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

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.

"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.

"Jacob W. Holt, An American Builder"; "Good and Sufficient Language for Building"; "Black Builders in Antebellum North Carolina"; "Mr. Jones Goes to Richmond: A Note on the Influence of Alexander Parris's Wickham House"; "Philadelphia Bricks for New Bern Jail"; "'Severe Survitude to House Building': The Construction of Hayes Plantation House, 1814-17"; "The Montmorenci--Prospect Hill School: A Study of High-Style Vernacular Architecture in the Roanoke Valley"; "The 'Unpainted Aristocracy': The Beach Cottages of Old Nags Head"; "'A Strong Force of Ladies': Women, Politics, and Confederate Memorial Associations in Nineteenth-Century Raleigh"; "Landmarks of Power: Building a Southern Past, 1885-1915"; "Looking at North Carolina's History Through Architecture"; "Yuppies and Bubbas and the Politics of Culture in Historic Preservation"