All Titles

Take a nonstop journey through 131 years of the Western Maryland Railway's history in this photographic tale.

The Western Maryland Railway was never a large Class 1 rail carrier, but during its 131 colorful years of existence, it provided extremely fast, efficient, and reliable freight; coal-hauling; and passenger service in the states it served. This book contains images from the history of this remarkable railroad and also provides the reader the opportunity to see how the legacy of the Western Maryland Railway is being maintained and remembered even today at some of its well-known train stations, such as in Cumberland and Union Bridge, Maryland, now home to the Western Maryland Railway Historical Society (WMRHS). The Western Maryland is now gone, but through the wonderful images captured and preserved by the WMRHS and private archival photograph collections, the dream of the railway will live on.

Fort Holabird was a US Army facility near Baltimore, Maryland and began as a training center for a relatively new military technology, the motor vehicle, it would later bear witness to intrigue as a center of US Army intelligence and counterintelligence.

Fort Holabird was a US Army facility near Baltimore, Maryland. Opened as Camp Holabird in preparation for World War I, Holabird trained vehicle drivers and mechanics. After World War II, Holabird became home to the US Army Intelligence School. It was around this time the facility was renamed Fort Holabird. The intelligence school relocated to Fort Huachuca, Arizona, in 1971, and Fort Holabird closed in 1973. Holabird has an amazing history. It began as a training center for a relatively new military technology, the motor vehicle. Holabird would later bear witness to intrigue as a center of US Army intelligence and counterintelligence. Holabird is also remembered by many Vietnam-era draftees as an induction center.

Author David B. Lari is an attorney, historian, US Army veteran, lifelong resident of Maryland, and a graduate of the University of Baltimore. The sources of these photographs include the US National Archives, the US Army Heritage and Education Center, the National World War I Museum and Memorial, the Dundalk-Patapsco Neck Historical Society and Museum, and the Kansas Historical Society.

Incorporated in 1827, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was one of America's first railroads, and Maryland was its heart and soul.

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's (B&O) creation was a tangible symbol of the Industrial Revolution, representing commerce and progress to towns along its route. Its headquarters and operations, centered in Baltimore, provided years of economic growth for the port city. This book contains images of well-known stations in Maryland, including Ellicott City Station, Gaithersburg Station, Camden Station, and the Mount Clare Shops--a self-contained industrial city, now home to the B&O Railroad Museum. Some stations still exist and are home to small museums or restaurants; others no longer stand, but images of them will remind even the casual historian of a time when railroads were a part of everyday life in America.

Take a step back in time and revisit the sites, stations, and trains of the B&Othat were once part of everyday life in Maryland and remember the glory of a bygone era.

Discover how Dundalk, Maryland, was born in 1895 and developed into a hotbed of industry and military activity.

Dundalk was founded in 1895 when an Irish businessman affixed a handmade sign to a newly constructed freight station, proclaiming the name of this Baltimore County community. From then on, the area's military and industry operations took off.The Pennsylvania Steel Company fired up its blast furnaces at Sparrows Point. Brickmakers Burns and Russell, whose firm dates back to 1790, began manufacturing on a 125-acre parcel near what is now Logan Village. During the War of 1812, British forces invaded Patapsco Neck and were repelled by local militia. People lucky enough to make Dundalk their home over the years have fond memories of Riverview Park on Colgate Creek, a popular family amusement park along what is now Broening Highway, and of playing and relaxing at William McShane's Maryland Swimming Club, which boasted first-rate clay tennis courts and a bathing beach.

More than 200 vintage photographs are included in this volume, assembled from private collections and the files of the Dundalk-Patapsco Neck Historical Society Museum. They feature current and former landmarks like Harbor Field, Fort Holabird, the Brentwood Inn, Todd House, Bay Shore Park, WAYE Radio, and the Lyceum Theatre. Equally important are the images of everyday people, many of whom impacted the community through their character and profession.

