It includes notable examples of Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and Bungalow / American Craftsman style architecture.

Originally from a prominent family in New Jersey, William M. Boylan Sr. moved to Halifax, North Carolina to work for his uncle sometime before 1797.

After a short relocation to Fayetteville in 1797 the pair moved to the newly created state capital to publish Federalist Party newspapers, the North Carolina Minerva and Raleigh Advisor.

[5] In 1818 Boylan Sr. purchased 197 acres of land for $3,000,[6] which included what was the mainhouse of Wakefield Plantation, formerly owned by Raleigh and Wake County founding father Joel Lane.

[4]Three years later Boylan Jr. hired English architect, William Percival and Raleigh builder Thomas H. Briggs Sr. Construction of Montfort Hall started shortly thereafter and was completed by 1858.

[13] Struggling farmers abandoned their land, moving to urban areas including Ashville, Durham, Charlotte, Burlington, High Point, and Raleigh.

[14] Inturn creating a housing crisis that inspired real estate firms across the state to plot suburban developments.

Only a ten-minute walk from North Carolina's Capital Building, a short distance from Pullen Park, and just outside of the then-city limits to ensure privacy and tranquility.

For the Boylan Heights project, twelve partners came together to form the Greater Raleigh Land Company, including Thomas Henery Briggs Jr. whose father helped build Montfort Hall in the 1850s.

In practice, the company worked as a subsidiary of the Raleigh Real Estate & Trust Co. Frank K. Ellington who served as the president of both companies and his partner J. Stanhope Wynne carefully planned Boylan Heights with a vision of its future character and social composition.

[20] As part of their marketing for the new development Greater Raleigh Land Company donated a lot valued at $700 to be actioned off at the 1908 Masonic Carnival.

As manufacturing output dropped along with textile wages, unemployment rose and many of Boylan Heights' blue-collar residents became unable to afford their homes.

When economic trends started looking up white-collar voters flocked out of the neighborhood allowing their homes to become apartments or leaving them vacant.

[4] According to residents at the time who were interviewed for the 1980 application for historical designation, by the 1940s absent landlords and vacant homes became common within Boylan Heights.

[4] Once the grandest home in Boylan Height, Montfort Hall itself was turned into apartments from 1948 to 1953 until eventually being left vacant.

Lead by the owners of Montfort Hall, then operating as Boylan Heights Baptist Church, who applied for registration as a National Historic Landmark.