Charles O. Boynton House
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charles O. Boynton House | |
The red brick facade of the Boynton House has aged fairly well. | |
| Location | Sycamore, Illinois |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 41°59′2″N 88°41′39″W / 41.98389°N 88.69417°W |
| Area | 99 acres (40 ha) |
| Built | 1887 |
| Architect | George O. Garnsey |
| Architectural style | Queen Anne |
| Part of | Sycamore Historic District (ID78003104) |
| NRHP reference No. | 78003104[1] |
| Added to NRHP | May 2, 1978 |
The Charles O. Boynton House is located in the DeKalb County, Illinois, city of Sycamore. The home is part of the Sycamore Historic District which was designated and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in May 1978. The Queen Anne style mansion sits on a stretch of Sycamore's Main Street that is dotted with other significant Historic District structures including, the Townsend House and the Townsend Garage. The Boynton House was designed by the same architect who designed the Ellwood House in nearby DeKalb and the David Syme House, another house in the Sycamore Historic District.[2]
Charles O. Boynton was born in 1826 in Rockingham, Vermont. He came to Illinois in 1847 and opened a dry goods store in Chicago. Two years later he moved to Sycamore and opened another store, this time a general store. He began lending money in 1852 by obtaining capital from back East at lower interest rates and then lending locally at a higher rate. He did this until the early 1870s and made a significant amount of money.
After lending Boynton moved on to land speculation. Boynton owned farmland in DeKalb County as well as almost 75,000 acres (300 km2) in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, and Arkansas. He held nearly 60,000 acres (240 km2) of walnut forests in Arkansas where he owned a lumber mill.

