Book excerpt: In the early twentieth century, Winston-Salem was hailed as the "town of a hundred millionaires." Booming tobacco and textile manufacturing industries converged to make Winston-Salem the largest and richest city in all of North Carolina, and major architects flocked to the area to design for its newly wealthy clientele. Ambitious commercial buildings and gracious suburban estates abounded, hosting generations of families that shaped the economic future of the country. Great Houses and Their Stories explores Winston-Salem's finest residential architecture from that era--its spacious mansions, palatial gardens, and even working farms--and delves deeply into the stories of the people who lived and worked in those historic buildings. This is a book for the preservationists, history buffs, and architecture lovers of the world and for the Winston-Salem residents who have always wondered about the abundance of green-roofed mansions still surviving in their city, even as similar pockets of early 20th century architecture throughout the country have been lost to time. Author Margaret Supplee Smith, Ph.D., and photographer Jackson Smith tell the rich histories of more than 75 great houses through beautiful new photography, historic photographs, personal narratives, and oral histories. Through diligent research of historical records and interviews with residents and local historians, they've uncovered fascinating stories about the families whose fortunes shaped neighborhoods like Buena Vista, West Highlands, and Reynolda Park. By publishing this book, Preservation North Carolina hopes to advance the preservation of Winston-Salem's rich architectural legacy, which is highly threatened by demolition and overdevelopment.