Southern Reverie

12/19/2023

The award for our favorite place to stay in Durham, North Carolina, goes out with ❤️ to… the beautiful Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club. We started our Durham visit with Christmas by Candlelight at the Duke Homestead and closed it out at the prestigious hotel named for Washington Duke, the same gentleman who returned from the Civil War in 1865 and turned a to***co barn, mule, and fifty cents (at the Duke Homestead) into a family business that would later become one of the largest corporations in the country at the time, the American To***co Company.
 
In 1891, after achieving financial success, Washington Duke’s life became about philanthropy and seeking ways to serve the community. He passed on this commitment to his family, and it is, without a doubt, the Duke family’s greatest legacy. This community focus led him to bring Trinity College to Durham and become its foremost benefactor. In 1924, his son James created the Duke Endowment, and Trinity College became Duke University in honor of Washington Duke.
 
The hotel has many personal touches from the family, including artifacts, photographs, and the Duke Family’s coat of arms in the Inn’s logo. It incorporates themes important to the family and the Inn, such as leadership, vigilance, justice, and honor.
 
But it’s not just us awarding the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club with top honors. The hotel has received a AAA Four Diamond rating for fifteen consecutive years. Additional awards include TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Award, U.S. News Best Hotels in North Carolina Award, and No. 1 College Hotel by CollegeRank.net.
 
We’re giving them the Southern Reverie Award because, from the minute we arrived on the property, we were greeted with warmth, hospitality, and top-level care. Our suite was outstanding, with every amenity we could imagine. Cocktails in the Bull Durham Bar were creative and delicious, and dinner was the perfect end to the day. The best part of our stay was wandering around the property inside and out and experiencing the relaxed elegance. With only a short drive from downtown Durham’s shopping, restaurants, and entertainment, we can’t wait to return on our next visit to the Bull City!

12/18/2023

One of our favorite places in Durham, North Carolina, is the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. Stunning (and open) year-round, the gardens have a mission for learning, inspiration, and enjoyment through excellence in horticulture and community engagement. Located in the heart of Duke University, the gardens include approximately 55 acres of landscaped and wooded areas, with numerous walkways, paths, and green spaces for soaking it all in.

The gardens are a memorial to Sarah Pearson Angier Duke, wife of Benjamin N. Duke ( primary benefactor of Duke University and the founder of Duke Energy), and mother to Mary Duke Biddle (philanthropist and founder of the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation). This area on the Duke University campus didn’t start out as a garden but was originally planned as a large lake. When plans fell through, Sarah P. Duke gave $20,000 (almost $500,000 today) to finance the planting of flowers in the area. The idea came from Sarah’s friend and original faculty member of Duke Medical School, Dr. Frederic M. Hanes who deeply loved gardening and had a vision for a public garden at the center of the university campus.

By 1935, thousands of flower beds graced the lawns but then fell into decline due to flooding issues. Mary Duke Biddle financed a new garden on higher ground as a memorial to her mother. The designer chosen for the new garden was Ellen Biddle Shipman, a pioneer in American landscape design. The new garden was known as the Terraces, in the Italianate style. Many consider the Sarah P. Duke Gardens to be Shipman’s greatest work and a national architectural treasure. It is one of the only remaining gardens that she designed. The Sarah P. Duke Gardens have been serving the Durham communities since 1939.

Today the gardens feature four distinct areas: the original Terraces and Historic Gardens, the W.L. Culberson Asiatic Arboretum, the Doris Duke Center Gardens, and the Charlotte Brody Discovery Garden.

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12/18/2023

Beaufort, South Carolina
Photography Credit: Instagram - Old Places

12/18/2023

12/18/2023

12/17/2023

Help us save the 1808 Nathaniel Russell House

HCF: PAUSE your PLAN to sell the Nathaniel Russell House

12/14/2023

The Duke University Chapel in Durham, NC, has become a symbol of the university. This was our first time visiting, and it rises up majestically from the campus as the “great towering church” that James B. Duke envisioned. The Duke family were Methodist, but the Chapel has always been open to all people of all denominations for their own personal moments and reflection. The magnificent structure was always part of the Duke University campus plan as the centerpiece of the original buildings, but it was the last to be built. At 210 feet tall and with seating for 1800, it is one of the tallest buildings in Durham County and one of the tallest university chapels in the world.

