Ashton Villa was the first brick mansion in Galveston and one of the first brick homes to be built in the state of Texas. The brick walls are thirteen inches thick to keep out the Gulf Coast humidity and provide strength. There are coal burning fireplaces in every room, two indoor bathrooms, and in 1859 the home glowed at night with gas chandeliers. No expense was spared for this grand mansion in its grand town. Ashton Villa was the center of the Galveston social scene includ

Deeply rooted in Birmingham history and Southern industrialization, Sloss Furnaces is a beautiful preservation of a time past and testament to those who labored here and helped build the Magic City. Sloss Furnaces operated in Birmingham, Alabama from 1882-1970 and it was once the largest manufacturer of pig iron in the world. Sloss is the only twentieth-century blast furnace in the United States to be preserved and restored for public use. Sloss Furnaces transformed coal and

The Bissette-Cooley House in Nashville, NC was home to two pillars of the Nashville community who made their success in different ways. Nashville, NC originated in 1780 when the first permanent Nash County courthouse was constructed there and it was made the county seat. George N. Bissette was born in 1864 on a small, rural farm in Nash County and moved to Nashville in the mid 1880s to make his fortune. Situated near a new courthouse built in 1834, the Arrington-Bissette Stor