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Albemarle Park was envisioned as a picturesque mountainside resort in north Asheville. It was a great success due to the collaborative efforts of railroad executive William Greene Raoul and his son Thomas; Bradford Gilbert, architect of New York City's first skyscraper; and Samuel Parsons Jr., landscape architect for the City of New York. The Manor and its surrounding cottages served as an alternative to standard late-19th-century Asheville hotels and boardinghouses. Dances, plays, bowling, archery, golf, motoring, and equestrian events were available for guests to enjoy, and meals were sourced from The Manor's own farm. Notable guests of The Manor included Eleanor Roosevelt and Grace Kelly. It was also a film set for The Last of the Mohicans. Consisting of enchanting architecture and romantic landscaping, Albemarle Park was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 and as a local historic district in 1989. Through family archives, private collections, and ephemera, Asheville's Albemarle Park showcases the history of this significant Asheville neighborhood.

In 1928, Eli Reid purchased 400 acres of picturesque property on the banks of the Chowan River in Hertford County, North Carolina. Soon after he acquired the land, Reid began turning the area into a Segregation-era resort for African Americans, and Chowan Beach was born.

As the resort began to take shape in the late 1920s, it was clear that something special had been started. Wide sandy beaches were built, and construction was immediately started on guest cottages, bathhouses, a dance hall, photo studio, restaurant, picnic area and magnificent German-made carousel. Chowan Beach was an immediate success, and throngs of African Americans began to stream in from across North Carolina and the East Coast to relax and enjoy the atmosphere and spectacular views--an oasis of fun in a social desert of limited opportunities and unfair treatment. The water was cool and refreshing, the crowds were friendly, and the music was hot, as the beach was a popular stop for musicians touring on the "Chitlin Circuit," including B.B. King, James Brown, Sam Cooke and The Drifters.

In this nostalgic new book, author Frank Stephenson brings back the glory days of Chowan Beach with an array of vintage photographs and a brief history of the area. Come along as Stephenson revisits the past of this beloved beach and offers a reminder of what it meant to generations of African American visitors.

Florida in the late 1800s was a paradise waiting to be discovered. During this period, two visionary tycoons of the Gilded Age set out on separate ventures that would transform the Sunshine State from America's last frontier into a destination for the rich and famous. The grand hotels that Henry M. Flagler and Henry B. Plant opened at their planned resort sites offered a fantasy stay surrounded by all the accoutrements expected by sophisticated, Gilded Age patrons. Florida's Grand Hotels from the Gilded Age provides a look at these magnificent structures during their glory years, along with the fashionable entertainment and social and recreational pastimes that engaged their gilded guests.

For two centuries, people have traveled through the mountains of North Carolina to the city of Asheville. Early visitors came on foot, driving animals to market down the Buncombe Turnpike. Later, stagecoaches brought wealthy planters out of the heat of low-country summers. The railway brought an influx of visitors from all over the country, including Northerners escaping cold winters and patients looking for health cures. The advent of the automobile made travel even more accessible, and people flocked to the mountain town for scenery and entertainment. Tourism became central to Asheville's growth and industry, with many of the towns' prominent citizens taking part in the hotel trade and building iconic hotels like Battery Park and Grove Park Inn that attracted famous guests from all over the world. From simple hotels to large grand inns, economical boardinghouses, and accessible motels, Historic Inns of Asheville showcases the city's abundant history of accommodation.

Southern West Virginia possesses great natural beauty and a rich history in which lodging has played a significant role. This book traces the evolution of lodging in the area from the late 1700s to the present. The various types of accommodations included log cabins; lodging in rail, coal, and lumber communities; picturesque stagecoach stops; state parks; bed-and-breakfasts; and opulent mineral springs hotels. During the Civil War, many of the springs hotels and stagecoach stops were used for army hospitals and headquarters. This volume provides glimpses of quaint towns such as Bramwell, Fayetteville, Union, and Lewisburg, as well as the more commercial towns of Princeton, Bluefield, Hinton, Beckley, Glen Jean, Gary, Cass, Ronceverte, Marlinton, Coalwood, Rainelle, and Glen Rogers.

Explore the once quaint farming town of Historic Monte NE. With images throughout the centuries, witness its transformation into a tourism hotspot during the 1920s.

Situated in a lush, spring-fed valley, the town of Silver Springs in Northwest Arkansas was once home to a small community of people who farmed, enjoyed the riches of rural life, and gathered at the local auditorium, gristmill, or tavern. Their world was forever changed in 1900 with the arrival of William Hope ""Coin"" Harvey. A fervent supporter of the ""free silver"" movement in the 1890s, Harvey had become disgruntled with the American financial system. Retreating to the pastoral valley, Harvey purchased 320 acres, renamed the community Monte Ne, and began to build a grand resort. It attracted visitors from across the country with its fertile landscape, large hotels, and private rail line. By the 1920s, Harvey had turned his attention to building a large ""time capsule"" pyramid, of which only the foyer, or amphitheater, was completed.