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Read the history of Mystic, Connecticut, from quiet farming village to wartime shipbilding powerhouse, to the charming nautical- themed destination it is today.

Tucked away in a natural port, Mystic has long been home to seagoing adventure. In A History of Mystic, Connecticut, author and former Mystic Seaport librarian Leigh Fought relates the compelling story of this picturesque coastal community. Forged from the brutal Pequot War, for years Mystic was a quiet little farming village. Then came the War of 1812. Mystic's upstart venture capitalists seized on the war's dislocations to transform the settlement into a shipbuilding powerhouse. The shipyards launched vessels by the hundreds and an industry was born. The Civil War, steam-powered ships and the decline of commercial whaling halted Mystic's shipbuilding boom. Yet the town recovered, transforming itself into the charming nautical-themed tourist destination that has enchanted millions. Read Fought's comprehensive narrative to discover Mystic's role in New England's thrilling maritime saga.

Long neglected in the annals of American music, the Nutmeg State's influence on the history of rock'n'roll deserves recognition.

Connecticut's musical highlights include the beautiful harmonies of New Haven's Five Satins, Gene Pitney's rise to fame, Stamford's the Fifth Estate and notable rockers such as Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Rivers Cuomo of Weezer and Saturday Night Live Band's Christine Ohlman. Rock Hall of Famers include Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz of the Talking Heads and Dennis Dunaway of the Alice Cooper Band. Some events became legend, like Jimi Hendrix's spellbinding performance at Yale's Woolsey Hall, Jim Morrison's onstage arrest at the New Haven Arena and teenage Bob Dylan's appearance at Branford's Indian Neck Folk Festival. With in-depth interviews as well as rare, never-before-seen photos, author Tony Renzoni leads a sonic trip that captures the spirit and zenith of the local scene.

The earliest settlers-such as Nehemiah Marks, who was living and doing business in Stamford as early as 1720-opened stores and other commercial enterprises. By the mid-1800s, city dwellers began coming to the region for summer vacations. After 1880, settlers arrived via the peddlers' routes and, after accumulating a little capital, stayed to open shops and establish themselves socially and politically. The greatest influx came in the 1890s and early 1900s, when many Jews arrived from the Pale of Settlements, eastern and central Europe, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Romania, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Greenwich is a stately southeastern Connecticut town well-known for its affluent homes and natural beauty.

In the twentieth century, the town moved from a farming to a mercantile economy, and its population rose from twelve thousand to more than sixty thousand. The community consists of a number of distinct areas, just as it was one hundred years ago, and perhaps more than any other aspect, that neighborhood feeling has survived and even strengthened as new growth and new circumstances have continued to evolve. Greenwich is an eye-catching compilation of historical images, an overview of all that has made this outstanding community what it is: Greenwich Avenue, the excellent schools, the landmark churches, the dignified homes, the people and their elegant lifestyle, the many distinctive neighborhoods, the clubs, and the wonderful parks, beaches, and islands. It is also a visual record of how things have changed during the twentieth century. Greenwich provides a fascinating perspective on the past and the present, weaving a rich tapestry of images into a coherent portrait of a beautiful New England town.

In Somers, the unique history of this rural New England town is captured in photographs, postcards, and artists' renditions from the last half of the 1800s to the present. Each image is identified with extensively researched and informative captions. The chapters depict early homes and farms (many still in existence), families and individuals, businesses, schools, and churches. They show the transition from largely produce farms to horse farms and tree farms, and to residential developments, as well as the rescue from decay of the unique, century-old Free Public Library.

A delightful collection delivering the curious history of a Connecticut town bursting with character.

Welcome to Rowayton, a vibrant community nestled on the shores of Long Island Sound and encompassed by the city of Norwalk, Connecticut. Great steamships once delivered thousands of visitors daily to Roton Point to enjoy one of the premier amusement parks on the eastern seaboard. Roton Point was also home to the nation's oldest continuously operated multi-hull racing club and was the birthplace of the winged sail design for C-class catamarans. In this collection of vignettes, rumrunners, a missing two-hundred-foot steamship, a national scandal and the notorious ""Long Island Express"" hurricane of 1938 that almost destroyed Roton Point all introduce readers to a grand time in New England history.

Old Lyme, Lyme, and Hadlyme is a compelling tribute to an area that is extraordinary in many ways.