Construction began in 1930 and took more than two years to complete. The Collegiate Gothic style Chapel is not modeled on any other building. Julian Abele, Chief Designer for Horace Trumbauer of Philadelphia and America’s first well-known Black architect, designed the Chapel and much of Duke’s west campus. At the time he was required by law to include segregated facilities in the building for black and white employees which are seen on his original drawings. Thirty-one years after the Chapel was completed, the first undergraduate Black students enrolled in September 1963. The movement for desegregating Duke had begun in 1948 with a petition by the Divinity School.

A Memorial Chapel was added later by the Duke Memorial Association, where the university’s benefactors, Washington Duke and his two sons, James B. Duke and Benjamin N. Duke. Several important people from Duke University’s history are interred directly beneath the Memorial Chaple in the Crypt, including three past presidents of the university and some of the Duke family.

12/08/2023

Tubas, tubas, beautiful tubas!

We had the pleasure of visiting the Vincent and Ethel Simonetti Historic Tuba Collection in Durham, North Carolina. Even better, we were able to meet Vincent and Ethel. With 310+ instruments, the Collection is the largest privately held tuba museum in the world! Seeing the tubas displayed and learning about the instrument’s history is truly a one-of-a-kind experience, only exceeded by the way Vincent’s eyes light up when he talks about the Collection and his own experiences playing the tuba. He LOVES tubas! And, well, that kind of passion is contagious. So, by the end of the tour, we LOVE tubas too!

During Vincent’s informative tour, you get the opportunity to see and learn about a cross-section of the history and development of the various members of the tuba family from around 1830 to the present. Collecting tubas began with a beautiful Cerveny helicon from 1910 which Vincent found in Boston in 1965. At the time he was playing in the orchestra for the North American tour of the Russian folk ballet troop, the Moyseev Ballet Company.

Vincent and Ethel have been business owners and partners in Durham since 1984, previously owning and operating The Tuba Exchange. The V&E Simonetti Historic Tuba Collection is open to the public from 2-5 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tours include an overview of the history of the tuba family and information about the Collection. Follow them at on IG and Facebook.

Thank you Vincent and Ethel, for your hospitality and sharing your Collection with us! Special thanks to Victoria from for arranging the experience and joining us on the tour!

Stories like this are why we do what we do. ❤️

12/08/2023

So why is Durham, North Carolina, called the Bull City? Why is there a bull statue in downtown? And… do the two have anything to do with each other?

One of the most iconic attractions in Durham, North Carolina is the bull statue in CCB Plaza (Central Carolina Bank Plaza). The bull’s name is Major, and he was given to the citizens of Durham through a grant from the Central Carolina Bank in memory of George Watts Hill. Mr. Hill was the bank’s President and Chairman of the Board for more than 61 years and was a business leader, philanthropist, and avid supporter of the community and the arts in Durham.

However, Durham was nicknamed the “Bull City” long before Major existed. In the late 1800s, Blackwell To***co Company named its product “Bull” Durham To***co, and the name just kind of stuck. When they were thinking of what statue to honor Mr. Hill with, this history and nickname may have influenced the design.

CCB Plaza is a gathering place for the Durham community and regularly hosts concerts, markets, art fairs, and festivals. The Hill Building is a prominent historic building right behind Major the Bull. It was built on the former post office site in 1936 and was designed by Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon (architects for the Empire State Building and Winston Salem’s RJ Reynolds Building).

12/07/2023

By April 17, 1865 the Bennett family, rural North Carolina farmers, had lost two sons and a son-in-law to a war that brought Joseph E. Johnston and William T. Sherman to their doorstep to broker peace and ultimately the largest surrender of the Confederate army in the American Civil War.

The trees around the old home stand in place today, rooted where they were as the family waited nearby on the two occasions the men used their home for this historic event.

