QUIET AND PICTURESQUE cotton fields and gardens, fishing villages, and the sea-swept beaches of the Outer Banks fill the scenic still life of North Carolina’s northeast corner. Enjoy an education and fresh seafood at villages redolent of pre-Revolutionary times and visit the beach where the Wright Brothers first successfully launched their aircraft in 1903. Or attempt to solve the mystery of Roanoke Island’s ill-fated "Lost Colony" of 1587. The tour begins in Greenville.

GREENVILLE, ROBERSONVILLE, AND WILLIAMSTON

Music fills the summer air during "Sunday in the Park" concerts at Greenville’s town common on the banks of the Tar River. View North Carolina’s famous local pottery at the Museum of Art, then head outdoors to the East Carolina Village of Yesteryear’s 19 preserved buildings dating from 1840 to 1940. For a history lesson on Williamston and Martin County, pay a visit to the Federal-style Asa Biggs House, circa 1831. Tour the Morningstar Nature Refuge, home to trails and an observation tower. The refuge’s trails and facilities are open by appointment. Greenville-Pitt County Convention & Visitors Bureau, and East Carolina Village of Yesteryear, (800) 537-5564, www.visitgreenvillenc.com. Sunday in the Park, (252) 329-4567. Greenville Museum of Art, (252) 758-1946. Martin County Travel & Tourism and Asa Biggs House, (800) 776-8566, visitmartincounty.com. Morningstar Nature Refuge, (252) 792-7788.

WINDSOR, EDENTON, AND HERTFORD

Windsor is home to North Carolina’s answer to Britain’s Windsor Castle: This Windsor Castle was built circa 1858 and joins the circa 1803 Hope Plantation in the local historic home lineup. The Hope Plantation is home to three dwellings: the former residence of Governor David Stone; the 1763 King-Bazemore House; and the Samuel Cox House (a farmhouse which was built around 1800 and moved to the plantation in 1970). Also at the plantation, the history of local Native American and African-American populations is the focus at the Roanoke-Chowan Heritage Center. The Roanoke/Cashie River

Center is a pristine look at what the region was like before it was settled. The park’s observation deck and boardwalk trail provide an observation point of the area’s natural wetlands. Nearby, one of the nation’s last two-car inland river ferries, the San Souci Ferry, crosses the Cashie River for a free, four-minute ride initiated by honking your car horn at one side of the banks. Gardeners will enjoy Edenton, the setting of the Edenton Tea Party–a boycott of the East India Tea Company’s products by Colonial townswomen. Ideal for plant lovers, the 1758 Cupola House and its Colonial Revival garden heirloom plantings set an historic mood, putting visitors into the Colonial spirit. In Hertford, visit the state’s oldest brick house: the Newbold-White House, built in 1730.

Historic Hope Plantation, (252) 794-3140. Windsor Area Chamber of Commerce, (252) 794-4277. Roanoke/Cashie River Center, (252) 794-2001. Historic Edenton, (800) 775-0111. The Newbold-White House, (252) 426-7567.

ELIZABETH CITY

Founded in 1757 on the Albemarle Sound, Elizabeth City is home to five districts on the National Register of Historic Places, including the largest grouping of antebellum commercial buildings in the state. The Museum of the Albemarle covers history, art, and artifacts of the region. Pick up locally produced artworks at the Pasquotank Arts Council Gallery and Shop.

Elizabeth City Area Chamber of Commerce and Mariners’ Wharf, (252) 335-4365. Historic Neighborhood Association, (888) 936-7387. Museum of the Albemarle, (252) 335-1453. Pasquotank Arts Council Gallery, (252) 338-6455.

OUTER BANKS: KITTY HAWK, KILL DEVIL HILLS AND NAGS HEAD

The Outer Banks of North Carolina, home to the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, boasts some of the nation’s most lovely and historical sandy strips. Preview the region at the Aycock Brown Welcome Center. For the adventurous, Kitty Hawk Kites offers beginner and advanced programs in hang-gliding (solo flights rise no higher than 5 feet to 15 feet above the sand dunes). Pay your respects to true daredevils at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills. Reconstructed buildings replicate the site of the first flight on December 17, 1903. The 150-foot Bodie Island Lighthouse has warned ships off Nags Head since 1847 and now features exhibits and a shop in its Keeper’s Quarters. Climb the 140-foot sand dune at Jockey’s Ridge State Park and be rewarded with a spectacular view of the surrounding islands and ocean.

Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, (800) 446-6262, www.outerbanks.org. Kitty Hawk Kites, (800) 334-4777. Wright Brothers National Memorial, (252) 441-7430. Bodie Island Lighthouse, (252) 441-5711. Jockey’s Ridge State Park, (252) 441-7132.

MANTEO, ROANOKE ISLAND

Manteo, on Roanoke Island, was home to the 1587 English colony of 116 people who mysteriously vanished, a puzzle that remains unsolved to this day. The town, intended to be Sir Walter Raleigh’s "The Cittie of Raleigh," is today home to the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site with a restored fort, a re-created furnished gatehouse in the style of a 16th-century orangerie, and lingering questions about what happened to the original inhabitants. Catch the Waterside Theater’s summer production of The Lost Colony, directed this year by Broadway star Terrence Mann. The musical by Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Green first opened in 1937, making the play the oldest outdoor theater production in the nation. Then visit the 10-acre Elizabethan Gardens, a living memorial to the lost settlers. Designed in 16th-century style, it features a fountain, statuary, native plantings, and a gazebo. Also, enjoy living history interpretations, offered during the summer, aboard the Queen Elizabeth II, a 69-foot replica of a 16th-century square-rigged sailing ship, which represents the ships used by Sir Walter Raleigh to transport settlers to the New World. The boat and an information center can be toured year round. The island is also home to a large summer arts festival. For a glimpse into the region’s aquatic history, the North Carolina Aquarium features the creatures of the state’s rivers, marshes, and reefs.

Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, (252) 475-1500. Waterside Theater, (252) 473-3414. The Elizabeth II, (252) 473-1144. North Carolina Aquarium, (252) 473-3493.

ENGELHARD AND BELHAVEN

A scenic drive from Roanoke Island to Belhaven passes through the fishing village of Engelhard, settled about 1650, where commercial fish and shrimp boats anchor in its picturesque harbor on the Pamlico Sound. Six miles further down the road is the hamlet of Lake Landing set on Lake Mattamuskeet with an historic district beginning about three miles west of Engelhard. The houses and other structures date to the early 1800s. Stop by the Belhaven Memorial Museum to see Eva Blount Way’s eclectic collection. Currently housed in the top floor of Belhaven’s town hail, the late 19th-, early 20th-century display started as a button collection and expanded to include early American kitchenware and off-beat items ranging from a button collection and Civil War memorabilia to a flea circus and an eight-legged pig. Initially put on display as a World War II fund-raising effort, the exhibit has become a local curiosity that attracts fans of the weird and wonderful.

Hyde County Chamber of Commerce, (888) 493-3826. Belhaven Memorial Museum, (252) 943-6817.

DINING, SHOPPING, STAYING ALONG THE WAY

GREENVILLE: Woodside Antiques (252) 756-9929 Now and Then Designs, (252) 756-8470.

WINDSOR: Bunn’s Barbecue (252) 794-2274 King Street Bed & Breakfast (252) 794-2255.

EDENTON: Captains Quarters Inn (800) 482-8945 or (252) 482-8945 ELIZABETH CITY: Colonial Restaurant: (252) 335-0212 Cypress Creek Grill (252) 334-9915 Culpepper Inn: (252) 335-1993. Mama Kwans (252) 441-7889. NAGS READ: First Colony Inn: (800) 368-9390. MANTEO, ROANOKE ISLAND: Trapquil-House Inn: (800) 458-7069 Roanoke Island Inn (252) 473-5511; seasonal opens April Anna Livia’s Restaurant: (252) 473-3753

TAKING THE TRIP: From GREENVILLE take Route 13 for 3 miles to Route 903 and travel 16 miles to ROBERSONVILLE Drive in miles on Route 64A to WILLIAMSTON Take Route 17 for 18 miles to WINDSOR 23 miles to EDENTON 13 miles to HERTFORD and 16 miles to ELIZABETH CITY On Route 158 drive 49 miles to KITTY HAWK. Take Route 158.5 miles to KILL DEVIL HILLS 4 miles to NAGS HEAD, and 10 miles to MANTEO ROANOKE ISLAND, Follow Route 264 for 48 miles to ENGELHARD then 47 miles to BELHAVEN.

When Rives and John Houser discovered Thomasville, they found a charming community with beautiful old homes and a penchant for preservation.

During the late 1800s, Thomasville was a world apart from most other Southern rural towns. Touted as "the best winter resort in three continents" by Harper’s pace of big-city life. Traveling from Chicago, Boston, Weekly magazine, it served as a mecca for wealthy northerners seeking to escape the chill of winter and and points in between, visitors arrived by rail to enjoy a sportsman’s paradise and a thriving community filled with stately plantations.

Thomasville’s days as a celebrated resort ended long ago, but very little has changed in the past 100 years. Handsome 19th-century homes edge shady, oak-lined streets, while the countryside serves as a renowned pleasure ground for quail and fox hunters. It was this old-fashioned gentility that attracted Rives and John Houser 20 years ago. The preservation-minded couple lived in Jacksonville, Florida, at the time, and discovered Thomasville while returning home from an opera performance in Atlanta.

"We came in, drove around, and found this house buried in trees," John recalls. A week later, the Housers surprised themselves by returning to the area and buying the Dillon House, an 1898 Classical Revival home in the Dawson Street historic district.

The Housers had fallen in love with the gracious proportions of the interior. Highlighting the floor plan is a massive central hail that opens to the primary living and entertaining areas. "It’s the widest hall in all of Thomas County" Rives claims. "They used to have little dinner dances in the hall, with music on the porches." The house wasn’t without problems, however. An old potbellied stove stood as an eyesore in the hail, and the exterior lacked architectural detail.

"The house was essentially a farmhouse," John says. "We liked the plan, but it was very plain." To offset the simplicity of the structure, the Housers dressed up the exterior with dentil molding and an elegant front door flanked by side lights. Though John is a civil trial lawyer by trade, he carved much of the woodwork that embellishes the interior of the home. "He’s a Renaissance man," Rives proudly explains. "He learned to carve, and he’s done all kinds of marvelous moldings."

Today, nobody would mistake the Dillon House for a modest farmhouse. Filled with the Housers’ outstanding collection of 18th-and 19th-century antiques, American paintings, and fox hunting memorabilia, it is a tribute to the town’s elegant style of living.

