North Carolina

Hundreds of ornately decorated rooms, gardens and greenery and more--Walk through the history of the Biltmore Estate, one of America's many displays of personal wealth and decadence.

In the spring of 1888, George Washington Vanderbilt returned to New York after spending weeks exploring the countryside near Asheville, North Carolina. Thinking it was the perfect place to build his home, Vanderbilt promptly sent his agent to begin quietly buying contiguous tracts of land until he had several thousand acres. Soon, he began constructing what would become America's largest private residence. He commissioned two of America's preeminent designers, architect Richard Morris Hunt and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, to collaborate with him in planning his estate, which he named Biltmore. To complement the 250-room French Renaissance-style chateau, Olmsted worked closely with Hunt to create a vast landscape of pleasure gardens and grounds with miles of scenic drives through parklands, productive farms, and the country's first scientifically managed forest. Today, Biltmore is a National Historic Landmark privately owned by Vanderbilt's descendants.

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.

Beaufort, bordered by the waters of Taylor's Creek and Beaufort Inlet, is a picturesque, thriving coastal town, filled with rich
traditions and a unique North Carolina heritage. Historic homes and shops, many predating the birth of George Washington, stand
majestically in the shadows of graceful live oak trees. The town's sidewalks are lined with white picket fences, distinguished by a
rainbow assortment of well-tended flowers. Centered in this beautiful, historic town, the Old Burying Ground is a fascinating treasuretrove of little-known seacoast stories and legends that have shaped Beaufort's identity, from its maritime roots before the Revolutionary War to the present.
In Beaufort's Old Burying Ground, you will enjoy a visual tour of one of the East Coast's most interesting and historic cemeteries,
where you will learn the stories of patriots, privateers, and pirates who played a strategic role in the area's history and were buried within the cemetery's confines. Through these different tales and legends, an extraordinary tapestry is woven of star-crossed lovers, victims of the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1864, the American Indian "Wars and Massacres," family histories, Confederate spies' daring deeds, shipwrecks, and the sadness of young lives snuffed out too soon.

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, standing 198.49 feet, is the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States. From 1803, when the first Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was built, to today, it cast its light over the waters off the Outer Banks of North Carolina, also called the "Graveyard of the Atlantic." Its history--stretching from Augustin-Jean Fresnel's lens laboratory in France to the beaches of Hatteras Island where the lighthouse keepers labored--includes war, shipwrecks, hurricanes, and cutting-edge technology. Due to politics, funding, and its precarious location, it took great effort to erect and protect a lighthouse built on a barrier island. The supporters and caretakers were many, including Alexander Hamilton in the 1700s and children donating coins to a statewide preservation campaign in 1982. In the 21st century, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse continues to send out its beam to mariners.

Located at the intersection of two rivers that lead out to the ocean, Tryon Palace was completed in 1770 and became the first permanent capitol of North Carolina. Designed by John Hawks, the structure's Georgian edifice is flanked by two Palladian-style administrative buildings. The palace initially housed royal, then state, governors who oversaw the implementation of colonial and state laws. Destroyed by fire in 1798, the estate's only surviving building was the stable wing. In the 1920s, a determined group of preservationists and historians spearheaded the effort to reconstruct the Colonial palace. On April 10, 1959, Tryon Palace reopened as North Carolina's premier historic site. It is now home to the North Carolina History Center. Annual events include a candlelight celebration during the winter holidays and the revival of Jonkonnu, an Afro-Caribbean Christmastide tradition in eastern North Carolina. Tryon Palace celebrates the rich heritage of an important historic landmark beloved by North Carolinians and visitors alike.

The Outer Banks of North Carolina attract those with a conviction to dream and do. Explorers, pirates, lifesavers and the world's first pilots decorate the halls of local history.

Some of the Outer Banks' greatest accomplishments are due to daring women who pushed the odds. Eleanor Dare created a new life amidst a doomed colonial expedition, Chrissy Bowser found her freedom as the Civil War rocked Roanoke Island, and Irene Tate watched the Wright brothers assemble their glider in her front yard then went on to become a record-setting pilot herself. The women in this book fought for their homes. They stepped outside the traditional roles of their day and age, seeking to preserve its history and heritage. They saved sand dunes and moved lighthouses.

Local author Hannah West tells the stories of these remarkable women.

Oakwood Cemetery evolved from a final resting place for Confederate soldiers to a modern "cemetery full of life," reflecting over 150 years of the remarkable history of Raleigh, North Carolina. Many of the men and women who lived that history and developed this Southern capital--from soldiers and politicians to educators and clergy, from merchants and craftsmen to social activists and laborers--now rest in Oakwood, memorialized in the monuments that grace this lovely garden cemetery. Their stories, illustrated by archival and modern photographs, are told within this volume.

Since December 1885, the wrought iron gates of Riverside Cemetery have welcomed both mourners and visitors alike. The garden-style cemetery overlooking the French Broad River is the final resting place of great American authors Thomas Wolfe and O. Henry, Civil War heroes, colorful politicians, and acclaimed artists and craftsmen. Around every bend of Riverside's winding roads, a new story is waiting to be told, from a deadly shoot-out in Pack Square, the sad ending of 18 German sailors who were prisoners during World War I, to a United States senator with a connection to the Hope Diamond fortune--and its curse. Asheville's Riverside Cemetery illustrates the history of the cemetery and the notable figures who rest within, telling their stories and giving glimpses of what one could hear if stones could talk.

This second collection of historic firefighting images covers 1940 through 1990, five formative decades for fire protection in North Carolina's capital county. During this period, the Raleigh Fire Department quadrupled in size, smaller municipal fire departments modernized, and rural fire departments formed to protect outlying areas. As populations increased and technology advanced, 20th century firefighters found their duties evolving from simple "smoke eating" to include emergency medical services, rescue and extrication, and hazardous-materials training.

Raleigh and Wake County Firefighting, Volume II, depicts fires, fire equipment, and firefighters in over 200 images culled from newspapers, archives, and personal collections. Included in this second volume are rare, early photographs of the Six Forks Road, Western Boulevard, and Wake Forest #2 fire departments.

Located in the rural northeastern part of North Carolina, Somerset was cumulatively home to more than 800 enslaved blacks and four generations of a planter family.

When the institution of slavery ended in 1865, Somerset Place was the third largest plantation in North Carolina. During the 80 years that Somerset was an active plantation, hundreds of acres were farmed for rice, corn, oats, wheat, peas, beans, and flax. Today, Somerset Place is preserved as a state historic site offering a realistic view of what it was like for the slaves and freemen who once lived and worked on the plantation, once one of the Upper South's most prosperous enterprises.

Historic First Presbyterian Church Cemetery was established in 1831 and over time has survived vandalism, storms, an earthquake, and threats of removal. It is a lasting remembrance to the early citizens of Greensboro who carved a city out of the wilderness. Originally the cemetery was located on the edge of town, but because of Greensboro's growth, it is now nestled in the center of the cultural district behind the Greensboro Historical Museum. Those buried in the cemetery are from all walks of life-from wealthy to poor, those with doctorate degrees to the illiterate, the famous to those whose names are lost for all time, the newborn to the centenarian, the saint to the sinner, and the slave owner to the abolitionist. The early builders of the city and state and veterans of four wars now rest in the First Presbyterian Church Cemetery.