Where the Connecticut River empties into Long Island Sound, a community that eventually became known as Lyme was settled in 1639. The community ran up the eastern riverbank to what is now East Haddam, along the Sound to Niantic, and into parts of Salem. In time, Lyme was divided into small towns and villages: Old Lyme, Lyme, Hadlyme, Hamburg, Sterling City, South Lyme, and the coastal communities. The area is notable due to its people, many of whom were attorneys, judges, legislators, and governors; for its commerce, which brought ships from up and down the East Coast and as far away as the West Indies; and for its beautiful homes, some of which survive today thanks to a strong preservation ethic.

This third volume of Hartford celebrates the history of Connecticut's capital, featuring an exploration of citizens' everyday lives and a collection of the Hartford Times.

This third volume of Hartford continues the celebration and remembrance of Connecticut's capital that was started with Wilson H. Faude's first two highly successful volumes on the history of the city. This new volume features the hitherto unavailable collection of the city's evening newspaper, the Hartford Times. This third trip into Hartford's past takes us into the lives and celebrations of the city's residents. The fascinating images bring us into Hartford's unique celebrations, including Discovery Day and the Tobacco Festival. We also get a glimpse of how the city's residents interpreted traditional holidays, with photographs depicting St. Patrick's Day revelry and shoppers braving holiday retail madness. As you peruse the pages, remember the Times Carol Sing and the Times Camp; remember when presidential hopefuls spoke from the city's portico, vying for Hartford's support. It is all here in Arcadia Publishing's third volume of Hartford.

Despite the name, there is nothing mystical about the successes of the town of Mystic.

Mystic was one of the most active shipbuilding ports along New England's southern coast during the mid-19th century, renowned for building more than 600 ships a year. By the end of the age of sail, Mystic made a successful transition to a new economy based on textile and machine manufacturing, maritime engineer, and small craft building. These industries carried the village into the 20th century, and today, Mystic is a world-class tourist destination, a community that is both divided and unified by the Mystic River. The history of Mystic mirrors the history of many coastal New England towns, but the images here are unique to this southeastern Connecticut region, recognizable to both residents and visitors alike.

Vernon and Historic Rockville chronicles the transformation of a small Connecticut community in the mid-nineteenth century to a bustling manufacturing town until after World War II.

Incorporated in 1808, Vernon was born on the eve of the Industrial Revolution in America. With industrialization came urbanization, immigration and in Rockville's case, mechanized experimentation. Innovations in textile manufacturing led to the development of 13 textile mills along the falls of the Hockanum River. Rockville became nationally recognized for its fine wool production. Photographs from the extensive collection of the Vernon Historical Society capture the evolution of social change and the growth of a diverse urban center from rural beginnings. Highlights include the development of community life as a result of the many textile mills located in the northern section of town.

Located in south-central Connecticut on Long Island Sound, explore Guilford's long and notable history through the words and images of the people who lived it.

Founded in 1639 by a Puritan minister and his followers, the town by 1750 had grown to 2,300 residents, whose primary occupation was farming, with a substantial minority engaged in maritime activities. A shallow harbor kept Guilford from developing into a major port, and the lack of a significant waterpower source precluded large industrial development in the early nineteenth century. Yet, by the late part of that century, Guilford had become a town of significance, bustling with small enterprises that were operated mainly by descendants of the original families.

Guilfordcaptures the excitement of the period from 1880 to 1920, when the town experienced the improvements of that time: photographic processing that made wonderful images possible, the automobile, the trolley, telephone service, and electricity. All of these contributed to the comfort of life and made it practical for visitors to come to Guilford. With its beautiful coastline, Guilford attracted many new summer residents, most with the means to build their own cottage. These same residents valued the many Colonial houses still standing in town and the picturesque town green, leading to early preservation efforts. The quarries at Leetes Islandand Sachem's Headwere the largest business enterprises of the time, bringing Scandinavian and Italian workers to live in Guilford.

The Guilford Keeping Society, founded in 1947, operates the Thomas Griswold House Museum and maintains a large collection of photographs and documents pertaining to Guilford. Members of the society have combined the best of their collection with fascinating narrative and have come up with Guilford, a tribute to the town's rich past.

This fascinating collection of picture postcards documents the history of Wilton in the Golden Age of Postcards.

For over the past one hundred years, postcards have served as an invaluable resource for people to commemorate a place and communicate its importance to friends and family at the other end of the mailbox. Wilton, Connecticut, like so many other cities and small towns across the country, has enjoyed being the subject for a variety of pictures, which serve as a wonderful treasure for remembering lost landscapes and historic buildings, homes, and other structures that have been sacrificed to ""progress"" and development. Wilton gives the reader an opportunity to observe another world, to look into the very eyes of today's ancestors and see their struggles, their successes, their pains, and their passions.