With a grant from the local historical society, I documented Beersheba Springs, a springs town built between 1855 and 1860 on Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau. The original development was a hotel and twenty distinct cottages drawing on classical, traditional, Victorian, and Creole influences, along with other buildings such as a springhouse. I measured many of the cottages in detail, reconstructed some that had burned from historical sources, and studied the town's historic roads.

The town fell into ruin after 1865. There is evidence that some of it may have been built by enslaved laborers. It is a complex story of vernacular house types.

The deed research and aerial photography resources are by Ralph Thompson, and the hotel reconstruction is based on 1973 Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) drawings by Bill Howell.