Rich survey ranges from pioneer cabins to French Provincial and Neoclassic revivals. Extensive commentary on each building, with over 100 detailed illustrations, including 36 floor plans. Bibliography.

Few things evoke thoughts and memories of the past more than a house from a bygone era, and few places are identified and symbolized more by historic dwellings than the American South. Plantation houses built with columned porticos and wide porches, stout chimneys, large rooms, and sweeping staircases survive as legacies of both a storied and troubled past. These homes are at the heart of a complex web of human relationships that have shaped the social and cultural heritage of the region for generations. Despite their commanding appearance, the region's plantation houses have proven to be fragile relics of history, vulnerable to decay, neglect, and loss. Today, only a small percentage of the South's antebellum treasures survive. In Southern Splendor: Saving Architectural Treasures of the Old South, historians Marc R. Matrana, Robin S. Lattimore, and Michael W. Kitchens explore almost fifty houses built before the Civil War that have been authentically restored or preserved. Methodically examined are restoration efforts that preserve not only homes and other structures, but also the stories of those living in or occupying those homes. The authors discuss the challenges facing specific plantation homes and their preservation. Featuring over 275 stunning photographs, as well as dozens of firsthand accounts and interviews with those involved in the preservation of these historic properties, Southern Splendor describes the leading role the South has played, since the nineteenth century, in the historic preservation movement in this country.

Southern Exposure is the definitive guide to the often overlooked architectural riches of Chicago's South Side by architecture expert and former Chicago Sun-Times architecture writer Lee Bey.

Back of the Big House: The Architecture of Plantation Slavery

An exquisitely photographed collection of the great houses and mansions of the South. In the tradition of Rizzoli’s Historic Houses of the Hudson Valley and Great Houses of New England, Great Houses of the South features a stunning array of newly photographed homes that range over three centuries and are distinctive examples of the architecture of the region. While in popular imagination the "Southern Style" is embodied in the classic Southern plantation house with its Greek Revival detailing—its stately white columns, wide porch, and symmetrical shape—the houses themselves are much more various and engaging, as shown in this important volume. From stately Stanton Hall of Natchez, Mississippi, one of the most magnificent and palatial residences of antebellum America; to Longue Vue House and Gardens of New Orleans, the luxurious Classical Revival–style home of Edgar and Edith Stern; to the fabled Biltmore of Asheville, North Carolina, the opulent French Renaissance–inspired chateau and Gilded Age estate of George Washington Vanderbilt, this lavish volume is comprehensive in scope and a landmark work of enduring interest to homeowners, architects, architecture historians, and all those who love fine architecture.

Natchez derives its name from the sun-worshiping Indian tribe, the Natchez, who were the original owners of the area on which the city is located. It is situated in Adams county, in the southwestern part of the state of Mississippi, on bluffs 200 feet high overlooking the Mississippi River, and is midway between Memphis and New Orleans. It is accessible by railway, steamboat, motor highway and airway. It is particularly proud of the Natchez Trace Parkway, a modern concrete road over an old Indian trace or trail from Nashville to Natchez. This highway is a link in one of the most important commercial and historic highways in the United States reaching from Washington, D. C., to Mexico. Today Natchez is a recognized center of interest because in the city and its vicinity there are a greater number of original ante-bellum mansions than in any other community in America—some 75 or more. Natchez is the second oldest town in the United States, being next in age to St. Augustine, Florida. It has lived under five different flags, each of which contributed romantic flavor to the section. From 1714 to 1763 it was under the flag of France; from 1764 to 1780 under the flag of England; and from 1780 to 1798 under the flag of Spain. In 1798 the first United States flag in the Lower Mississippi Valley was raised in Natchez. Years after the raising of the “stars and stripes”, another flag which some call “the conquered banner”, the beloved flag of the Confederate States of America, floated over Natchez, 1861-’65. Natchez “Under the Hill” applies to that part of the town along the water front and under the bluffs. It flourished during the heyday of steamboating on the Mississippi. The inroads of the river have washed away the streets, and only a few buildings remain. One very interesting home, “Magnolia Vale”, has been preserved and is presented in this book. The majority of these old homes contain original pieces of furniture, china, coin silver service, draperies, carpets, wall decorations of exquisite workmanship, huge mirrors in massive goldleaf frames, paintings bearing authentic signatures of great masters, and hand-carved marble mantels. Laces, silks, and rich costumes are displayed today by third, fourth and fifth generations. It seems hardly possible that the world could move on and leave one small community undisturbed in its ancient grandeur. The hand of destiny seems indeed to uphold and enshrine this hallowed region. The estates have descended from generation to generation, many of them today being owned and occupied by descendants of the original owners.

"This book, the first of two volumes devoted to the Lone Star State, covers the central, southern, and Gulf Coast region (the earliest areas of Spanish and Anglo settlement and the majority of the counties that won independence from Mexico in 1836) and includes four major cities--Austin, Corpus Christi, Houston, and San Antonio."--Publisher's description.