From 1870 through 1900, Thomasville reigned as an exclusive winter playground for some of the wealthiest people in the nation. They came to hunt, play golf, and soak in the natural beauty of a town nestled in the pine-filled woods of southwest Georgia. "B.F. Goodrich, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Alexander Graham Bell–you name them, and they wandered through here," says Tom Hill, curator of the Thomas County Museum of History.

Established in 1826, Thomasville plodded along as a sleepy little village for 40 years. But the town was blessed with several virtues that would put it on the map–a mild climate, the railroad, and a local doctor who wrote a pamphlet extolling the area as a health resort. People suffering with pulmonary ailments soon arrived to take in the pine-scented air, and pleasure seekers weren’t far behind. Between 1870 and 1900, a building boom produced 15 hotels and 25 boarding houses. "While the rest of the South was in abject poverty, we were having millions poured into the city," Hill explains.

The most remarkable fact about Thomasville is that its citizens welcomed northern tourists only five years after the Civil War ended. Tom Hill recounts the words of one local observer who attributed the town’s success to simple business acumen: "We soon found out that a Yankee was worth two bales of cotton, and twice as easy to pick."

The soil around Thomasville is among the richest in the country, and the area had long been a repository of grand cotton plantations. After the Civil War, however, the price of land plunged to $3 an acre–a bargain for tourists who were whiling away the, winter season in hotel rooms charging from $4 to $11 per night.

Wealthy industrialists of the time, including Ohio’s Howard Melville Hanna, snapped up acreage and transformed plantations into family retreats.

Thomasville’s days as a famous resort ended at the turn of the century, when Florida became a premier winter destination, but it has yet to lose its charm. In the 20th century townspeople hosted Dwight D. Eisenhower, who visited five times during his presidency and Jacqueline Kennedy, who spent six weeks at a local plantation following the assassination of her husband.

Today’s visitors stroll through the restored downtown area and take leisurely drives through historic districts lined with 19th-century homes. Popular sites include Pebble Hill, a 3,000-acre property that served as a hunting plantation for the Hanna family, and a rose garden featuring more than 500 flowering plants.

TIME TRAVELS

When architect Allen Shumake first saw his Dawson Street bungalow, he assumed that it was a 19th-century house. It does feature quarter-sawn heart pine floors as well as mantels, doors, and windows from the antebellum period. "Even the framing of the house is 1850," Shumake says.

The bungalow was actually built around 1921 out of materials salvaged from an antebellum home. Honoring this history, Shumake and his wife, Gina, have furnished the interior with antiques from the 18th and 19th centuries, 1920s pieces, and modern-day reproductions crafted from heart pine.

CLASSICAL CHARM

Mercer Watt grew up in Virginia and, "always wanted to have a Virginia house." To create the atmosphere of the Old Dominion in Thomasville, Watt and her husband, Vance, turned to the late EdwardVason Jones, the renowned architect who created period rooms for the White House and the U.S. Department of State. Jones’s solution was to design a gracious Georgian home based on the late-8th-century William Finnie House at Colonial Williamsburg. He also aided the Watts in furnishing the interiors and selecting old longleaf pine for the doors and flooring.

MELHANA PLANTATION

Perhaps it’s fitting that the first screening of Gone With the Wind occurred on the grounds of Melhana Plantation–it is now a gracious inn that would have made Rhett and Scarlett feel right at home. Developed in the 1820s, Melhana was originally part of a much larger plantation that prospered before the Civil War. Its glory days, however, began in 1896, when Howard Melville Hanna purchased Melhana. The wealthy Ohio oilman expanded the main family residence and his son, Howard Melville Hanna, Jr., added Georgian Revival outbuildings to the property during the 1920s and 1930s. The Showboat movie theater built by the younger Hanna previewed Gone With the Wind because a wealthy area resident had helped finance the film.

In 1994, Charlie and Fran Lewis purchased 40 acres of the Hanna retreat and transformed the property into an inn. Today, guests can relax on the veranda, stroll manicured grounds shaded by live oaks and magnolias, or enjoy an afternoon of riding, tennis, or croquet. Gourmet Southern dinners are served at the inns Melhana’s Restaurant. Call (888) 920-3030 or (912) 226-2290. www.melhana.com.

While this home’s classic exterior reflects the rich history of its Bucks County, Pennsylvania, neighborhood, the owners weren’t afraid of adding a splash of color indoors. Interior designer Gregg Kiesel had a green light for a palette featuring brilliant yellow, cobalt blue, and periwinkle and the goal of tailoring the 10-year-old home for entertaining. "It had to be designed to be used," says Kiesel, who is based in New Hope. "Not only does this family entertain–a sit-down dinner for 50 as well as a wedding have been held here–but the house is home to a parrot, two dogs, and cats. It had to be user friendly, but we didn’t want it to look that way."

The setting is idyllic: 10 acres with a circular drive leading up to the house surrounded by a pond with swans, gardens, and a natural stone pool. For the living areas, Kiesel set about creating a space that flowed by uniting colors of the main-level family room, kitchen, dining room, living because we wanted an open floor plan. There is no red room, no blue. The concept was to keep it uniform so that guests were guided from a place to place and it was never a limiting space."

Once yellow was chosen for the walls, the challenge was to keep the color uniform without being boring. "In the main living areas we went with a blotted look, while in the kitchen and dining area is a strie–different yet united." Kiesel estimates it took about three months to find the perfect shades and treatments for the walls. "Once that was determined, the rest easily came into play." The basement level of the house supports the entertaining and inlcudes a professional-style prep kitchen and 5,000-bottle wine cellar, as well as an office and entertainment/exercise area. In addition to the master suite on the main level, there are four guest bedrooms on the second floor.

