Book excerpt: "Douglas Frey is an architectural historian ... He recounts scholarly details about the houses and their architectural styles, but also offers a portrait of the earlier residents and the ideas and values that shaped their lives. The house histories, and the human stories they tell, are grouped chronologically ... Antebellum Heritage (1838-1851), Victorian Splendor (1867-1895), and Eclectic Revival (1899-1949)." From the bookjacket.