Greece Historical Society awarded grants to study Rochester’s first African American architect

The Greece Historical Society (GHS) has received two grants totaling $30,000 to fund a Cultural Resource Survey of the architecture of Thomas W. Boyde, Jr., Rochester’s first African American architect. The grants were awarded by the Preservation League of New York State and their program partners at the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and the Rochester Area Community Foundation. 

Thomas W. Boyde, Jr. was Rochester’s first and foremost African American architect. He was a prolific designer of Mid-Century Modern homes and businesses, but also did significant work designing buildings for economically-disadvantaged communities. Several of Boyde’s projects have been lost to demolition or have been severely altered. This survey will help identify his buildings, calling attention to them and hopefully averting further losses. Boyde’s built work spans across Western New York, including several houses in the town of Greece.

A $15,000 Preserve New York grant from the Preservation League and NYSCA and a $15,000 Preserving Historical Assets Vitality Grant from the Rochester Area Community Foundation will enable the Greece Historical Society to hire a project team that includes: architectural historian Katie Eggers Comeau and architect Christopher Brandt from Bero Architecture PLLC; independent historian and historic preservation consultant Jeffrey A. “Free” Harris from Hampton, Virginia; preservation consultant Gina M. DiBella of Greece; and research assistant Alexis Rivers, a 2020 graduate from SUNY Geneseo, to complete this survey.

“Thomas W. Boyde Jr. is one of the most notable and accomplished architects of the mid-twentieth century in the Greater Rochester Region, in spite of the professional and personal prejudice he faced throughout his life,” says Brandt. “He was one of the first architects that I became intimately acquainted with nearly fifteen years ago before pursuing my own career in the profession. I look forward to reviewing his beautiful color renderings again, and am honored to be part of the team that seeks to uncover, document, elevate, and celebrate the full and complete accomplishments of his decades-long career.”

“There is a long and storied history of African American architects, but all too often, because of the era of Jim Crow, those early architects either were forced into the shadows or had their work questioned, because of their race,” says Harris. “This project, I believe, is a part of a larger project to bring those architects and their works out of the shadows and into a deserved spotlight.”

Mr. Brandt and Ms. Comeau will share research and writing responsibilities based on their complementary backgrounds as an architect and historian, respectively. Mr. Harris is a specialist in African American history who is joining the team to share his expertise in researching and writing about African-American historic sites. His role will include conducting oral history interviews, writing a section of the report to focus on Thomas Boyde, Jr. in the context of mid-20th century African American architects, and providing an editorial review of the report. Ms. Rivers is a recent college graduate whose academic experience includes extensive and meticulous research into local African American history. She will conduct online and in-person research to gather materials related to Mr. Boyde’s life and career and assist Mr. Harris with oral history interview transcription. Ms. DiBella will take the lead in creating and populating the database of Mr. Boyde’s projects, will assist with additional research, writing, and photography, and will be responsible for data entry at the end of the project. The team will make use of the Thomas W. Boyde, Jr. collection of architectural drawings and papers at the Rochester Museum and Science Center as they begin their research.

“The Greece Historical Society is honored to be sponsoring the cultural resource survey of the life and architecture of Thomas W. Boyde, Jr.,” says GHS president William Sauers. “Mr. Boyde had an important influence in the local community, not just Greece, but the greater Rochester/Western New York area. We are grateful to the Preservation League/New York State Council on the Arts and the Rochester Area Community Foundation for their support of this project.”

The GHS previously worked with Bero Architecture and Ms. DiBella to complete a Cultural Resource Survey of the Architecture of James H. Johnson. Johnson is known for his mid-century designs that include St. John the Evangelist Church in Greece, Temple Sinai in Brighton, the Liberty Pole in Rochester, and the Mushroom House in Perinton. The Johnson survey was funded by grants from the Preserve New York program and the Landmark Society of Western New York, as well as a donation from the Johnson family. In 2019, the finished report received a New York State Historic Preservation Award for Excellence in Historic Documentation from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and a Special Citation Preservation Award from the Landmark Society.

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