As Kiesel balanced the need for the home to be a showplace, he frequently refocused on its need to be serene. "This is the place of complete solitude for them, too," he says of the 50ish couple, both corporate executives, who have several homes. "It is their meditation and their retreat away from everyone.

An important element of the peaceful orientation of the home was opening it to the surrounding scenery. While a previous homeowner opted for no window treatments, Kiesel found that too severe and opted for minimal, silk swags or, in some places, drapes and swags. "The last thing we wanted to do was take away from the lovely view," he adds.

In the living room, interior and exterior scenery are blended with a landscape painting of a cloud-filled blue sky flanked by French doors. The arrangement "gave the homeowners the illusion of going straight out to the yard–both the real landscape and the painting are soothing, despite the bright colors," Kiesel says.

Throughout the main level, custom-made furnishings are modifications of the homeowners’ classical preferences. Another favorite of the homeowners was both pattern and tone-on-tone fabrics, so the designer indulged in striped fabrics and a trellis-design carpet, as well as elaborate damasks. Notable pieces in the house are sketches by Matisse and a wall niche bronze statue entitled "The Maiden," that originally belonged to the Carnegie family Surveying the project, the designer notes, "it is serene and peaceful because everything is in its place. It is pristine, despite being a well-used home."

A husband and wife in Connecticut found they spent more time in the kitchen than in any other room of the house. Whether preparing meals, entertaining friends, or working on their business, they always seemed to gravitate to the space. But the more they looked around, the more they realized that their existing kitchen–with its low ceiling and dark-stained cabinets–was pretty ho-hum. If this room was going to be so important to the family, shouldn’t it look and feel spectacular? The owners envisioned a space that was big, bold, and, most importantly, not the least bit boring.

Enter designer William Diamond and architect Anthony Baratta, the NewYork-based design team known for headturning, eye-popping interior schemes (page 38). "The clients said, ‘We want to do something gutsy.’ And no one is as crazy as we are," quips Diamond, who joined design forces with Baratta about 20 years ago. Armed with limitless imagination and an unwavering sense of detail, they crafted a total transformation of the kitchen. "We wanted it to be like a kitchen in an English country home," says Diamond. "They were these big kitchen halls, with huge ceilings."

The designers gutted the existing kitchen and two adjacent rooms to make a combination prep area, dining pavilion, and home office. They also removed a bedroom and a bathroom directly above the kitchen, creating a two-story ceiling topped with a cupola. "We did this wonderful tray ceiling made with little pieces of planking," says Diamond. "It was built like the hull of a boat."

Exaggerated arches, from the glass-fronted cabinets to the windows in the dining pavilion, lend a palatial quality to the space. In the center of the kitchen, a glass-topped skylight well seems to rise to the heavens. "That’s very Diamond & Baratta," Diamond says about the larger-thanlife size of the room’s details. "We find scale very exciting."

Something else that sends the designers’ pulses racing: color. In their projects, the team likes to use what they call "totally off-primary" colors. "The red is ‘barnier’ than classic red; the yellow is more golden," says Diamond. In this kitchen, floor tiles in a playful checkerboard of butterscotch yellow and barn red lead the eye to the long, farmhouse-style work island. The dining pavilion exudes sunny warmth, thanks to a striped wallcovering in golden yellow and buttery cream.

In keeping with the look and feel of the kitchen, the designers selected furnishings that were at once grand in scale and graceful in detail. Barstool-height Windsor chairs painted a green-tinged mustard color cozy up to the center island. The furnishings feel right at home inside this architecturally endowed kitchen. "The room doesn’t feel enormous," says Diamond. Instead, there is a graciousness to the space that makes it inviting and livable.

Resting comfortably on the terrace of the historic Joab Center House, circa 1812, in Greenport, New York, is a selectiion of mid-19th-century Gothic Revival chairs. The intricate decoration and styling of these and other Gothic-style elements make them idea accent pieces in a wide range of relatively simple interior settings.

A myriad of lovingly preserved Federal and Georgian-style public buildings and private homes punctuate the rural landscape of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Architect Laura Kaehler focused on blending the area’s history with the scenic beauty of the local farmlands, forests, and tidewater tributaries flowing into the Chesapeake Bay when designing a home for the owners of a 500-acre horse farm in the area.

Kaehler embraced her clients’ vision of creating a residence that looked as if it was built around the same time that America’s forefathers established this nation. From her office in Connecticut, Kaehler collaborated on the project with interior designers Deborah Lipner and Andrea Robinson and landscape architect Diane DeVore. As a result, Kaehler says, "The house has a seamless design and looks as though it evolved gracefully over time. We were really in sync with one another and worked as a team throughout the entire project."

Following the example set by prominent settlers more than 300 years ago, Kaehler designed a formal two-story brick residence flanked by a pair of less formal wings. Resplendent with architectural details indicative of large-scale residences built in Maryland during the early 1700s, the main section of the 7,500-square-foot house has a central hail with a dramatic floating staircase, a living room, and a dining room. The kitchen, bedrooms, and study are located in the adjoining wings.

