response to the 1946 Hill-Burton Act which offered Federal funds to build and improve hospitals, in 1948 he designed a facility to add more beds and a surgical unit for Wilmington’s James Walker Memorial Hospital. He followed this with the Pender Memorial Hospital and the Duplin General Hospital in 1950 and 1960, respectively. Before and during World War II, Boney was involved in the 1940 land acquisition survey and schools for Camp LeJeune Marine Base and in military construction including the William C. Lee Field House at Fort Bragg.

Long active in church, community and professional life, Boney was a ruling elder, deacon, and Sunday school teacher at the First Presbyterian Church in Wilmington. He was active in the growing preservation movement in Wilmington, and his own residence, the antebellum Wessell-Hathaway House (see James F. Post) was rehabilitated under his direction in 1940, with the architectural office in the basement. In the early 1950s, Boney’s diplomacy and creativity helped spare the Kenan Fountain at 5th and Market Streets in Wilmington from obscurity. Traffic had increased and state transportation officials wanted to remove the fountain from the intersection in order to widen the traffic lanes. They proposed to reinstall the fountain in Greenfield Park. Boney countered with a proposal to remove the lowest ring of pools, allowing the rest of the fountain to remain intact in the intersection. His proposal was accepted and the landmark was preserved in situ.

Leslie N. Boney married Mary Lily Hussey of Wallace on June 6, 1917. The couple resided in Wallace and he commuted weekly to Wilmington until they moved to the port city in 1922. Leslie and Mary Lily Boney had five children: Mary Lily; Leslie, Jr.; William Joseph, Charles Hussey, and Sue Alford. The family resided at 412 Central Boulevard, 425 S. 3rd Street, 221 S. 5th Street, and 120 S. 5th Street. The Leslie N. Boney House at 425 S. 3rd Street, built in 1925, is a Georgian Revival brick residence of Boney’s own design, which originally featured Tower of the Winds columns. The firm Boney established continued after his death and was known for several years as Boney Architects, operated by his three sons and three grandsons, Paul Davis Boney, Charles H. Boney, Jr., and Christopher Boney. In 2005 the firm became LS3P.

The building list represents only a fraction of Boney’s extensive work and is intended to show his best-known buildings and a representative selection of types and locales for which status and location can be identified. A more complete listing of his work appears in the finding guide for the Leslie N. Boney Architectural Papers at the Special Collection Research Center at North Carolina State University Libraries, a collection that includes papers of both Leslie N. Boney, Sr., and Leslie N. Boney, Jr. This biographical entry was drafted by Leslie N. Boney, Jr. (1920-2003), and the building list was assembled by Charles H. Boney, Sr. and Janet K. Seapker. Additional information on notable Boney projects is welcomed.

  • The Agromeck, North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Mechanics Arts (1903).
  • Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Eastern North Carolina (1996).
  • Leslie N. Boney Architectural Papers, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina.
  • Walter H. Conser, Jr., Sacred Spaces, Architecture and Religion in Historic Wilmington (1999).
  • J. Marshall Crews, From These Beginnings (1984).
  • Barbara Hammond, An Architectural Inventory of Goldsboro, NC (1987).
  • C. David Jackson and Charlotte V. Brown, History of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, 1913-1998 (1998).
  • Virginia Whiting Kuhn, Tide and Time: A History of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina (2008).
  • M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1795-1975 (2006).
  • M. Ruth Little, Coastal Plain and Fancy: The Historic Architecture of Lenoir County and Kinston, North Carolina (1998).
  • Jennifer F. Martin, Along the Banks of the Old Northeast: the Historical and Architectural Development of Duplin County, North Carolina (1999).
  • J. Daniel Pezzoni, The Architectural History of Onslow County (1998).
  • J. Daniel Pezzoni and Penne Smith, Glimpses of Wayne County, North Carolina: An Architectural History (1998).
  • Scott Power, The Historical Architecture of Pitt County, North Carolina (1991).
  • William Reaves Files, New Hanover County Public Library, Wilmington, North Carolina.
  • William M. Reaves and Beverly Tetterton, “Strength Through Struggle”: The Chronological and Historical Record of the African-American Community in Wilmington, North Carolina, 1865-1900 (1998).
  • Peter B. Sandbeck, The Historic Architecture of New Bern and Craven County, North Carolina (1988).
  • Southern Architect (June 1955).
  • Robert B. Toplin, ed., A History of B’Nai Israel Congregation (1984).
  • Emily Weil, Temple Oheb Sholom (2000).
  • Wilmington City Directories (1919-2010).
  • Tony P. Wrenn, Wilmington, North Carolina: An Architectural and Historical Portrait (1984).
Sort Building List by:
  • Ayden High School

    Contributors:
    Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect; John Hudson, contractor
    Variant Name(s):

    Old Ayden High School

    Dates:

    1929

    Location:
    Ayden, Pitt County
    Street Address:

    4354 Lee St., Ayden, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    Scott Power, The Historical Architecture of Pitt County, North Carolina (1991).

