The Architecture of William Nichols: Building the Antebellum South in North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi is the first comprehensive biography and monograph of a significant yet overlooked architect in the American South. William Nichols designed three major university campuses—the University of North Carolina, the University of Alabama, and the University of Mississippi. He also designed the first state capitols of North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi. Nichols's architecture profoundly influenced the built landscape of the South but due to fire, neglect, and demolition, much of his work was lost and history has nearly forgotten his tremendous legacy. In his research onsite and through archives in North Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, Paul Hardin Kapp has produced a narrative of the life and times of William Nichols that weaves together the elegant work of this architect with the aspirations and challenges of the Antebellum South. It is richly illustrated with over two hundred archival photographs and drawings from the Historic American Building Survey.

A restoration of the legacy of one of the South's most prolific and influential architects before the Civil War

"Almost thirty years ago an excellent student, Ms. Joan Rausch, researched the First City Hall and Fire Station in La Cross, Wisconsin, Her research produced W.H.J. Nichols as the architect but little more could be discovered about him. My own recent research into local architects reminded me of Nichols and I looked at the available local histories. When those leads ran out I decided to approach Nichols as an ancestor and use genealogical material and family history sources. Suddenly the shadowy figure became a much traveled man with a wife from back home and an adopted daughter who cared for him in his old age. While this additional information doesn't necessarily tell us more about his architecture it does tell us a lot about the man and his time." -- from cover.

This survey provides a unique overview of 1,000-years of architectural development.

This comprehensive and insightful illustrated survey of 500 of America's most distinguished buildings provides a unique overview of the thousand-year architectural development of the United States. It examines our nation's architecture from its earliest days to the present, ranging from cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde to Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House in Chicago to James Ingo Freed's Holocaust Museum in Washington. Indispensable in any library, it also serves as a general introduction to American architecture or as a splendid guide for tourists.