The surrender agreement ended the war for 89,270 soldiers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

Like so many others, the Bennett family never fully recovered from the war and James Bennett died a few years later. The farm was abandoned and fell into ruin. In 1923 a Unity monument was dedicated on the site. Among the many contributors to the preservation of this historic landmark were the Duke, Everett, and Morgan families.

The Bennett Place State Historic Site in Durham, North. Carolina is owned by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and open to the public.

12/06/2023

Before it was on the big screen in the movie Bull Durham, The Manning House had its own prominent history. Built in 1880 the home has both local and national historical status. James S. Manning, who built the home, was a well known Durham resident as an attorney and judge, later a state senator and eventually North Carolina’s attorney general. He and his family remained in the home until 1912, then the house changed owners several times, eventually becoming vacant.

In 1986, Director Ron Shelton was scouting locations for the film Bull Durham and identified the vacant home as the home of Annie Savoy, played by Susan Sarandon. It is now often refer to as the Bull Durham House.

The Manning house is less than a mile from the Durham Bulls stadium where the team played in the 1980s and where much of the film was made.

12/04/2023

One of our favorite buildings and preservation stories in Durham, North Carolina is The Durham Hotel. This 1968 beauty is a mid-century style marvel and the 2015 renovations into a boutique hotel transformed what was formerly the headquarters of the Home Savings and Loan Association into a stylish gathering place for travelers and the community.

Every time we passed through the lobby coffee bar and restaurant or the rooftop lounge, they were filled with locals enjoying the laid back, community oriented vibe you feel throughout the Bull City.

We especially loved the local goods available in the rooms and for purchase, the freshly ground coffee service brought to your door each morning, and the fun holiday-themed cocktail menu available at the rooftop lounge or in the restaurant.🎄

Thank you for hosting us in Durham, ❤️

11/18/2023

The Northampton Hotel in Cape Charles, Virginia, was built in the early 1900s and underwent a three-year renovation which was completed in 2018. Today the boutique hotel is beautifully revived with a vintage-modern feel, lovely rooms and common areas, and a restaurant that can’t be missed for brunch and brunch libations. Take in the sea breezes from the front porch before exploring all Cape Charles has to offer.

We love historical rescue and renovation stories like this and applaud the Walker/Humphrey family of the Eastern Shore of VA. They, along with the help of architectural firm The Patina Group of Richmond, VA, had a vision to bring this beautiful property back to life and restore one of the finest historical buildings in Cape Charles.

So, what’s the story of this beautiful property? Richard Dallam Lee (R.D.L.) Fletcher and his wife, Elise Marie Evans Fletcher built the home which is now the Northampton Hotel in Cape Charles in 1904. Fletcher served as President of the Cape Charles Bank. The Cape Charles Ice and Lumber Company was organized in 1887 and owned by R.D.L. along with W. B. Wilson and J. W. Waples. At the time it was the largest dealer in lumber, building materials, ship chandlery, ice and coal, hardware, etc., in the country.

Mr. Fletcher died suddenly of heart failure on January 11, 1937. The home was then sold, the west wing was added, and it opened as the Northampton Hotel in 1938. A newspaper at the time boasted that the hotel had 30 rooms, all with running water and 13 with private baths. But not much is known about the hotel from the 1950s until today. It was bought a couple of times with good intentions to restore it but mostly sat unused deteriorating in the ocean air.

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More info at www.thenorthampton.com

11/05/2023

We visited Smith Island, Maryland recently and heard that the locals had planned an all-island event to celebrate Halloween. From the sound of it, the whole island was participating, with over 30 Smith Island Cakes being made, costumes in the works, and family members coming in from the mainland to join in. There's a feeling on this small island that everyone is kinfolk in one way or another and they contribute to not only keeping the island functioning but also holding the line for each other as they have done for centuries.

Their isolation is a point of pride because they have learned how to navigate it into their bond to the land, the history, and each other. Knowing we couldn't stay for the event because we had a ferry back to Crisfield, we got the distinct feeling of missing out -- not only on the event but some sense of belonging they've got innately that we struggle for on the "mainland."