Hiding the home’s true age, Kaehier buried all evidence of modern heating and plumbing by installing radiant heat beneath the hardwood floors and by concealing vents behind crown molding. Some other tricks used to maintain the home’s classic appearance: The timeworn color and patterned mortar of the structure’s facade replicates bricks found in area homes built around 1760, and the terrace work features bluestone pieces with chiseled edges separated by rows of soil planted with fresh thyme in the Colonial fashion. Inside, the dining room walls are painted and glazed to give an aged look.

Lipner and Robinson also used the farm’s pastoral landscape for inspiration. "When planning the interior, we wanted to bring the eye out to the landscape," Lipner adds. "The colors found outside inspired the palette. The pastures, trees, and plantings were all reflected in the color scheme."

David Scott Parker’s initial connection to Gothic Revival design arose by chance, but looking back, it seems predestined. "About a dozen years ago, I was doing a project for a museum that included an intact room by [19th-century American Romantic architect] A. J. Davis," says Parker, an architect and antiques dealer. "In the course of the project, people kept referring me to this man in New York, Lee Anderson, who was supposed to have this amazing collection of Gothic furniture. I called him and we set up a meeting, during which we discovered we are related…he is a distant great uncle of mine."

It turns out that Parker and Anderson both grew up in New Harmony, Indiana, the site of an early 19th-century utopian community "Lee has been a great influence on me. He is considered by many to have the finest private collection of Gothic Revival furniture in the United States and his passion for the style is contagious."

As he learned more about Gothic Revival style, Parker began to seek out dealers and sources for what would become an important collection of his own. In 1995, he bought a vintage Carpenter Gothic house near Fairfield, Connecticut, to accommodate not only his collection, but also his two growing businesses–David Scott Parker Architects and Associated Artists, a company that deals in museum-quality pieces made from 1850-1920. The circa 1880 main house has three rooms up and three down, and it is connected by a covered breezeway to a detached modern office that houses the architecture practice.

Originating in France during medieval times, Gothic style’s chief elements–peaked windows, elaborate tracery, and trefoil or quatrefoil motifs–were adopted as popular features of American architecture in early Colonial times. The enduring style can still be found thought the country in examples as diverse as 17th-century churches in Virginia and garden follies such as one Thomas Jefferson designed but never built. Probably the first use of Gothic design for a private home in America was Benjamin Latrobe’s 1799 Sedgeley, outside Philadelphia.

In America, the term Gothic Revival was introduced in the mid 1800s to describe application of the Gothic style from the 1700s through the early 1900s. Originally interest in Gothic was stirred up by the books of 18th-century English writers and aesthetes such as Horace Walpole, A. W. N. Pugin, and Batty Langley Its appearance in American homes can be attributed to America’s godfathers of Gothic: A.J. Downing and A.J. Davis. These two–partners at times–popularized Gothic in several books featuring "picturesque" landscapes inhabited by romanticized cottages, many of them designed by Davis. "Davis is interesting because he was an architect who was also a furniture designer," says Parker. "In the same way, my firm is interested in being involved in all aspects of design."

As a native of New Harmony, Parker likes to note the connection between his hometown and Gothic Revival. "Robert Dale Owen was the son of the founder of New Harmony, and also a congressman who helped create the Smithsonian Institution. For the plans, he turned to his brother, David Dale Owen, a geologist and draftsman. He returned a design for the building in the Gothic Revival taste, considered by the Owens to be the only style suitable for America’s institutions because it was the only truly Christian architecture." Ultimately, the project was turned over to James Renwick, who used the drawings as a basis for his final project

Parker is an inveterate collector who bought his first antique at the age of 12. He has amassed a variety of collections but admits to an affinity for Gothic Revival pieces. "I didn’t set out to have a house full of Gothic furniture," says Parker. "It was acquired through interest rather than decorating needs. It is among the most architectural of styles, and that appeals to my eye."

When most people think of Gothic style, they often imagine gigantic cathedrals with elaborate stained glass windows and grotesque gargoyles, not mid-19th-century wallpapers. However, Gothic style did not disappear after the Middle Ages. It was incorporated into 18th-century design motifs and experienced a resurgence in the Gothic Revival period of the 18th and 19th centuries. During this time, Gothic designs were applied to furniture styles, fabric designs, tableware motifs, and wallpaper patterns in England and America.

"I think Gothic Revival wallpapers reflect an inner source of peace and comfort. They create an atmosphere in a room that is traditional and has withstood the test of time," observes John Bucemi, president of Classic Revivals in Boston. "While not much of the original survives today, it was a strong decorative statement that changed decorating styles in Europe and America."

The term Gothic originated in the 16th century, but the style actually grew out of the early medieval Romanesque style and began in France with the building of St. Denis Cathedral in 1140. The hallmarks of the medieval style include flying buttresses that stabilize walls, allowing for more windows; vaulted ceilings; pointed arches; and carved tracery designs.

During the late 18th century in England, Gothic elements were used on garden follies or mock ruins on large estates, and in country house interiors. These motifs, applied without regard to an original meaning or purpose, were sometimes referred to as "Gothick."

By the 19th century, Gothic style was further revived with more attention paid to historical accuracy, as well as moral and religious meanings. Championed by a number of design reformers, including A. W. N. Pugin, who published Gothic Furniture in 1835, Gothic Revival was seen as a Christian style with moral or ethical qualities that also referenced an English medieval past.

