Biltmore Estate Office

George Washington Vanderbilt's vision for his Biltmore Estate was not limited to his grand mansion, but included a picturesque, manorial village that would serve as an ornament of the landscape and solve the practical problem of housing estate workers and ...

Unearthing Florida: Negro Fort

During the War of 1812, the British built a military base in Florida on the eastern bank of the Apalachicola River that became a sanctuary for runaway slaves. The U.S. government called it “Negro Fort.”

After losing the war, the British ...

Lizzie Borden House

Located on 92nd street in the community of River Fall Rhode Island resides the house of Andrew J. Borden. In 1892, the murders of Andrew and his wife, Abby Borden, became an American controversy for the latter half of the ...

Bledsoe Building

Built in 1927, the Bledsoe Building is the largest building along Haywood Road, the main commercial corridor of West Asheville in the area of town west of the French Broad River. West Asheville had once been a separate town that ...

St. Matthias Episcopal Church

St. Matthias Episcopal Church stands at the top of a steep hill in an area of central Asheville known locally as "East End," one of the oldest neighborhoods developed by African Americans in the city. Reverend Jarvis Buxton, a noted ...

Unearthing Florida: Apalachicola River

Flowing over 100 miles from the northern state line to the Gulf of Mexico meanders one of the most important waterways in Florida’s history: the Apalachicola River.

The Apalachicola River basin within Florida covers more area than the state of Connecticut ...

African American Masonic Temple

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the area south of Pack Square was the center of the black business district, complete with doctors, lawyers, restaurants, a drug store, boarding house, library, and the Young Men's Institute. Brick buildings ...

Young Men's Institute Building

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the area surrounding the Young Men's Institute (YMI) was the center of the business district for Asheville's African Americans. George Vanderbilt built the YMI in 1893 to serve as the equivalent of ...

Unearthing Florida: Santa Maria de Galve

For the people who lived at Pensacola’s first permanent Spanish colonial settlement, isolated on the frontier, religion provided them with the means to cope with harsh conditions.

Like Santa Maria de Galve, each settlement had churches and cemeteries, and priests, who ...

Asheville City Hall

The Asheville City Building is a colorful, massive, and eclectic Art Deco masterpiece. Douglas D. Ellington, an architect who came to Asheville in the mid-1920s, designed the eight-story building, which was completed in 1928. Originally proposed as part of a ...