    Note:

    The school was renovated by Leslie N. Boney, Architects in 1980. As of 2011 it served as headquarters of the local arts and recreation department.


  • B. F. Grady School

    Contributors:
    Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect; H. W. Hudson, Jr., contractor
    Dates:

    1928

    Location:
    Kornegay, Duplin County
    Street Address:

    NC 11, Kornegay vicinity, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    Jennifer F. Martin, Along the Banks of the Old Northeast: the Historical and Architectural Development of Duplin County, North Carolina (1999).

    Note:

    The imposing neoclassical brick school was a landmark of the county for many years. It was built in 1927-1928 and received additions in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. It was razed in the 1990s.


  • Bank of Wallace

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1906-1909

    Location:
    Wallace, Duplin County
    Street Address:

    Wallace, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Commercial

    Note:

    Boney was working as assistant cashier of the Bank of Wallace and its successor, the Consolidated Bank of Duplin at the time he designed the bank. He also designed the Bank of Pender in Burgaw; the Bank of Onslow in Jacksonville; and the Bank of Rose Hill in Rose Hill.


  • Bland House

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1936

    Location:
    Wallace, Duplin County
    Street Address:

    East Main St., Wallace, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential


  • Borden Building

    Contributors:
    Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect; William P. Rose, contractor
    Dates:

    1914-1915

    Location:
    Goldsboro, Wayne County
    Street Address:

    100 S. James St., Goldsboro, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Commercial

    Note:

    The Borden Building, at six stories a skyscraper in its day, was described as Rose’s work in his interview with the Goldsboro News-Argus, March 1, 1951.


  • Bragaw Dormitory

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1955-1959

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    NCSU Campus, Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational


  • Camp LeJeune Marine Corps Base

    Contributors:
    Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect and surveyor; George Watts Carr, architect; J. E. Greiner Company, general contractors
    Dates:

    1939-1940 (survey); 1941

    Location:
    Jacksonville, Onslow County
    Street Address:

    Camp LeJeune Marine Corps Base, Jacksonville, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Military

    Images Published In:

    J. Daniel Pezzoni, The Architectural History of Onslow County (1998).


  • Cape Fear Country Club

    Contributors:
    Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect; James F. Gause, Jr., architect
    Dates:

    Ca. 1920

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    1518 Country Club Rd., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Recreational

    Images Published In:

    Susan Taylor Block, Cape Fear Lost (1999).

    Note:

    Leslie Boney, Sr., is cited as the primary architect for the Colonial Revival style country club. It was razed in 2002 to make way for a new and larger facility.


  • Carolina Beach Hotel

    Contributors:
    Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect; W. A. Simon, contractor
    Dates:

    1925-1926

    Location:
    Carolina Beach, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    Bounded by 5th Ave., 4th St., and Atlanta St., Carolina Beach, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Commercial

    Note:

    A frame building with a bath connecting with almost every room, the 100-room hotel was burned on September 5, 1927. The owners, H. T. Ireland and Mr. Byrd of Greensboro, were indicted for arson.


  • Chestnut Street School

    Contributors:
    Variant Name(s):

    Snipes Elementary School

    Dates:

    1942-1943

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    2150 Chestnut St., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Note:

    The building was demolished in 2009.


  • Chinquapin School

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1925

    Location:
    Chinquapin, Duplin County
    Street Address:

    NC 41, Chinquapin, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    Jennifer F. Martin, Along the Banks of the Old Northeast: the Historical and Architectural Development of Duplin County, North Carolina (1999).

    Note:

    The school, a typical example of Boney’s style, was scheduled for replacement in the 1990s and was demolished ca. 2009.


  • Columbus County Hospital

    Contributors:
    Variant Name(s):

    Columbus County Social Services Offices

    Dates:

    1939

    Location:
    Whiteville, Columbus County
    Street Address:

    SE corner N. Thompson St. and Jefferson St., Whiteville, NC

    Status:

    Unknown

    Type:

    Health Care

    Note:

    The facility accommodated 60 beds and was paid for with $100,000 loan and grant from PWA.