As technology improved wallpaper manufacturing in the 1800s, papering became the preferred method of wall decoration. In Gothic Revival interiors, wallpaper provided color and contrast with woodwork, copied forms from original medieval structures, and often incorporated more two-dimensional patterns and stylized natural forms. Pugin designed wallpaper patterns for clients that combined family crests, mottoes, and private symbols into heraldic decorating schemes. The style’s popularity grew after Pugin designed a Gothic Revival decor for the 1850s rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament that included vibrant wallpapers.

By the mid-19th century, copies of medieval patterns were replaced by more geometric medieval design elements combined with botanical forms. English designer Christopher Dresser followed this style in his early wallpaper designs, which he acknowledged were heavily influenced by Pugin’s interpretation of Gothic style. Dresser’s versions used the structural elements of plants as abstract ornament. He flattened botanical forms and abstracted Gothic lily and carnation designs with arches that reflected both architecture and animal skeletal forms.

"A lot of Dresser’s work was derived from Gothic Revival," says Bucemi. "No designer in any era operates in a vacuum, but is influenced by historical styles and social trends."

In the United States, Gothic Revival was at its height as an architectural style in the 1830s. Gothic rustic cottages and villas were featured in books by American architect A.J. Davis and landscape designer and writer A.J. Downing. English romantic novels by authors such as Sir Walter Scott also sparked America’s fascination with medievalism.

With the 1872 publication of Charles Eastlake’s A History of the Gothic Revival, and Gothic Revival’s inclusion in the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876, the style became entrenched in American design lexicon. However, American Gothic-style wallpapers often departed from Pugin’s purist ideals and took a less serious approach. Also, they were not always placed in pure Gothic Revival-style homes, but were introduced into interiors of home styles from several eras.

"There were so many wonderful American Gothic Revival wallpapers," says Joanne Warner, curator of the wallcovering department at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution. "While all the tastemakers of the time period were saying how incorrect these Gothic adaptations were, people were buying them and using them throughout the United States."

As the century waned, Gothic Revival wallpapers were replaced by American styles that did not reference England’s history but looked to the nation’s own past observes Warner.

Today there are many high-quality reproductions of Gothic Revival wallpapers in original colors or new tones. "Don’t be afraid of Gothic Revival wallpaper, and don’t be afraid to use its strong colors," advises Bucemi. "Wallpaper is an instant way to transform a room, and when Gothic Revival paper is put in a home setting, it creates a seriousness and warmth."

"WE DON’T DESIGN HOUSES for fearful peop1e," says designer William Diamond, as his partner, architect Anthony Baratta, chuckles. Indeed, it takes a passion for color and a thirst for the unusual to live in a space that pairs yellow plaid with a glossy blue-and-white check and pools of cobalt blue, golden yellow, and barn red. This is signature Diamond & Baratta: taking traditional elements such as wing chairs and area rugs and jolting them attention with unexpected colors and patterns.

"It’s American, classic, and steeped in tradition, but newer and fresher," Diamond terms their design style. And the owners of this Westchester County, New York, home were ready for whatever Diamond & Baratta could dream up. "They’re very secure people," Diamond says about the couple, parents of three young children. "They said, ‘We love what you do, and we want you to design our house.’"

"I could imagine myself living in just about anything they did," says the wife. "I wanted the house to be cheerful, friendly, and comfortable. And since children are such as big part of our life, I wanted every room to be usable."

The homeowners didn’t flinch when the duo created designs for three very bold, very different plaid fabrics in the family room, and huge blocks of barn red and bright white flooring throughout the foyer. "Either you love color or you’re afraid of color. These clients weren’t afraid," says Baratta.

But this house is about more than just color; it’s also about detailed architecture, which is another key element of a Diamond & Baratta project. In this situation, the team had the opportunity to totally transform the interior details and layout. "This is a 1911 Colonial [-style structure] that through the years was bought by people with a penchant for renovations," the homeowner says.

"The house was built in the late 19th century in a series of three stages," says Baratta. "A 1950s renovation wiped out the original design."

The designers added a wing in the middle of the house to give a sense of order to the interior. Then they went from room to room, creating unique details: fluted columns in the foyer, a strip of chunky dentils in the family room, a double cornice in the living room, a web-patterned oval window in the master bedroom. "All the details are done loosely so it doesn’t look like someone just picked out the moldings recently," says Baratta. Instead, the designers say, it looks as if a "crazy carpenter" from the early 1900s has been let loose.

Co-founders of their own mutual admiration society, Diamond and Baratta each credits the other for a particular piece of unusual design. Their combined skills are put to the test with every project, for which they create overall designs, as well as plans for flooring, furniture, and wallcoverings. "Tony has a wonderful sense of architecture," says Diamond, while Baratta praises Diamond’s dynamic eye for color. Together, they enjoy turning the world of design on its proverbial ear. "We always try to push the envelope a little more," says Diamond. "We believe in joie de vivre."

IT’S A CLASSIC: THE WINDSOR CHAIR. In early 18th-century England, Windsor chairs were made specifically for gardens. With plank seats and turned spindles on legs and back, they were highly portable, yet sturdy. It didn’t take long for Windsors to make their way into British homes, or to have relatives pop up across the Atlantic. American craftsmen put their own spin on the design, creating highly ornate turnings or opting for unadorned tapered legs. The reproduction sack-back Windsors, shown here, represent one style. Others include low-back, fan-back and writing arm.

IT’S A CLASSIC: THE WING CHAIR.