Over the course of several centuries, Baltimore evolved from a Colonial-era port city to a thriving and dynamic city of nearly a million people at the conclusion of World War II

As the city grew, a wide variety of industries were established. Railroads, ports, manufacturing sites, and public infrastructure, such as power plants, fundamentally transformed large swaths of Baltimore's landscape. However, the second half of the 20th century saw a dramatic and often traumatic restructuring of the city's economy; individual businesses and entire industrial sectors downsized, relocated, or completely collapsed. Today many such areas of Baltimore have changed radically as abandoned manufacturing sites have been demolished or converted to new uses. Images of America: Industrial Baltimore documents a vital component of the city's working past through historic photographs of the people and sites that made the city an essential economic engine of the Industrial Revolution.

The story of the bridge that transformed Maryland's Eastern Shore from a sleepy backwater to a major tourism destination and caused an economic boom in Baltimore in the west.

When it opened to traffic in 1952, the William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge - simply called the Chesapeake Bay Bridge - was the third-longest bridge in the world. The four-mile long span was constructed over the Chesapeake Bay in a dramatic 2.5-year period of progress that became known to the workers as "Operation Link," because it would be the first physical connection between the two widely separated parts of Maryland. Today, the two spans - the original Bay Bridge from 1952 and the parallel span built alongside it in 1973 - are towering architectural landmarks along the East Coast of the United States.

Discover the beloved town of Ocean City, Maryland and it's vibrant, historic past.

Originally the land of the Algonquian people, the barrier island on which Ocean City is now located, served as a protective wall for the mainland Delmarva peninsula. It was a somewhat remote area until five men, having formed the Atlantic Hotel Company Corporation, built the first lodging facility, and Ocean City as a coastal resort began to take root. From the cattle grazing in the mid-1800s to the few blocks of buildings constructed at the turn of the century, from the infamous storm of 1933 to the overwhelming growth of the 1940s, Ocean City has had a rich and vibrant history. This volume offers a historical perspective of Ocean City from its inception to 1946, a period when growth was steady but slow. Now boasting over eight million visitors annually, the area is Maryland's golden-haired child and its second-largest city during peak summer weekends when an average of 300,000 tourists arrive.

Located in southeastern Harford County, Edgewood was established in the mid-1800s as a small village around a train station.

It remained small until 1917, when the government took over thousands of acres to create the Edgewood Arsenal military complex. Thousands came to build the arsenal on land previously known for having fertile farms, gentlemen's waterfowl hunting clubs, and one of the earliest meeting places for Methodists in America. World War II brought an even greater increase in military personnel and civilians. Later, numerous housing developments replaced obsolete off-post government buildings. The creation of Route 40 through Edgewood in 1939 and 1940 and the Edgewood exit on Interstate I-95 in 1963 brought travelers and spurred new business.

Images of America: Historic Silver Spring celebrates the community's past, beginning with founder Francis Preston Blair's 1840 discovery of the mica-flecked spring and the 1873 arrival of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

Vintage photographs document the progressive growth of the ""Main Streets,"" Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road, and the construction of the Silver Spring Armory and National Dry Cleaning Institute in 1927 and the Silver Theatre and Silver Spring Shopping Center in 1938. The volume culminates with modern pictures of downtown Silver Spring's 21st-century revitalization, which continues to preserve the past and secure the future of the area. In a pictorial journey through the community's Central Business District and bordering residential neighborhood, East Silver Spring, Historic Silver Spring honors the people and places that have come before.

An engaging visual history of Cambridge, Maryland, with never before seen photographs and postcards.

Cambridge, Maryland, ideally located along the Choptank River, has been home port to people of every description, including Native Americans, patriots, and state governors to oyster pirates and their nemesis-the Maryland Oyster Navy. Today, Cambridge embraces the diverse cultures and rich past evident in its historic homes and buildings and exhibited in its museums. The city owes much to maritime and agricultural resources including oysters and crabs from the river and bay, and crops from the surrounding fields. The town's Colonial history, proximity to Chesapeake Bay, and dauntless spirit lend a certain charm that is distinctively Cambridge.Images and postcards culled from a variety of sources bring to life the vivid and varied past of one of Maryland's earliest settlements. This unique volume of vintage photos and memorabilia, with its well-researched captions, will engage young and old alike. Highlighted in this photo journal along with the oyster fleet, businesses, churches, and events are the ordinary and extraordinary people who make this area special.

