Boyter, James, Shop
50 W. 200 North, Beaver, UTOriginally the building was used by James Boyter as his stone-cutting shop and this is one of the reasons this building is significant to historic Beaver. Also important are the structure's historic date and its stone construction materials. Mr. & Mrs. James Boyter sold their stone-cutting shop to their son Henry in 1929 and Henry continued to carve monuments there for a time.
James Boyter was a Scotsman who sometimes helped his older brother Alexander in the construction industry in Beaver. The Boyter Brothers worked similarly with the pink stone (tuff) and brick and the James Boyter House is one of the finest examples of their work.
James was a sculptor of considerable talent and earned a living carving headstones for the cemeteries in Beaver County. He made extensive use of white marble with faint blue veins that were imported from Newhouse, a mining town in Western Beaver County. This marble does not take a high polish, but Boyter's work is nonetheless marvelous. Each monument is unique, though he was fond of using a lamb as a symbol on top of many of his headstones. He gave life in stone to such things as lilies, a tree stump, rich fabrics, and braids and each headstone is a work of art in and of itself. He frequently signed his work, but his style of sculpting is instantly recognizable even without his signature.
His home from the outside is very similar to Thomas Frazer's work (Frazer was an earlier Scots mason who was quite active in Beaver). The differences lie in the treatment of the brickwork, the three dormer windows, the floor plan, and the chimney placements.
According to Deed Record Book Z-4, p. 455, Jane and James Boyter sold the property to their son Henry for $1000 on April 13, 1929.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.