  • Contentnea School

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1923-1924

    Location:
    Graingers, Lenoir County
    Street Address:

    Graingers Station Rd., Graingers, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    M. Ruth Little, Coastal Plain and Fancy: The Historic Architecture of Lenoir County and Kinston, North Carolina (1998).

    Note:

    Enlarged several times, the main building has the Boney signature 2-story central pedimented portico supported by fluted columns with Corinthian capitals. It is no longer used as a school.


  • Dee's Drug Store

    Contributors:
    Variant Name(s):

    Dees Drug Store

    Dates:

    1937

    Location:
    Burgaw, Pender County
    Street Address:

    111 South Wright St., Burgaw, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Commercial

    Note:

    The drugstore is a beloved local institution near the town center.


  • Dr. Deane Hundley, Jr. House

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1938

    Location:
    Wallace, Duplin County
    Street Address:

    East Main St., Wallace, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential


  • Duplin General Hospital

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1952

    Location:
    Kenansville, Duplin County
    Street Address:

    Kenansville, NC

    Status:

    Altered

    Type:

    Health Care


  • Ford Auto Company

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    Ca. 1916

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    5-11 N. 3rd St., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Commercial


  • Forest Hills Elementary School

    Contributors:
    Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect (1942)
    Dates:

    1942 (second floor addition)

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    602 Colonial Dr., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Note:

    This was part of a second phase of a school expansion program funded by Defense Public Works Division.


  • Ghent Elementary School

    Contributors:
    Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect; James F. Gause, Jr., architect
    Variant Name(s):

    Eleanor Marshall School

    Dates:

    1922

    Location:
    New Bern, Craven County
    Street Address:

    SW corner of Rhems Ave. and 1st St., New Bern, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Note:

    The school was credited as being the first “fire resistant” school in eastern North Carolina. It was identical to Riverside Elementary School. The building was demolished ca. 1982.


  • Grainger High School

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1926

    Location:
    Kinston, Lenoir County
    Street Address:

    300 Park Ave., Kinston, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    M. Ruth Little, Coastal Plain and Fancy: The Historic Architecture of Lenoir County and Kinston, North Carolina (1998).

    Note:

    A landmark in Kinston, the monumental brick high school was the premier high school in the county. Built at an estimated cost of $250,000, it contained 29 classrooms, an auditorium, gymnasium and cafeteria.


  • Hoke County High School

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1934

    Location:
    Raeford, Hoke County
    Street Address:

    Main St., Raeford, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational


  • J. Douglas Taylor House

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1921

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    620 Market St., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential


  • Kenansville High School

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1925

    Location:
    Kenansville, Duplin County
    Street Address:

    Main St., Kenansville, NC

    Status:

    Altered

    Type:

    Educational


  • L.E. Hall House

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1921

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    109 N. 15th St., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential


  • LaGrange Elementary School

    Contributors:
    Variant Name(s):

    Kinsey Building

    Dates:

    1928

    Location:
    La Grange, Lenoir County
    Street Address:

    402 W. Railroad St., LaGrange, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    M. Ruth Little, Coastal Plain and Fancy: The Historic Architecture of Lenoir County and Kinston, North Carolina (1998).

    Note:

    Known in recent years as the Kinsey Building, it was razed ca. 2007. Its 2008 successor on the site was designed by LS3P (Boney) architects.


  • Lake Forest Elementary School

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1942

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    1806 S. 16th St., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Note:

    This was part of a second phase of a school expansion program funded by Defense Public Works Division.


  • Leslie N. Boney House

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1920

    Location:
    Wallace, Duplin County
    Street Address:

    Graham St., Wallace, NC

    Status:

    Unknown

    Type:

    Residential


  • Leslie N. Boney House

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1925

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    425 S. 3rd St., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential


  • Marion James House

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1921

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    1914 Market St., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential


  • Mt. Zion A. M. E. Church

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1944-1946

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    1111 N. Fifth St., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Religious

    Images Published In:

    Walter H. Conser, Jr., Sacred Spaces, Architecture and Religion in Historic Wilmington (1999).
    William M. Reaves and Beverly Tetterton, “Strength Through Struggle”: The Chronological and Historical Record of the African-American Community in Wilmington, North Carolina, 1865-1900 (1998).

    Note:

    After the city of Wilmington condemned the old church on the site in 1944, a replacement building was essential. The War Production Board awarded the project priority status, a measure necessary for it to receive construction materials during the shortages of WWII.