Nestled in the Allegheny Mountains in Western Maryland sits Frostburg, a community brimming with a deep sense of history and tradition.

Whether as a stop along the National Road, a booming coal-mining area, or the diverse college town of today, Frostburg has always fostered a rich ethnic heritage, a strong work ethic, and a commitment to education. The vintage photographs in Frostburg reveal the story of a town abounding with history. Carved out of Revolutionary War military lots, the town gained significance in the early 1800s as a stagecoach stop. The people who came to build the community represent a variety of cultures: Scottish, Welsh, German, and Italian residents of decades past are all included in this pictorial retrospective. The diligent efforts of early coal-mining families helped to establish what is now Frostburg State University in 1898, and the impact the institution has had on the community is evident within these pages. Photos of lively baseball games, decorated bands, public servants, early businesses, and memorable events are just some of the engaging images that are displayed in this collection.

Images of America: Maryland's Amusement Parks offers a glimpse of those parks and how they helped millions quench their thirst for recreation.

From Ferris wheels to roller coasters to tunnels of love, everyone has a favorite amusement park memory. For nearly 130 years, many of those memories have been made at Maryland's amusement parks. Today, only five exist, but throughout history, nearly three dozen have been part of Maryland's landscape.Maryland's first recorded amusement park, Cabin John Park in Montgomery County, opened in 1876, serving as a training ground for such industry luminaries as Scenic Railway and roller coaster pioneer L.A. Thompson and carousel carver Gustav Dentzel. More than a century later, Maryland's oldest park, Trimper's Rides and Amusements in Ocean City, is a virtual museum of amusement park history with operating rides dating to 1902. Some favorite parks, including Glen Echo, Gwynn Oak, Pen Mar, Tolchester Beach, and The Enchanted Forest, did not last as long, but their memories live on through more than200 images in this volume.

Witness the places and events that helped make Frederick County's history both distinct and truly All-American.

Frederick County is the crossroads of American history. Established in 1748, Maryland's largest county boasts some of the major building blocks of our country: the National Road, the C&O Canal and the B&O Railroad. The images in this volume illustrate the lives of everyday people, from the daily chores on a rural farm to the urbane pastimes of Frederick residents. The camera's lens provides a unique opportunity to look back in time and view a devastating fire in Braddock Heights, see Confederate troops marching to battle through Frederick, and see the inaugural run of the Frederick & Middletown Railway.

The remarkable story of the people who built the Conowingo Dam brick by brick and bill by bill, and the impact that goes on today.

Second in size only to the massive hydroelectric works at Niagara Falls, the Conowingo Dam across the Susquehanna River was celebrated as a miraculous feat of modern engineering when it opened in 1928. The dam was built with astonishing speed and efficiency and completed on budget and ahead of schedule, and its generators came on line at the very crescendo of the Roaring Twenties, when the race toward electrification was changing American life. The hydro dams of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Bonneville and Grand Coulee Dams in the Pacific Northwest, and the great colossus of Hoover Dam were all constructed in the next two decades, but handsome, indomitable Conowingo Dam preceded them all and remains in effective operation to this very day.

Fell's Point documents the interesting history of this diverse Baltimore community.

Fell's Point, Baltimore's original deep-water port, was founded in 1726 by William Fell, a shipbuilder from England. The community's shipyards developed the famed Baltimore Clippers; built two of the first ships in the United States Navy, the USS Constellation and the USS Enterprise; and financed the privateers that helped win the War of 1812. In the late 19th century, Baltimore was second only to Ellis Island as an entry port for European immigrants, many of whom initially settled in Fell's Point. When the Great Fire of 1904 swept through Baltimore, Fell's Point was the only historic neighborhood that survived. In the 1960s fight to keep from being demolished for an expressway, Fell's Point became Maryland's first district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today in Fell's Point, cultures, lifestyles, and generations mingle in a romantic seaport setting accented by working tugboats, cobblestone streets, tiny brick rowhouses, and a dazzling variety of bars, restaurants, shops, and coffeehouses.