The "wings" protruding between the back and arms of this chair are more than decorative; they were designed to protect against drafts. The wing chair has been an American favorite since the late 17th century, but labor-intensive upholstering often made early models very expensive. By the l8th century, it was cheaper to buy a factory-produced wing chair than to reupholster an older one. Today, a wing chair with or without a skirt still Invites one to curl up with a quilt and a good book.

IT’S A CLASSIC: PLAIDS!

Generally, plaid is defined as a fabric woven of colored yarns in a cross-barred pattern. According to Scottish tradition, a plaid was a long, rectangular piece of cloth worn across the left shoulder by Scottish Highlanders. These cloths were in the tartan pattern, with bands and lines in colors representing a particular clan. These days, the terms plaid and tartan are used interchangeably. In home furnishings, the colors of a plaid usually reflect personal taste, not family heritage.

Designer Charlotte Moss blends classic elements, both antique and reproduction, and pulls off a sophisticated, yet livable, traditional look

Trying to pin down designer Charlotte Moss, metaphorically or geographically, is not an easy task. She’s a moving target. She can work a corner of a formal living room around a chinoiserie cabinet, add sex appeal to an alcove of a master bath by installing a 19th-century beaded-wood chandelier with live candles, or use a collection of antique American flags as the takeoff point for decorating a boy’s room. She appears to be equally at home in a mountain house in Colorado, picking through a flea market in Paris, or combing the collections at Colonial Williamsburg for inspiration (she has just been named interior design director of its licensing program). And you’re likely to find her working in any of those modes or in any of those places within days of each other.

Or, you might find her perched on a library ladder in the living room of her Long Island, New York, country house, searching for a reference among books or her prized collection of design magazines. Moss uses her home as a laboratory of sorts, recombining furniture and accessories. "Things are constantly moving," she says. "I think clients should be the same way. There’s not just one way to do something. We change. We grow."

She likes to revisit former clients’ homes–like the two shown on these pages–in order to see rooms with a fresh eye and make adjustments. "Those pictures we put in the master bedroom, let’s move them out now. And that lamp on the table, let’s put it on the desk in the library and get something more important for she’ll suggest. "I was always redoing my own room when I was little, and helping my mother rearrange the living room. That’s what keeps things fresh. It suggests open-mindedness."

Moss grew up in Virginia and was influenced as much by her mother and grandmother’s mannerly, hospitable ways as she was by her surroundings. "My mother was a great homemaker, and my grandmother was a natural. I don’t think there is anything she couldn’t do."

Moss brings that same energy to decorating projects. There was a time she would take on as many as a dozen clients at once, all the while tending her shop. The store, now closed so she can focus frill time on larger jobs, sold occasional furniture and accessories, antiques, and custom pieces, and was a magnet for decorators in search of items that brought 20th-century zip to traditional rooms–such as leopard print wastebaskets and silk lampshades.

Her rooms emanate warmth. She uses brave colors on walls, like the raisin hue in the dining room of a descendant of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (page 28). She works out medleys of patterned fabric to add richness to a scheme, as in the great room for the Orensteins, whose home is shown on pages 23-39. Pools of lamplight are important to Charlotte and are provided by elegantly shaded table lamps made from handsome objects she’s found. Candles, she notes, are always apropos in dining rooms.

Moss stresses the importance of working a room in profile, as well as in plan, from the get-go: "I always say to my clients, ‘Picture yourself standing around a cocktail party elbow-to-elbow, when no one can see anything on a tabletop. What are they looking at? You’ve got to think about moving the room up. You want movement.’" Hanging an intricate chandelier, like the one made of antlers at the Oren– stems, is one way of ensuring motion. So is massing artwork to dominate a wall behind a bed or over a fireplace-she does both in the Roosevelt house. The use of commanding curtain treatments, at windows or to crown beds, also does this job for her.

Movement and mix are interlinked, and key to the success of her style. "I think there’s not a room I’ve done that doesn’t have mix, whether it’s country of origin, period, wood vs. painted finish…whatever. All those things that have come together from different places give a room patina, give it excitement," she says. The range of elements she assembles are consciously balanced by classic shapes, whether custom-made or antique. "A classic is something that has good lines. But it also works over and over again, no matter how you treat it, color it, or paint it." The trefoil ottoman in the Orenstein living room is one of her favorite examples.

One of her colleagues calls Moss "the new old guard." Her taste is refined, and that she lives the life for which she decorates lends validity to her choices. Moss is a contemporary woman who grants herself free access to a multitude of traditional styles (antique and reproduction) and the right to combine them within one house or within one room. "It’s all about the mix, not about the match," quips Moss. "You have to throw things off a little…by planting a simple geranium in an extraordinary 18th-century Limoges cachepot, or by standing a little American 1930s chair next to a Regency cabinet of great value."

STUNNING SCENERY AND a year-round temperate climate draw visitors to Arkansas, "the natural state." Its central area is home to Little Rock, the capital, set on a bend of the Arkansas River; Pine Bluff, noted for its historical murals; and the resort town of Hot Springs, which encircles Hot Springs National Park and where Bathhouse Row re-creates the turn-of-the-last-century era of "taking the waters." Our 275-mile journey begins and ends in Little Rock.