  • New Brooklyn Homes

    Contributors:
    Variant Name(s):

    Taylor Homes

    Dates:

    1939

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    Bounded by N. 4th St., Nixon St., N. 6th St. and Seaboard Air Line Railroad right-of-way, Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Residential

    Note:

    Built as New Brooklyn Homes, the first public housing project in the state, the complex consisted of 246 family units. It was renamed Taylor Homes in 1943 for the Wilmington born architect, Robert R. Taylor, the first black man to graduate from MIT in Architecture and whose principal body of work can be seem on the Tuskegee College campus. The project was demolished ca. 2008.


  • New Hanover County Courthouse Annex

    Contributors:
    Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect; Herbert C. Chivers, consulting architect
    Dates:

    1924-1925

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    319 Princess St., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Public

    Images Published In:

    Tony P. Wrenn, Wilmington, North Carolina: An Architectural and Historical Portrait (1984).

    Note:

    The 64 by 118-foot four-story addition was estimated to cost $150,000. Actually a separate building linked to the courthouse by a hyphen, it displays a restrained neoclassicism in pale stone, which contrasts with the robust eclectic style of the red brick courthouse designed by A. S. Eichberg. The portico and pilasters display the Tower of the Winds capitals popular in Wilmington and favored by Boney.


  • New Hanover County High School

    Contributors:
    Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect; William J. Wilkins, architect
    Dates:

    1919-1922

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    1307 Market St., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    Tony P. Wrenn, Wilmington, North Carolina: An Architectural and Historical Portrait (1984).


  • New Hanover County High School Gymnasium

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1939-1940

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    Behind 1307 Market St., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational


  • Oleander Court Apartments

    Contributors:
    Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect; Goode Construction Co., contractors
    Dates:

    1940-1941

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    3300 Oleander Dr., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential

    Note:

    Boney was also part owner of the 92 unit, garden type apartments. They were converted to condominiums ca. 1995.


  • Paisley Boney Building

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1922

    Location:
    Wallace, Duplin County
    Street Address:

    104-108 West Main St., Wallace, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Commercial

    Images Published In:

    Jennifer F. Martin, Along the Banks of the Old Northeast: the Historical and Architectural Development of Duplin County, North Carolina (1999).


  • Perquimans High School

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1923-1924

    Location:
    Hertford, Perquimans County
    Street Address:

    411 Edenton Rd. St., Hertford, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Note:

    The three-story school was designed to contain twenty classrooms and an auditorium. It still serves as part of the much enlarged high school.


  • Peschau House

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1931

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    Masonboro Sound Rd., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Unknown

    Type:

    Residential

    Images Published In:

    Edward F. Turberg, ed., Historic Architecture of New Hanover County, North Carolina (1986).


  • Riverside Elementary School

    Contributors:
    Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect; James F. Gause, Jr., architect
    Dates:

    1922

    Location:
    New Bern, Craven County
    Street Address:

    1217 N. Pasteur St., New Bern, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    Peter B. Sandbeck, The Historic Architecture of New Bern and Craven County, North Carolina (1988).

    Note:

    An important institution in the Riverside streetcar suburb, the substantial brick school with Spanish Revival style details was completed by Boney after Gause’s death. The school was credited as being the first “fire resistant” school in eastern North Carolina. It was identical to Ghent Elementary School, which was demolished ca. 1982.


  • Sheppard Memorial Library

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    Ca. 1930

    Location:
    Greenville, Pitt County
    Street Address:

    530 Evans St., Greenville, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Public


  • St. Andrew's on the Sound Episcopal Church

    Contributors:
    American Seating Co., pews and choir table; Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect; U. A. Underwood, contractor
    Dates:

    1924

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    101 Airlie Rd., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Religious

    Note:

    The brick Spanish mission style church and its furnishings cost approximately $20,000. The firm added two bays ca. 1995.


  • St. Luke A. M. E. Zion Church

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1944

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    419 S 7th St., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Religious

    Images Published In:

    William M. Reaves and Beverly Tetterton, “Strength Through Struggle”: The Chronological and Historical Record of the African-American Community in Wilmington, North Carolina, 1865-1900 (1998).

    Note:

    The War Production Board awarded the project priority status, a measure necessary to receive construction materials during the shortages of World War II.


  • Sunset Park Elementary School

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1942

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    613 Alabama Ave., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Note:

    This was part of a second phase of a school expansion program funded by Defense Public Works Division.