The community of Smith Island is in the fight of their lives for the preservation of their shoreline and marshlands. The residents are taking steps to protect their island's natural beauty for future generations. They need our help.

The stories of all the people who have called Smith Island home for over 300 years are the life of this place, and nothing can take that, not the rising seas or the faster pace of the outside world. Living on Smith Island means being part of a community that values connection, resilience, and a shared purpose, where people make 30 Smith Island cakes for their Halloween celebration, and everyone shows up when someone says I need help. There's hope in that.

READ MORE at the link in our bio about Smith Island’s history, community, and cake!

11/01/2023

The Assateague Lighthouse in Chincoteague, Virginia was built in 1867. Standing at 142 feet tall, the lighthouse replaced a shorter one built in 1833. It is still in use and is protected as part of the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. The historic lighthouse is a beacon of safety over Assateague Island. It continues to keep ships safe but now shines with a powerful electronically powered light – two 1000-watt lamps that double flash every five seconds.

The original oil Fresnel lens can be viewed at the Museum of Chincoteague Island. We were lucky enough to be able to join a tour hosted by the museum, which included a climb to the top. Typically, the lighthouse is only open for public climbs on Saturdays during the summer.

The distinctive red and white stripes were added in the 1960s and make the lighthouse highly visible on land and sea. There are 175 steps to get to the top, which, in earlier years, the lighthouse keeper would have had to climb numerous times a day with two five-gallon cans of oil to keep the light burning.

10/28/2023

At the southern tip of Virginia’s Eastern Shore is Cape Charles, named by English colonists who arrived in 1607. They honored the cape after the younger son of King James I. The area remained farmland and wetlands until 1883 when the heirs of Governor Littleton Waller Tazewell sold 2,500 acres to the creators of the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad.

Cape Charles, the city, was officially incorporated in 1886 after they subdivided 136 acres of the property into 644 equal lots to sell. The plan was to develop Cape Charles as the endpoint of the new railroad. The track was completed through the town to the shoreline on October 25, 1884.

The city is laid out with a street grid platted as a rectangular grid, originally six east-west avenues with the names of political leaders in Virginia, including Governor Tazewell. The six north-south streets were named after trees.

Called “The Best Little Beach Town in Virginia” by this seaside community is experiencing a surge in popularity as it has evolved from economic hub fed by the railroad and fishing industry to a desirable destination for shopping, dining, and recreation.

Through it all Cape Charles has maintained its friendly small town sensibilities and that’s perhaps the biggest draw. Most of the businesses are family and locally owned and the vibe is authentically laid-back and welcoming.

10/14/2023

The Jekyll Island Club (now known as the Jekyll Island Club Resort) in Georgia dates to 1886, when members of a hunting and recreational club purchased the island for $125,000 by selling 100 shares of the Jekyll Island Club stock to 50 people at $600 a share. The original section of Jekyll Island Clubhouse, including its signature turret, was completed in January 1888. Members of the club included affluent family names like Morgan, Pulitzer, Rockefeller, and Vanderbilt.

The club closed in 1942 following a decline from the Great Depression and two world wars. It remained closed for five years until the state of Georgia purchased it in 1947 from the original members for $675,000 during condemnation proceedings. Georgia attempted to run it as a resort but closed it in 1971. However, it remained protected and was designated a historic landmark in 1978. It was restored and reopened as a luxury resort hotel in 1986 and is now a member of Historic Hotels of America.

In 1915 the first transcontinental telephone call was made during the Club era of Jekyll Island by Theodore N. Vail, president of AT&T to Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas A. Watson, and President Woodrow Wilson. It was also the location of a historic meeting in November 1910 in which draft legislation was written to create a central banking system for the United States following the Panic of 1907.

What started as a hunting club quickly became a recreational, and more family-oriented, club. It was very popular with the elite who enjoyed the highly exclusive character of the club for sixty years.