LITTLE ROCK

Riverfront Park, stretching for 10 blocks along the Arkansas River, is a center of activities with its festivals, promenade, amphitheater, concerts, and riverboat excursions. Nearby are the River Market district, a cluster of shops and restaurants; the Museum of Discovery with many science and technology exhibits; and the 1836 Old State House, the oldest extant capitol west of the Mississippi. Today it holds a museum of Arkansas history. Under construction nearby is the Clinton Presidential Library. Also of interest are the Decorative Arts Museum, the Arkansas Arts Center galleries, and the Aerospace Education Center, offering a virtual-reality flight experience. Five original Little Rock dwellings form the Arkansas Territorial Restoration, where guides describe life on the Arkansas frontier. The Central High Museum & Visitor Center (across from the high school that is now a national historic site) commemorates the 1957 segregation conflict, when the federal government integrated black students into the previously all-white school. Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts has festivals and offers walks through its gardens. The Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau distributes guides for three walking tours and a driving tour: MacArthur Park Historic District of antebellum and Victorian homes, the Downtown Riverfront district, and the Governor’s Mansion area.

PINE BLUFF

Little Rock Convention & Vistors Bureau (800) 844-4781, www.little rock.com. Museum of Discovery (800) 880-6475. Old State House (501) 324-9685. Decorative Arts Museum, Arkansas Arts Center (501) 372-4000. Aerospace Education Center (501) 376-4629. Arkansas Territorial Restoration (501) 324-9351. Central High Museum (501) 374-1957. Wildwood Park (501) 821-7275.

On Route 165, stop in Scott to visit Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park, the remains of a civic and ceremonial center for a Native American culture dating to 650 A.D. The visitors’ center displays excavated artifacts and a slide show. Also in Scott is the Plantation Agriculture Museum, which interprets the history of plantation life and cotton farming in Arkansas.

A dozen murals make the walls of Pine Bluff’s buildings an outdoor art gallery, depicting such scenes as Main Street in 1888 and life on the Arkansas River in 1900. The Arkansas Railroad Museum exhibits a restored steam engine and railroad memorabilia. The Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame chronicles the careers of entertainers with Arkansas roots. The Band Museum depicts the history of the band movement in America and displays hundreds of instruments dating to the early 1700s. The Martha Mitchell Home, built in 1887, is the birthplace of the wife of President Nixon’s attorney general, John N. Mitchell. The Convention & Visitors Bureau has information on tours of other 19th-century homes. Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park (501) 961-9442. Plantation Agriculture Museum, (501) 961-1409. Pine Bluff Convention & Visitors Bureau, Arkansas Railroad Museum, Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame, and Martha Mitchell Home, (800) 536-7660, www.pinebluffsonline.com. The Band Museum (870) 534-4676.

HOT SPRINGS AND HOT SPRINGS

NATIONAL PARK

If you have time before reaching Hot Springs, stop in Sheridan on Route 270 to explore the Grant County Museum/Heritage Village, a collection of 21 restored buildings, one featuring a Depression-era cafe.

Set in the Quachita Mountains and surrounded by lakes and the Quachita National Forest, the town of Hot Springs has drawn visitors to its 47 thermal springs since the 143- degree waters were declared a "place of peace" by Native Americans. In 1541, explorer Hernando DeSoto lingered for days to enjoy the waters. In 1832, a federal reservation was set up to protect the springs, and by the 1870s it was known as "The National Spa." Until the early 1900s, Hot Springs attracted visitors from all over the world to its thermal baths, thought to be therapeutic for a variety of ailments. Opulent bathhouses and luxurious hotels rivaled the famous spas of Europe, and Hot Springs was called the "Baden–Baden of America." The reservation became a national park in 1921. Today, Buckstaff Bathhouse on the Row still offers baths, whirlpools, and massage, as do five other hotels and spas in town. The most elaborate bathhouse, Fordyce with its stained glass ceilings and DeSoto Fountain serves as a visitors center and museum. Gui ded walking tours of the springs are offered from March through October; visitors can take self-guided walks anytime. The downtown historic district’s Victorian buildings house shops, restaurants, and art galleries. Guided gallery walks are offered on the first Friday of every month. Several cultural festivals take place annually, including a music festival in June and a documentary film festival each fall. The Convention & Visitors Bureau provides a booklet for a self-guided tour of historic downtown and information on a tour visiting President Clinton’s boyhood home, schools, and hangouts. For a view of the area, visit the 216-foot Hot Springs Mountain Tower atop Hot Springs Mountain.

Leaving Hot Springs, take the Scenic Route 7 Byway through the Ouachita National Forest for sweeping vistas, picturesque creeks, lakes, state parks, and country stores.

Grant County Museum/Heritage Village (870) 942-4496. Hot Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau (800) 543-2284, www.hotsprings.org. Buckstaff Bathhouse (501) 623-2308. Other five bathhouses (800) 772-2489. Hot Springs Mountain Tower (501) 623-6035. Hot Springs National Park (501) 624-3383.

RUSSELLVILLE, MORRILTON, AND CONWAY

"Renaissance of a River," at the Arkansas River Visitor Center in Russellville, chronicles the waterway’s history. Arkansas Tech University’s Museum of Prehistory and History displays Native American artifacts. In Morrilton, the Museum of Automobiles exhibits vintage cars. At Conway, the Faulkner County Museum has a general store, jailhouse, and exhibits. The Cadron Settlement Park replicates an 1814 blockhouse and features the Cherokee Trail of Tears Memorial.

The Arkansas River Visitor Center (501) 968-5008. Museum of Prehistory and History (501) 964-0826. Museum of Automobiles (501) 727-5427. Faulkner County Museum (501) 329-5918. Cadron Settlement Park (501) 329-2986.