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Myers Park is one of the Premier neighborhoods in North America. In 1905 John
Nolen, at thirty six, a recent Harvard graduate with a Masters in Landscape
Architecture came to Charlotte to interview George Stephens about designing Myers Park.
Nolen's professor and mentor at Harvard was Fredric Law Olmstead Jr.
Olmstead's father had designed Central Park in New York, and in his later years the
Biltmore Estate for George Vanderbilt. John Nolen went on to be one of the
most outstanding landscape architects of the early 1900's. His work is found all
over the eastern part of the United States, but Charlotte is as far south as he practiced.
The original plan for the George Stephens Company,
the developers, was to
form a streetcar community where all residences could walk to the street car
lines and visitors who came would be able to make a loop through the
neighborhood and depart where the main street would join itself. If you
look at today's
map of Myers Park you will see that
loop and realize its different than the grid-type plan of so many cities. This early
plan did not anticipate the development of the automobile to the extent it is used today,
and there have been many changes in the neighborhood as Charlotte grows and
traffic becomes more of a problem.
In 1986 The Myers Park Foundation published a
comprehensive book which captured the history of Myers Park. The book,
Legacy: The Myers Park Story, is available from the Myers Park Foundation.
If you would like to read a more detailed history of Myers Park by Dr. Tom Hanchett,
the Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission has detailed information
at:
http://www.cmhpf.org/neighborhoods/MyersPark.html
There are also some essays on Myers Park which
can be found at:
http://www.cmhpf.org/essays/myerspark.html
Lastly, The design of Myers Parks'
streets and the beauty of its homes makes it wonderful place for walks and
scenic tours for out of town visitors. A walking tour of Myers Park can be
found at:
http://www.cmhpf.org/neighborhoods/WALKING-MyersPark.html
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