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From summer getaway to historic landmark, this history of Bloomfield Hills is a perfect visual history for Detroit and Michigan enthusiasts.

Bloomfield Hills is an affluent suburban city located 20 miles north of downtown Detroit. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, much of the area's rolling farmland was purchased by wealthy Detroit residents who had first discovered The Hills when they went touring northward in their new horseless carriages. Seeking refuge from Detroit's summer heat and crowds, the newcomers built weekend homes that ranged from elaborate farmhouses to large manor estates. Philanthropists George Gough Booth and his wife, Ellen Scripps Booth, envisioned more than a manor house for themselves, however, and built what is now a National Historic Landmark, the Cranbrook Educational Community. In 1932, Bloomfield Hills incorporated as a city. The city retains its mystique as an enclave of elegant living and exceptional schools, but its history also includes instances of poverty and mayhem.

Bloomfield Hills, written by historian, journalist, and local resident Christine Blackwell, takes a look at a city with a very vibrant history.

This book offers an inside look at the beginnings and story of Caumsett State Park, from great English estate to nationally protected land.

Marshall Field III was 28 years of age and one of the richest people in the world when he came upon the idea of replicating the environment in which he had spent his youth. Raised and educated in England, Field sought the life of an English gentleman here in the United States. In 1921, Field purchased almost 2,000 acres of waterfront property on Long Island's North Shore, which would become Caumsett. Forty years later, Field's third wife, Ruth, opened bids for the right to purchase Caumsett and all that it had become. The highest bid, in excess of $5 million, came from a builder who planned to subdivide the estate and construct 700 homes. A second bid, from Robert Moses, then parks commissioner of New York State, was more than $1 million less. Ruth reflected on her life and what her late husband would have wanted. She turned to trusted adviser and confidant Adlai Stevenson and stated that she wanted to accept the lower bid. Fourteen months later, Caumsett State Park was born.

Discover how East Hampton evolved from a fishing and farming community in the 1600s to a popular summer destination by the late 18th century.

Within a year of its construction in 1796, the Montauk Lighthouse was already attracting tourists to East Hampton. By the mid-19th century, steamships and railroads were taking visitors to see the magnificent beaches and stay in the boarding houses. The smaller East Hampton communities, such as Montauk, Amagansett, and Wainscott, also became favored locations for people escaping the heat of the cities, and they remain highly sought-after destinations today.

Explore the grounds of Colonial Williamsburg with this unique seek-and-find alphabet book offering beautiful photographs with hidden animals on every page.

Discover everything from sheep pastures and underground ice houses to walled gardens and winding hedge mazes. Included are fun facts about Colonial Williamsburg's history in an illustrated glossary and a kid-friendly map for planning your journey. Whether you use this book as a guide for an upcoming visit to Colonial Williamsburg or as a souvenir to commemorate your stay, a magical adventure awaits you and your family!

Discover Baton Rouge's bygone days of booming growth and the influence of its renowned residents.

For nearly two centuries, Baton Rouge remained a sleepy little river town. Situated on the first bluffs of the Mississippi River north of the Gulf of Mexico, it was prime real estate for habitation. Images of America: Forgotten Baton Rouge collects a plethora of lost images of this city's greatest period of expansion: from the 1890s to the 1930s. This era began when Louisiana State University moved to the grounds of the old US Army arsenal, followed by a corporate decision from John D. Rockefeller to build a Standard Oil Company refinery at Baton Rouge. These historic decisions, coupled with the forward-thinking actions of bold businessmen and politicians like Robert A. Hart and Huey P. Long, changed the face of the city forever.

The history of Pawleys Island, South Carolina, can be summed up in four words: rice, sea, golf, and hammocks.

The rivers threading through coastal South Carolina created an ideal environment for cultivating rice, and by the mid-18th century, vast plantations were producing profitable crops and wealthy landowners. But those plantations also produced malaria-carrying mosquitoes, so the landowners sent their families to the seashore for the summer and built the first houses on Pawleys Island starting in 1822. The end of slavery doomed the rice culture, and the old plantations were sold to rich Northerners for hunting and fishing retreats. By the 1960s, many of the old plantations were turned into golf courses, reviving the economy. But the beating heart of Pawleys Island remains the rhythm of the sea and what one early visitor called "the only beach in the world."

Through hundreds of scarcely-seen images, follow authors John E. Findling and Tom Morton as they take you around the booming neighborhood that was once a small agricultural community.

St. Matthews, once a prominent neighborhood of Louisville, is now a fourth-class city within metro Louisville. The first settlers came to the area in the 1780s, and for more than a century St. Matthews was largely an agricultural area where farmers specialized in growing potatoes. By 1900, a commercial district had grown at the intersection of several roads, known locally as the Point, and the land devoted to farming was gradually taken over by new commercial and residential development. After the great flood of 1937 and World War II, Shelbyville Road, the principal east-west street in St. Matthews, was the site of a commercial boom that included malls and other shopping centers, automobile dealerships, and a wide variety of other businesses. Today, the town of St. Matthews is a vibrant economic and cultural center that attracts people from all parts of metropolitan Louisville.