The Architecture of William Nichols

Paul Hardin Kapp is associate professor of architecture in the School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame, where he teaches historic preservation. He is also director of the Michael Christopher Duda Center for Preservation, Resilience, and Sustainability. He is author of Heritage and Hoop Skirts: How Natchez Created the Old South, published by University Press of Mississippi, and coeditor of SynergiCity: Reinventing the Postindustrial City. He is a two-time Fulbright Scholar, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, a Franklin Fellow at the US Department of State, and a Guggenheim Fellow. In 2025, he was recognized by the National Council for Preservation Education with the James Marston Fitch Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation Education. Todd Sanders works for the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) as liaison between MDOT's Environmental Division and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History's Historic Preservation Division. He is author of Jackson's North State Street.

"The Architecture of William Nichols is a beautifully illustrated book that traces the prolific architectural career of William Nichols in his antebellum worlds of North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi from 1804 to 1856. During this period, Nichols designed buildings that today stand as iconic structures in each state. His Gerard Hall (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Gorgas House (University of Alabama), and Lyceum (University of Mississippi) are beloved buildings that define the architectural landscape of each campus. Paul Hardin Kapp and Todd Sanders write eloquently about Nichols and firmly establish his fascinating legacy as an architect." - William Ferris, author of The Storied South: Voices of Writers and Artists