Small American Cities With the Coolest Architecture

When we recently named the10 American Cities With the Coolest Architecture , we stuck to all the biggies – Chicago , New York , Philadelphia , San Francisco . We had a couple of sleepers on there ( Santa Fe , Detroit ) , but for the most part , they were all very well - known and well - traveled cities that utterly SHOULD be on a leaning of top-10 city for architecture in America . But that come at the expense of some littler city that have incredible architecture but do n’t get the same recognition as other more predominate metropolises . So now we ’re generate a little love to the small city with badass collections of buildings that will make any chronicle buff or name - dropping architecture nerd faint .

Spring Green, Wisconsin

No lean highlight American architecture would be complete without some form of acknowledgment of Frank Lloyd Wright . And while there are many cities in California and throughout the Midwest that can proudly gasconade of their FLW construction stock , Taliesin in Spring Green , Wisconsin is by far the most storied , originally build as a passion nest for Wright and his schoolma’am ( who later died in a grisly arson / mass axe murder on the property ) . The figure of Taliesin was uniform with the design principles of The Prairie School , evoking the natural parentage of the surface area ’s thick river valley and mimicking the limestone outcroppings of the earth . It now operates as a museum , located on the same ground as the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture .

Other architectural achievements of greenback in or near Spring Green include the classical American Players Theatre , an out-of-door amphitheater situated on 110 acres of wood and hayfield , and House on the Rock , a marvel of obsessive imagination that resist any kind of well-heeled verbal description . Put it this room : in fantasy writer Neil Gaiman ’s novel American Gods , he characterizes House on the Rock as a direct portal into the mind of the god , and there is probably no good mode to describe this overwhelmingly labyrinthian tribute to kitsch and rage . It is sincerely an unsung human beings wonder .

St. Augustine, Florida

St. Augustine , Florida is the previous unendingly worry , European - established metropolis in the United States , establish in 1565 . Because the city was establish by the Spanish long before the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock , St. Augustine front more like a centuries - old European metropolis than an American one , right on down to the Spanish - trend architecture spanning C of construction . There are wads of points of interest group throughout the city and National Historic District , but definitely put Castillo de San Marcos ( the country ’s oldest fort ) , Flagler College , the Lightner Museum and City Hall , and the Memorial Presbyterian Church on your unforesightful lean .

Hot Springs, Arkansas

I made ajoke about bathhouses beforeand you bed what ? I ’m go to make it again . The bathhouses along National Historic Landmark Bathhouse Row – the collection of historical bathhouses , associated construction , and gardens that comprise Hot Springs National Park – are not the kind of bathhouse you right away recall of when you find out the word " bathhouses . " Although , somewhat related , they were used by folk like Al Capone as a treatment for various ailment ( * cough * SYPHILIS * cough * ) – " taking in the weewee " was think to cure any number of sickness and afflictions . It does n’t , but a soakage in the hot mineral H2O piped into the buildings from the rude hot spring sure is lovely , as are the turn - of - the - century neoclassical , Renaissance Revival , Spanish , and Italianate buildings with grand entrances and outdoor fountains .

Deadwood, South Dakota

Historic Deadwood is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota and yes , this is where many visitors to Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore and the Badlands are shuffled off to be relieved of their money in the shape of commemorative tchotchkes and cassino tithes . But while there may be a sure kitsch factor here now , once upon a time this was very much the Wild West , a lawless gold - rush town that has retain much of its 19th - hundred character thanks to preservation efforts that have reliably restored over 80 play hall , inn , and store from the late 1800s that are in unambiguously American West architecture styles . saving try have been so meaning , in fact , that the integral urban center is on the National Historic Register .

Sleepy Hollow, New York

In Sleepy Hollow , they do n’t just embrace the folk legends of the town ’s ghoulish history : theylivethem , with a full embodiment of all thing Headless Horseman year - round ( and you have intercourse Halloween here is some next - grade darn ) . There is a palpable creepiness about the place , and really , that ’s just because it seems so perfectly soak with the spirit of Halloween . For those who arrest Halloween most holy , believe of it this way : if your greatest desire is to be in a topographic point where every single Clarence Day of the year is Halloween , THAT PLACE EXISTS AND IT IS HERE . For a proper tour of the architecture , it is imperative to hit all the majestic - yet - somewhat - unsettling landmarks : the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow , the original Sleepy Hollow Cemetery , the Philipsburg Manor , and in nearby Tarrytown , the castling - comparable , Gothic Revival Lyndhurst sign . A walk ( or terrorise running ? ? ? ) over the stone bridges of Rockefeller State Park Preserve is also in order .

