Frank L. Horton
Frank Liipfert Horton (March 21, 1918 – February 21, 2004) was an American antiques dealer and founder-director of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1965. He oversaw the restoration and reconstruction of fifty buildings in the Old Salem and Bethabara historic districts of Winston-Salem from 1950 to 1972. Biography Horton was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1918 to Theodosia Horton Taliaferro and physician Miles Horton. He was raised in Winston-Salem and graduated from Reynolds High School in 1935. He attended the Augusta Military Academy and the New Mexico Military Institute and studied business at Pace Institute, though he left after one year and never earned his degree. During the 1930s, Horton and his mother started an antiques business. The business never flourished financially, but it enabled him to travel around the country and gain expertise and connections in the antiques market. During World War II, he enlisted in the United States Navy in 1942 and served aboard the USS Sturtevant on convoy escort duty in the North Atlantic Ocean. When Old Salem Inc. was established in 1950, Horton became the museum's first director of restoration. In this capacity, he supervised the reconstruction