  • The Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of North Carolina

    Contributors:
    Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect (1955)
    Dates:

    1955 (plans)

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    2921 Glenwood Ave., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Fraternal


  • Tileston School

    Contributors:
    Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect (1937); Cape Fear Building Company, contractors; John A. Fox, architect (1871-1872); Joseph Keen, builder (1871-1872); Joseph F. Leitner, architect (1910); Alex Strausz, architect-builder (1871-1872); James Walker, superintending architect/contractor (1871-1872)
    Dates:

    1871-1872; 1910 [expanded]; 1937 [expanded]

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    400 Ann St., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Altered

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    Tony P. Wrenn, Wilmington, North Carolina: An Architectural and Historical Portrait (1984).

    Note:

    The development of the school is somewhat complex and the roles of those involved in its 1871-1872 construction uncertain. Newspaper articles mention both Walker and Keen as builders. The original 2-story section of brick was completed in 1872 and was later expanded. One expansion was the “enlarge high school” project noted for Leitner in the Manufacturers’ Record of June 30, 1910. Boney planned the third addition, the Ann Street wings. It was estimated to cost $26,000. The illustration here depicts the Tileston School in essentially its original picturesque form. The porch and most of the decorations have been removed, though the original school still stands at the core of the present complex. A more recent photograph appears in Wrenn, Wilmington.


  • Trinity Methodist Church

    Contributors:
    Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect; William J. Wilkins, architect
    Dates:

    1920-1921

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    1403 Market St., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Religious

    Images Published In:

    Walter H. Conser, Jr., Sacred Spaces, Architecture and Religion in Historic Wilmington (1999).


  • USO Building

    Contributors:
    Leslie N. Boney, Sr., supervising architect (1943)
    Dates:

    1943 (enlargement)

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    Corner of 2nd St. and Orange St., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Military

    Note:

    The firm accomplished site planning for prototype building.


  • Waccamaw Bank and Trust Company

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1935

    Location:
    Whiteville, Columbus County
    Street Address:

    Corner of Madison Ave. and Railroad St., Whiteville, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Commercial

    Note:

    Renovated by the firm, Charles N. Boney, designer, ca. 1999.


  • Wake Forest High School

    Contributors:
    Variant Name(s):

    Wake Forest Elementary School

    Dates:

    1927

    Location:
    Wake Forest, Wake County
    Street Address:

    S. Main St., Wake Forest, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Note:

    The red brick Wake Forest High School built in the 1920s was complemented by a classroom building planned by William H. Deitrick in the 1930s. Boney’s 1920s building was razed in 1991.


  • Wallace Presbyterian Church

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1908-1909

    Location:
    Wallace, Duplin County
    Street Address:

    104-108 W. Main St., Wallace, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Religious

    Images Published In:

    Jennifer F. Martin, Along the Banks of the Old Northeast: the Historical and Architectural Development of Duplin County, North Carolina (1999).

    Note:

    Additions were made ca. 1936 and 2009, the latter by the firm. The Gothic Revival style brick church is one of several buildings Boney designed in Wallace.


  • William C. Lee Field House

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    Ca. 1965

    Location:
    Fayetteville, Cumberland County
    Street Address:

    Fort Bragg, Fayetteville, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Recreational


  • Williston Industrial High School

    Contributors:
    Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect; U. A. Underwood, contractor
    Dates:

    1937-1938

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    S. 10th between Ann St. and Nun St., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Note:

    This Williston High School replaced a ca. 1931 building (the third Williston) by Wilmington architects Lynch and Foard that burned in 1936.


  • Wilmington College Campus

    Contributors:
    Anderson Construction, builders; Ballard and McKim, supervising architects; Leslie N. Boney, Sr., architect
    Variant Name(s):

    Hoggard Hall; Hinton James Hall; University of North Carolina at Wilmington Campus; Alderman Hall

    Dates:

    1960-1963

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    600 South College Rd., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Note:

    Using his favorite Neoclassical Revival style executed in red brick, with slate roofs and Tower of the Winds column capitals, Boney established the look that other architects of subsequent campus buildings followed. The Tower of the Winds order had been popular in Wilmington since the antebellum period (see John Norris and James F. Post).


  • Wrightsboro Elementary School

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1924

    Location:
    Wilmington, New Hanover County
    Street Address:

    2716 Castle Hayne Rd., Wilmington, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Note:

    The original 1-story brick building, constructed to consolidate Acorn Branch, Castle Hayne and Wrightsboro Schools, was expanded in 1927. A second story was added in 1939 and a cafeteria was built in 1953. Additional classrooms were built in 1963, 1968 and 1997. The design for the 2008 renovation was by Oakley-Collier of Rocky Mount, NC.


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