William D. Boyce was an entrepreneur, publisher, and a founding member of the Boy Scouts of America. in 1911, Boyce commissioned Daniel Burnham to construct a new headquarters in order to consolidate his publishing firm, the W. D. Boyce Publishing Company. Construction of the Boyce Building occurred in four stages between 1912 and 1923. When completed, it was twelve stories tall and the tallest office building north of the Chicago River and west of Michigan Avenue. Boyce used the building's penthouse as his Chicago home. The Boyce Building as added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 29, 1996.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996, the Boyce Building serves as a physical reminder of the new types of early 20th-century entrepreneurs that emerged in the early 20th century - Progressives. Although he owned many businesses, and his publications were popular, Boyce is best known as the founder of the Boy Scouts of America. An avid hunter, traveler, and progressive, Boyce was an acquaintance of Teddy Roosevelt as they shared a love for hunting and camping, which was understood to be a way of reclaiming the lost spirit of the closed American frontier.1 Today, hunting and camping are a big part of the Boy Scouts of America, but there is more to the organization than just an appreciation of the outdoors. According to the Boy Scouts of America:
In 1909, Chicago publisher William D. Boyce lost his way in a dense London fog. A boy came to his aid and, after guiding the man, refused a tip, explaining that as a Scout he would not take a tip for doing a Good Turn. This gesture by an unknown Scout inspired a meeting with Robert Baden-Powell, the British founder of the Boy Scouts. As a result, William Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America on February 8, 1910. He also created the Lone Scouts, which merged with the Boy Scouts of America in 1924.
During World War One, Boyce traveled to Europe on the British luxury liner Lusitania, three months before the Germans supposedly torpedoed it, subsequently pushing the U.S. to enter the war. He also traveled to Africa twice and spent a year in South America, all part of his many journeys throughout the world. He wrote about many of those journeys, which were published by Rand McNally & Company.3
It is believed that Boyce was worth $20 million in 1916 (more than $440 million in 2016). He died in 1929 prior to the stock market crash. As a result, his fortunes were not able to be sustained by his heirs, which may also be why his historical popularity did not rise to the levels of entrepreneurs such as Rockefeller and Guggenheim. Nonetheless, his legacy as one of the leaders of the Boy Scouts lives on, notably through the Boyce Building in Chicago and plaques that adorns its outside walls.