10/06/2023

The Northington-Beach House in Clarksville, Tennessee was built in 1886 for Michael C. Northington, a to***co merchant who served as the mayor or Clarskville from 1906 to 1910. In 1925, the Italianate house was purchased by Oscar Beach, the founder of the Pan-American Oil Company. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

09/27/2023

Let’s explore Clarksville, Tennessee, starting with the Johnson-Hatch House, an 1877 Italianate historic home.

The Johnson-Hach House was built for Polk Grundy Johnson, the son of Congressman Cave Johnson. It was purchased in 1917 by Adolph Hach, a German-born businessman who invested in to***co production. The house remained in the Hach family until 1992. It is now privately owned and listed on the National Register of Historical Places.

09/13/2023

Sometimes a historic home, site, or story is worth a diversion. This one too us to historic Helena, Arkansas and The Jerome Bonaparte Pillow House (also called the Thompson-Pillow House).

Designed by Architect George Barber, it was built by Jerome B. and Jane Pillow in 1896. Five generations of Pillow descendants lived in the home until 1992.

The building was donated to the Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas Foundation who along with members of the community restored it to its original Queen Anne beauty. The Thompson-Pillow House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

08/31/2023

Swan House in Atlanta, Georgia, was built in 1928 for Edward and Emily Inman. It is now part of the incredible Atlanta History Center, which includes 33 acres of historic houses, gardens, and exhibitions. We consider this one of the top things to do in the Atlanta area, and you can easily spend a whole day enjoying the history center and exploring/dining in the Buckhead neighborhood.

Designed by Philip T. Shutze, the Swan House was featured in The Hunger Games and has often been described as “eclectic” since it features several different architectural styles, including Italian and English classical styles. Schutze is widely regarded as one of Atlanta’s best-known architects. He is credited with naming the home based on the motif of swans present throughout the interior. Many consider Swan House his finest residential work.

Edward and Emily Inman were affluent heirs to a cotton fortune amassed post-Civil War, and the Inman family is known for contributing to the rebuilding of Atlanta after the destruction war. The Inman family moved into Swan House in 1928, a year before the Great Depression began. Edward Inman died suddenly, only three years after moving in at only 49 years old. Emily lived there until she passed away at age 84 in 1965. The Atlanta Historical Society purchased the home in 1966, and it opened as a house museum in 1967. The home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

07/29/2023

Elvis Aaron Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, on January 8, 1935. We visited the historic museum in Tupelo where you can walk into the actual two-room house where he came into this world. His identical twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley was delivered stillborn thirty-five minutes before him. His parents, Vernon Elvis Presley and Gladys Love Presley were only 19 and 23 at the time.

The Elvis Presley Birthplace Museum is listed on the Mississippi Blues Trail and includes the house, a museum building, a chapel, and the Assembly of God Church building where the Presley family worshipped.

Vernon borrowed $180 from his employer to build the home and constructed it along with his own father and brother. At the time it would not have had electricity or running water. However, he could not pay the loan back, and after only a couple of years, the family was forced to move in with Vernon’s parents who lived next door. Vernon and Gladys worked various jobs around Tupelo, and the family lived in several homes around the city including in some predominantly black neighborhoods where Elvis first encountered R&B and blues music. He received his first guitar from Tupelo Hardware, still in operation today.

Legend has it that in 1957 Elvis was in Tupelo, Mississippi, for a benefit concert and visited the small house where he was born and asked the city to use the funds from his show at the local fairgrounds to develop the property into a park for the neighborhood. This area of town would have been considered undesirable when Elvis was born here, but today is park-like and peaceful.

07/07/2023

The Blount Street Historic District in Raleigh, North Carolina was developed between the 1870s and the 1920s. The once-rural area became one of the city’s finest neighborhoods with large, luxurious homes built there in a variety of styles including Queen Anne, Second Empire, and Italianate.

The Heck-Andrews house (first photo) was one of the first to be built on the street. This gorgeous Second Empire-style home set the tone for the fashionable street of homes built by railroad executives, bankers, merchants, and industrialists.

