Anyone is free to use my pictures (and I will be posting more...I have tons more pictures to post). Just credit me as the photo taker, I'm too lazy to dig up my photos that I have already posted, but I show a lot of Charlotte and Jax pics, including St. Augustine and old "southern" architecture (actually most of the old architecture in Jacksonville has its roots in northern styles and most houses/old downtown buildings were designed by architects out of the northeast). And actually, Marion Sims Wyeth and Addison Mizner and Arnold Southwell all designed homes/buildings in Jax and Marsh (from Jax) & Saxelbye (from England) was a firm in Jax that also designed lots of spectacular homes in S FL. Out of the 31 great pre-1930 architects in Jacksonville, only about 5 were from Jacksonville and most of the rest were from New York or Pennsylvania.
Atlanta's the same way, where most of the homes pre-1910 actually look like an older inner Detroit or inner upper Midwestern city, and the 1918-1930 homes could fit in just as easily in Darien, CT. I would consider the homes in Springfield (Jax) to be like the homes in Key West: Floridian takes on old front porch homes from the upper midwest (i.e. tin roofs, colonial French/Spanish elements, brighter colors).
Maybe I'm off base by saying this, but while we consider buildings in Savannah, Charleston, and New Orleans to be southern, all of the design elements are directly imported from mother England (the mews in Savannah for instance) or from France, or even Spain in Nola's case, and these elements are simply tweaked just a little and/or combined. Sorry I could continue rambling on, I'll just shut up.
I'll just finish by saying that when it comes to buildings' individual styles, there is not a truly "unique" southern vernacular. There are southern elements made popular in the south and Floridian elements (certain rooms and materials more popular in FL), but the only place where design turns completely regional is on a larger scale in city design/planning, and even then there are exceptions and most planning elements are imported from either up north or from abroad. I know I am being completely all over the place...sorry
