Downtown Asheville Historic District

Established in 1797 as the trading center and seat of the newly created Buncombe County, Asheville (then called Morristown) grew steadily through the 19th century as the economic and government center of western North Carolina. Following the arrival of the ...

Unearthing Florida: S.S. Tarpon

The SS Tarpon was one of the unfortunate steamships in Florida’s maritime history.

For over three decades SS Tarpon, built in the late Nineteenth Century, never missed its weekly trips hauling cargo and passengers along the gulf coast, but on August ...

Unearthing Florida:U.S.S. Massachusetts

The USS Massachusetts rests silently beneath 26 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico south of Pensacola- but unlike many shipwrecks she was put there on purpose.

At one time Massachusetts was a marvel of modern engineering. First launched in ...

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 ...

First Baptist Church

When it was dedicated on March 6, 1927, the First Baptist Church embodied the distinctive style of its architect, Douglas Ellington, who incorporated traditional Beaux-Arts planning, the stark forms of early Christian church architecture, and fashionably modern Art Deco details ...

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 ...

O.B. Wright House

The O. B. Wright House is located in the Montford community in Asheville and was built around the turn of the 20th century for Osella B. and Leva D. Wright. It is one of Asheville's best surviving examples of a ...

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 ...