Columbus, Indiana

You ’ve probably never listen of Columbus , Indiana , and that ’s okay , because it ’s never take heed of you either . HA ! Anyway , just because you have n’t try of it does n’t imply it ’s not pregnant ; nickname the “ Athens of the Prairie , ” Columbus is considered by many to be one of the best computer architecture cities in the United States . " How can that possibly be true if I have n’t even heard of it ? " you ask , dumbfounded . The reply is one J. Irwin Miller , industrialist and patron of modern computer architecture ( as well as diligent civil right activist ) , who established the Cummins Foundation to pay all the architect ' fee for new public edifice throughout Columbus through his role as chairman of the family line of work , Cummins , now a Fortune 500 manufacture company .

Because of this , Columbus has complex body part designed by the likes of I.M. Pei , Eero Saarinen , Richard Meier , and Skidmore , Owings & Merrill , with many interiors designed by Alexander Girard . So important is the computer architecture here that , in 1991 , the American Institute of Architects declared Columbus 6th in the nation for architectural founding and design .

San Juan Capistrano, California

San Juan Capistrano is the site of the Catholic mission for which it was distinguish , Mission San Juan Capistrano . The ruins of the 1776 mission are still largely entire and are situate in the city , including the " American Acropolis , " the missionary work ’s Greco - Roman - style " Great Stone Church . " The residential and commercial housing that sprung up around the mission echoes the missionary work ’s Spanish style , and historic construction admit adobe dwelling from the 18th one C , include the Montanez and Rios Adobes located in the Los Rios Historic District , the oldest neighborhood in California .

Natchitoches, Louisiana

There is New Orleans , and there is the rest of Louisiana . And then there is Natchitoches ( " nack - a - tish " ) , settle down four years before New Orleans and thus the only metropolis in the nation that can claim " we did it first " with the cast - smoothing iron - draw balcony to prove it . As Louisiana ’s original French settlement , it is home to the only three examples of authentic French Creole townhouses outside of New Orleans . There are also instance of Spanish Revival , Victorian , and Art Deco computer architecture throughout the Historic District . Southern - story enthusiasts will enjoy touring the Oakland , Magnolia , and Melrose Plantations , all National Historic Landmarks significant for their antebellum computer architecture . The colored building of Downtown can be seen from the weave Cane River , which is lined with live oaks and pecan trees . And if the photos look familiar to you , that ’s probably because Natchitoches was the film locating for the 1989 armadillo - patty classic , Steel Magnolias . If it ’s a much , MUCH slower - pace New Orleans that you want , look no further than Natchitoches .

Provincetown, Massachusetts

There is Cape Cod computer architecture all over Cape Cod ( hence the name ) , and it ’s a pretty rugged job to pick just one sorcerous Cape Cod town over all the other charming Cape Cod towns to make up the magical and Cape Codiest of all the sorcerous Cape Cod township . fortuitously , there ’s Provincetown , the longtime LGBTQ- and kinsfolk - friendly haven at the tip … just the tip ( LOL ) … of the Cape . P - Town is pretty much New Englandian / Cape Codian perfection , with mid-19th - 100 Revival- , Georgian- , and Federal - trend homes delineate the streets in cheery pastel with lush lawns overgrown ( in a meticulously planned sort of manner ) with perennials , yearly , cutting flowers , herbs , and lots and lots of hydrangeas in the signature shade of Cape Cod blue .

Taos, New Mexico

If you need Southwestern - panache adobe architecture , there isno state better than New Mexicoto find it . And if you ’re look for OLD Southwestern - style adobe computer architecture , there is nowhere better than Taos . The Taos Pueblo has been occupied for nearly a millennium – that is one thousand age – and has been inhabited for all of that time , making it one of the oldest continuously populate community in the country . It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with about 150 the great unwashed who live inside year - round .

Taos itself has latterly become a voguish ski haven and is also bang for the Taos artwork settlement , established over 100 years ago . The rest of the town is take with that same Southwestern adobe brick architecture – check out the Taos Plaza and the Taos Downtown Historic District – though the Pueblo is by far the oldest of the lot . And , for a gracious little esthetical contrast , Taos also hap to be the landing place place of preference for architect Michael Reynolds ' Earthships , passive solar houses made of natural and recycled material designed and build by Earthship Biotecture in and around Taos .

Mackinac Island, Michigan

Mackinac Island is a 3.8 - square - sea mile island located in Lake Huron , nestled between the coasts of Michigan ’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas . The island is a National Historic Landmark where motorcar are shun , with horse - pull carriages and bicycles being the sole theodolite options .

The island ’s crown jewel is the glorious Grand Hotel , a monumental Victorian - style resort built in 1887 , which is situate on a bluff overlooking the lake and the expansive , meticulously landscape hotel grounds , with the longest front porch in the world at 660 ft . But the Grand Hotel is barely the only thing princely about Mackinac Island : the summer colony explode in popularity during the 19th hundred , and has painstakingly preserved unnumberable Gothic Revival , Italianate , and Queen Anne structures as charming - to - the - core B&Bs and summer place for Michigan ’s most rosy . The in full restore Fort Mackinac , built in 1780 , will also whet the pulse of history and military buffs in way magical B&Bs might not .

St. Augustine, Florida