William Seale lived what he wrote about, and nowhere was his approach to history more influential than in the restoration projects he guided. In cooperation with the architects in charge, Seale oversaw the historical aspects of the restoration of ten state capitol buildings and governor’s mansions: Alabama State Capitol, Montgomery; Georgia State Capitol, Atlanta; Kansas Statehouse, Topeka; Kentucky Governor’s Mansion, Frankfort; Louisiana Governor’s Mansion, Baton Rouge; Michigan State Capitol, Lansing; Minnesota State Capitol, St. Paul; Mississippi State Capitol, Jackson; Ohio Statehouse, Columbus; and the Old Florida Capitol, Tallahassee. “No one has had more influence on the way our state houses and executive mansions look today than William Seale,” states Joseph Opperman, an architect who collaborated with Seale on many restoration projects.
Seale was interested in old houses since childhood, as he told an interviewer for CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship. With his father, a contractor who studied historic building practices, he “would walk around town, look at houses, and discuss them.” This emphasis on human personality infused all the restoration projects Seale undertook. Among his many restoration projects, described by colleagues as "truly innovative" were: The Ximenez-Fatio House in St. Augustine, Florida; George Eastman House, Rochester, New York; George C. Marshall House, Leesburg, Virginia; Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne House, “Ten Chimneys,” Genesee Depot, Wisconsin; Bulloch Hall, Roswell, Georgia; Stratford Hall, Westmoreland County, Virginia; Travelers Rest, Nashville, Tennessee; McLean House (“The Surrender House”), Clover Tavern, and Appomattox Court House, Virginia; Free State Capitol, Topeka, Kansas; Old Governor’s Mansion, Milledgeville, Georgia; and Eugene Field House, St Louis, Missouri.