Southern Homes and Plan Books showcases the architectural legacy and design philosophy of Leila Ross Wilburn (1885–1967), a legacy that includes hundreds of houses in a variety of popular house styles, from bungalows to ranch houses, built using Wilburn’s plan books during the first six decades of the twentieth century. Wilburn opened her own firm in Atlanta in 1908 and practiced until her death in 1967. She published nine plan books that offered mail order house designs to contractors, builders, and prospective homeowners and allowed them the ease of choosing a preconceived design and construction plan. Sarah J. Boykin and Susan M. Hunter provide a survey of the southern homes built from Wilburn’s plan books, examining Wilburn’s architectural legacy and her achievements as a plan book architect. The book provides beautiful photographs of houses built from her plans, along with illustrations from the plan books themselves and other related documents from the time. Readers can thus see how her designs were realized as individual houses and also how they influenced the development of some of the Atlanta area’s beloved historical neighborhoods, most notably Druid Hills, Morningside, Virginia-Highland, and Candler Park, as well as the McDonough–Adams–Kings Highway (MAK) Historic District in Decatur. Today, Wilburn’s houses are enjoyed as appealing, historic homes and represent some of the richest examples of southern vernacular architecture to emerge from the plan book tradition.

For more than thirty years, the architectural research department at Colonial Williamsburg has engaged in comprehensive study of early buildings, landscapes, and social history in the Chesapeake region. Its painstaking work has transformed our understanding of building practices in the colonial and early national periods and thereby greatly enriched the experience of visiting historic sites. In this beautifully illustrated volume, a team of historians, curators, and conservators draw on their far-reaching knowledge of historic structures in Virginia and Maryland to illuminate the formation, development, and spread of one of the hallmark building traditions in American architecture. The essays describe how building design, hardware, wall coverings, furniture, and even paint colors telegraphed social signals about the status of builders and owners and choreographed social interactions among everyone who lived or worked in gentry houses, modest farmsteads, and slave quarters. The analyses of materials, finishes, and carpentry work will fascinate old-house buffs, preservationists, and historians alike. The lavish color photography is a delight to behold, and the detailed catalogues of architectural elements provide a reliable guide to the form, style, and chronology of the region's distinctive historic architecture.

The editors of Southern Living Magazine presents House Plans.

A celebration of the uniquely vibrant architecture and interiors of classic and new Spanish-style houses in the southwestern and southern United States, Mexico, and Spain. Casa Bohemia showcases a collection of some of the most beautifully preserved Spanish style houses, from restored haciendas in Mexico to early and recent 20th century California mission styles. Twenty-nine residences built between the late seventeenth century and the present day are featured in new, stunning color photography that captures architectural details inside and out and enchanting Spanish, Moorish, European and Mexican antique furnishings, artifacts, and crafts. Author Linda Leigh Paul traces the history of Spanish style architecture from its Iberian sources to the development of the Mission style in the Americas to the still-flourishing Spanish Revival and Mediterranean styles, and endlessly rich details, including ornate wrought-iron, wood balconies, crafted glass, colorful tiles and textiles, and graceful arches. But what all of the houses featured in Casa Bohemia have in common—though they range across centuries and places as diverse as San Miguel de Allende, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Hollywood, Malibu, Texas, and Wyoming—is a visual richness and vitality that emerges from the distinctive approaches to preservation and decoration found in each.

A seminal work exploring the daily life and status of southern women in colonial America, describes the domestic occupation, social life, education, and role in government of women of varied classes.