Perhaps most interesting is the range of buildings and machines that Mills designed - from monuments and local courthouses, to prisons and churches, bridges and canals, to rotary piston engines and fireproof masonry vaults - all during a revolutionary era of building technology in America.".

In addition to numerous rare illustrations, this book has three sections of text and a detailed index. The first section discusses five types of courthouses and two types of jails designed by Mill's, district buildings by William Jay (the architect of Savannah mansions), Mill's public and private buildings that are similar to his courthouses and jails, and buildings influenced by Mill's designs. An appendix discusses the courthouses and jails in each district between 1800 and 1865, and another appendix prints samples of contemporary architectural documents.

Letter, 27 Mar. 1838, to Hugh Swinton Legare, re congressional controversy over location, design, and material used in the U.S. Treasury fire-proof building in Washington, D.C.; letter, 9 Aug. 1838, Washington, D.C., to Benjamin Ogle Taylor, re Taylor's aid in securing a bank loan for mantel pieces in the new U.S. Treasury building.

"But what is less well known are the many important examples of other architectural idioms built in this Piedmont Virginia county, many by nationally renowned architects.".

He executed commissions from Newburyport, Massachusetts, to Mobile, Alabama, and worked in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Columbia, South Carolina, and Washington, D.C.