Sublime

One afternoon, many months later, when I continued interviewing Walter for a profile I decided to write, I blurted out to him, “I love Charleston, but it feels different from Savannah.” He said, “Charleston has a lot of transplants. People from up North.” Characteristically he withheld what might be a withering judgment. No excess needed. I didn’t

In short order he had bought up a large section of unproductive orange groves, had hired himself a New York architect, and embarked upon the building of a lavish Mediterranean-themed hotel—the Ponce de Leon—in St. Augustine.

George and Lorraine Montoya lived on a dead-end dirt lane within easy walking distance of the historic Santa Fe Plaza. On the fringe of a prestigious neighborhood, the lane consisted mostly of two rows of modest homes, all built just before or after World War II. The few houses that had changed hands from Hispanic to Anglo ownership were easy to sp

To open a bookshop is one of the persistent romances, like living off the land or sailing around the world.

In the 1990s, he was active in promoting living wall gardens, which are vertical planting beds that grow vegetables without pesticides, weeding, or much labor. (Small versions are now sold in cooking supply stores, from companies such as AeroGarden.) Bergmann