In 1883 the state made the decision to build the Executive Mansion on Blount Street and it is still where the NC Governors reside. Prisoners from the state penitentiary were used to construct the house using bricks they formed by hand. The brick sidewalks around the mansion were also hand-made by them, many inscribed with their names. The home was completed in 1891.

Here are eight of the Blount Street homes, in order as shown in photos:

07/06/2023

07/06/2023

Called Lamar Hall, this beautiful 1896 Victorian perhaps should be called Matthew Brown Hall after the Raleigh, NC teacher, historian, and author who lovingly restored the historic structure to its former glory. It’s impossible not to notice the stunning home on Person Street in the Historic Oakwood neighborhood. Brown is a long-standing Society for the Preservation of Historic Oakwood member and has been passionate about historic buildings since childhood. Who better to save this Queen Anne-style beauty?

Lamar Hall was near complete ruin after changing ownership several times. The state of NC had purchased it in a plan to turn several historic homes into offices but never did. You might say Brown stalked the home; his desire to restore it so strong that he went to admirable lengths, lobbying the government for years and even making signs asking the Governor to sell him this house which he would place in front of the home during the night.

Brown’s efforts won out, and the story ended joyfully. You can read more about Lamar Hall and its dedicated advocate Matthew Brown, and see some incredible photos of the interior at: waltermagazine.com/home/history-to-the-max-inside-matthew-browns-victorian-estate/

07/01/2023

The Nathaniel-Russell House in Charleston, SC was built in 1808 and was purchased by The Historic Charleston Foundation in 1955. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Here’s why:

⚫️ Nathaniel Russell was born in Connecticut, established himself in Rhode Island, then relocated in 1765 to Charleston where he utilized his vast connections in the North to become one of the wealthiest merchants and slave traders in Charleston. At fifty he married Sarah Hopton, daughter of an affluent Charleston family. They had two daughters. The four of them moved into the house in the Spring of 1808 along with 18 enslaved women and men. The rooms you see in the self-guided tour represent all of their lives, the bricks themselves laid by skillful enslaved artisans.

⚫️ The Historic Charleston Foundation has done extensive study on the areas inhabited by the enslaved people which includes the kitchen house and upper floor where 18 people resided together between 1808-1865. These studies have uncovered details of their daily life by removing years of renovations, opening up walls, and even studying centuries old rats nests made from tiny, preserved pieces of the early 1800s.

⚫️ The post-Revolutionary house is architecturally significant and recognized as one of America’s most important neoclassical homes. It is an excellent example of the Adam style of architecture, the light and airy manner made popular by Robert Adam. The house has been called an exercise in ellipses, from its free-flying stairway to the wrought iron balconies, to the principal windows and doors, there is an expression of movement.

06/28/2023

The oldest purveyor of spirits in continuous operation in the United States has been operating since 1686 in Charleston, SC. We’ll let Skip Evans with Walking Charleston tell you all about it, and we’ll tell you about Skip. ❤️

With a city as rich with history as Charleston, South Carolina, it is a great idea to have a guide. There is none better than Skip Evans with Walking Charleston! Skip was raised in Charleston and is one of five generations born there. He is also one of four generations to graduate from The Citadel. Skip was a high school history teacher, United States Air Force Pilot, and commercial airline Captain.

There are a few exceptional things about Skip’s tours:

➕You can feel his deeply rooted love for his city and Charleston’s history. The “local” comes out in the stories he tells not only about the history of Charleston but also about the living, breathing city it is today.

➕ He is a Certified Licensed City Tour Guide (the research and study he has done shows!), and is a member of the Historic Charleston Foundation, the South Carolina Historical Society, and the Charleston Tour Association.

➕ Skip’s tours are not overcrowded, rehearsed, or the same every time. He works with boutique hotels in the city ( we were staying at The Spectator Hotel ) and will pick you up there for your walking tour. His tours are purposeful, personal, and packed with many inside details from someone uniquely qualified to tell you about his city. We even met one of his childhood friends (more about that in another post) and saw the home he grew up in.

The Tavern at Rainbow Row