Rivers State Prison: One Building, Three Very Different Lives

Front entrance of the abandoned Rivers State Prison building at the historic Central State Hospital campus in Milledgeville, Georgia.

Some places seem destined for a single purpose. A school is built to educate. A courthouse is built to deliver justice. A hospital is built to heal. Then there are places like Rivers State Prison. What began as a hospital dedicated to treating one of America’s deadliest diseases eventually became a prison, only to spend … Read more

Florida’s Secret Time Capsule Village: Walking Through Barberville Pioneer Settlement

Historic Barberville Central High School building at Barberville Pioneer Settlement in Florida beneath a bright blue sky with large white clouds and an old school bell in the foreground.

There are places that feel preserved. And then there are places that feel rescued. The road into Barberville Pioneer Settlement narrows beneath sprawling live oaks draped in Spanish moss, the kind of old Florida canopy that makes the world feel quieter before you even arrive. The modern world slowly slips into the rearview mirror. Traffic … Read more

Where Blood Became Memory: Visiting Fort Matanzas National Monument

Fort Matanzas National Monument viewed from the ferry crossing Matanzas Inlet near St. Augustine, Florida.

There are some places you plan carefully for. And then there are the places that seem determined to make you work for them. Fort Matanzas fell firmly into the second category. A few months before this visit, my son and I were heading north on our Washington D.C. road trip. Fort Matanzas was supposed to … Read more

The Secret History & Scandal of Howell School

Historic Howell School building in Dothan, Alabama, a restored early-1900s Neoclassical brick school now converted into senior apartments

Dothan, Alabama Some stops are planned weeks in advance.Others happen because you’re early, the doors aren’t open yet, and curiosity refuses to sit quietly in the passenger seat. Howell School was one of those stops. We found ourselves wandering near downtown Dothan while waiting for the Visitor’s Center to open. From the outside, Howell School … Read more