An introduction to a landmark study being conducted on the history of the Boyd family and the landscape of their Weymouth estate will be presented Sunday at the Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities.

The public is invited to attend this free presentation at 2 p.m. that will be given by Davyd Foard Hood, author, historian and landscape professional who has led the yearlong study at the request of Weymouth's Board.

Funded by the Southern Pines Garden Club and the State Historic Preservation Office through the Southern Pines Historic District Commission, the report will explore the Boyds and their symbiotic relationship to the landscapes of both Weymouth and Southern Pines, with an introduction to the artistry of landscape architect Alfred Yeomans.

Weymouth, located on East Connecticut Avenue in Southern Pines, was originally the home of writer James Boyd and is considered the town's most significant landmark.

Weymouth was an important center during the Southern literary renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, hosting such notable figures as William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Paul Green, Thomas Wolfe and others. The estate was originally more than 2,500 acres in size, encompassing a significant portion of modern day Southern Pines, and included a forest of virgin longleaf pine trees.

The Boyds also founded the Moore County Hounds in 1914, encouraging equestrian activities that lead to the area's reputation as a center for the sport.

Hood has completed phase one of the Cultural Landscape Report for Weymouth. Thorough research and the compilation of existing documentation on Weymouth has been conducted in the county record offices in Carthage, the Weymouth Archives, the Southern Historical and North Carolina collections at UNC-Chapel Hill, and at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library.

The study has included research through the Historical Society of Dauphin County, Harrisburg, Pa., through which biographical information on James, John Yeomans and Jackson Herr Boyd, and the Boyd's summer house, "Oakleigh," was obtained.

Hood, who specializes in historic architecture and landscapes, has documented many of the state's most important cultural landscapes. An extensively published writer, he has served on the board of the Southern Garden History Society. Long associated with the Sandhills, he first visited the Boyd property in the 1970s.

The Weymouth Cultural Landscape Report was one of nine projects selected for funding by the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.

Entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, the site was recognized as significant for the literary, social and humanitarian contributions of the Boyd family. Alfred Yeomans was the landscape architect for the Boyd estate, and his designs are of such aesthetic and historic note that the 1991 nomination report for the Southern Pines Historic District recommended establishing a complete landscape gardening context for the town based on his work.