D.K. Boyd's Home on S. Aberdeen Avenue

Over the past few weeks, we have looked at the monumental architecture of David Knickerbacker Boyd, highlighting his buildings in Wayne which are still easily recognizable today. Churches, school buildings and other centrally located landmarks were the bulk of his work, but Boyd also designed many typically-sized homes in the area. Boyd's practice and many of his clients were located in Wayne, so it only made sense that he would decide to settle here. In the early 1900s, he designed this home for his family to be built on South Aberdeen Avenue. It still stands today, and thanks to excellent stewardship, appears much as it did when this image was published in the journal American Homes & Gardens in 1908 (digitized by Google; see the whole article here: http://books.google.com/books?id=algiAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22american%20homes%20and%20gardens%22%201908%20boyd&pg=PA110#v=onepage&q&f=false)

The article, which also features two other Boyd homes in the same section of the township, does not mention that the house was designed for the architects' own use, but his occupying the house is confirmed via railroad atlases which note Boyd as the owner.

Next week we will examine one of D.K. Boyd's largest residential commissions, considered his crowning achievement.

-Greg Prichard,