Unearthing Florida: Urca de Lima

In 1715, a Spanish fleet of 11 ships sailing from Cuba was struck by a hurricane off the coast of Fort Pierce, Florida. Only one was spared-the Urca de Lima.

The other ships in the fleet broke apart in the storm, ...

De Soto Winter Encampment Site

Florida’s Spanish presence dates back to the rugged conquistadors who trail-blazed the European path through its swamps, forests, and rivers in the 16th century.

Hernando De Soto, who assisted in conquering the Incas in Peru, led an expedition to Florida ...

Tatham Mound

When Spanish forces invaded Florida early in the 16th century, they left behind an abundance of shiny objects and a trail of death; especially in Florida’s big bend.

Two huge Spanish expeditions led by Narváez in 1528 and Soto in ...

Brexton Boarding House

With the arrival of the railroad, tourism boomed as thousands of visitors boarded trains to Asheville's region for a restful stay in the cool of the mountains. Some came to spend the entire season and built ever more elaborate summer ...

Riverside Cemetery

The Riverside Cemetery encompasses 87 acres of rolling hills and flower gardens overlooking the French Broad River. Riverside Cemetery dates to 1885, when the Asheville Cemetery Company established the land as a municipal graveyard to answer the growing need for ...

Highland Hospital

Though predominantly a single family residential neighborhood, land use in Montford has been mixed since the earliest days of development. A number of establishments from boarding houses to public schools to a city cemetery have appeared throughout the neighborhood. Several ...

Montford Area Historic District

Few neighborhoods express the rich architectural heritage and vitality of Asheville better than the Montford Historic District. During an era of remarkable growth in Asheville and in an environment of a few powerful individuals with enormous personal wealth, Montford grew ...

Chestnut Hill Historic District

The Chestnut Hill Historic District is a compact late 19th- and early 20th-century residential neighborhood that began as the outskirts of frontier Asheville. Some buildings were erected in this area even before Asheville underwent its first growth spurt in the ...

Manor and Cottages (Albemarle Park)

The Manor and Cottages compose a picturesque small historic district, evocative of Asheville's dramatic turn-of-the-century resort town boom era. The Manor, a resort with an English inn atmosphere conceived by Thomas Wadley Raoul and his father William Greene Raoul, was ...

Biltmore Industries, Inc.

Biltmore Industries is associated with the lives, work, and ideals of Mr. and Mrs. George Vanderbilt and Fred L. Seely, all leading figures of twentieth-century Asheville. The industries were established in 1901 under the patronage of George Vanderbilt and direction ...