Arcadia Bestsellers

From Swamp to Paradise, this book recounts the history of the City of Palm Coast using vintage images and illustrations.

What is paradise? Before 1969, land that would eventually become the City of Palm Coast was considered by some as nothing more than a ""big pine-covered swamp."" But when the corporate eyes of ITT/Levitt and Sons looked upon the virtually uninhabited land, they saw 22,000 acres of golf courses, marinas, oceanfront motels, scenic drives, and house lots awaiting the arrival of sun-seeking ""pioneers."" Marketing strategies targeting urban residents in the North and Midwest offered slices of land cut out of miles of forest, and soon a 500-mile infrastructure of roads, utilities, and sewer lines bound Palm Coast to a future that included becoming the largest planned unit development in Florida history.

Jacksonville during the '50s and '60s was a wonderful and energetic place for the children who called it home

The northeast corner of the Sunshine State was the perfect and picturesque backdrop for some of America's timeless traditions. Mothers belonged to garden clubs and fathers played the golf links, while the children who grew up in Jacksonville frolicked on the warm beaches and fed peanuts to Miss Chic, the first elephant at the Jacksonville Zoo. They strapped on skates and held hands as they circled the rink of the famous Skateland, wandered down the stacks at Haydon Burns Library and crossed the many bridges that traversed Jacksonville's waterways. Join Dorothy Fletcher, former columnist for the Florida Times-Union, as she recounts the memories and adventures of the people who grew up Jacksonville.

Ghost stories from Florida's Haunted Lighthouses have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery!

Welcome to the spooky shores of Florida!

Stay alert! Ghosts lurk around every corner. Even the most unexpected places might be haunted by wandering phantoms. 

Did you know St. Augustine is home to the most haunted lighthouse in all of Florida? Or that ghostly pirates stalk the lighthouse on Garden Key in search of buried treasure? Can you believe that when the sun sets at Carysfort Reef Light, the dead... come alive?

Pulled right from history, these ghostly tales will change the way you see Florida's Haunted Lighthouses, and have you sleeping with the light on! 

Adapted from Haunted Florida Lighthouses by Heather Leigh, PhD

Author Caren Schnur Neile offers a whole new way to explore Florida.

Dexter, Key Largo, The Yearling—all famous works of popular culture created by masters in their fields. What’s more, all three take place in Florida. This plunge into Florida-based TV, movies and fiction from the nineteenth century to the present both entertains and educates about the Sunshine State and the stories themselves. Did you know who producers originally wanted to star in Bad Boys or which product saw skyrocketing sales thanks to Miami Vice?

Florida enthusiasts will also find a good, long list of enticing shows and books to enjoy, from old favorites like Their Eyes Were Watching God, Scarface and The Golden Girls to newer masterpieces like The Florida Project and Moonlight.

Take a spine-tingling plunge into Florida's pirate-filled past! 

Meet Florida's spooky pirates!

Stay alert! Ghosts lurk around every corner. Even the most unexpected places might be haunted by wandering phantoms. 

Did you know that the city of St. Augustine is positively packed with ghostly pirates? Or that on Gasparilla Island, you might just spot a headless buccaneer and his "spirited" steed galloping down the beach? Can you believe a three-hundred-year-old ghost ship and its cursed crew still haunts the waterways of the Florida Everglades? Shiver me timbers!

Pulled right from history, these ghostly tales will change the way you see Florida forever, and have you sleeping with the lights on! 

Adapted from Ghosts and Legends of Florida's Pirates by Heather Leigh, PhD

It was a common story in the 1980s: downtowns were dying.

Stuart was right there with the ill-fated. Businesses had largely abandoned Stuart’s historic buildings, leaving the streets deserted. The St. Lucie River, which should have been an asset, was more of a liability, befouled with pollution, some of it from the city’s sewer system. The southernmost leg of Interstate 95 hadn't been completed yet, meaning US 1, the town’s main thoroughfare, was clogged with traffic that had no intention of stopping in this dirty backwater. Indeed, downtown was in such bad shape that Martin County government was thinking of relocating its courthouse. But the city had one thing going for it: a core group of citizens who fought back to restore downtown into an award-winning showpiece. Author Blake Fontenay shares the story of Stuart’s revitalization.

This baby memory book allows families to record all the milestones of a uniquely Florida childhood! The lively illustrated pages provide spaces for photos and notes for baby's first twelve months in this one-of-a-kind state, with pages for the first and second birthday too. Parents then can set down the dates and details for baby's first orange juice, baseball game, theme park, and much more!

Bursting with delightful colors and bright illustrations, Local Baby: Florida engages babies’ attention and encourages families to explore what makes their state so great.

Collect seashells in St. Pete Beach and go fishing in Destin. Dive into St. Augustine's history and launch into the Kennedy Space Center's future! Kiteboard, pick oranges, and see the gators and manatees along the coast. Explore Florida with this joyfully grabbable and wonderfully local board book that is sure to bring generations together.

Since 1913, Tampa has provided the background for some of the Major League Baseball's most iconic spring moments led, of course, by the longest home run of Babe Ruth's career. Tampa was the scene of the Grapefruit League's first no-hitter and the only spring time All-star Game. It was the first gathering place of the Big Red Machine and the Core Four. Well over 125 Hall of Famers honed their craft among the city's three major league ballparks: Plant Field, Al Lopez Field and Steinbrenner Field. All of it resulted from a diverse city's love of the game that began with baseball-crazed cigar factory workers before the turn of the 20th century .

Prohibition is recognized as the most unpopular law in US history. It was so unpopular at the time that some Floridians weren't all too keen on obeying it. Learn how it was instigated by small town Protestants who believed that newer immigrants living in big cities were immoral because of their emphatic use of alcohol. Prohibition bred corruption, defiance of the law, and hypocrisy as illegal bootlegging, moonshining and rum running replaced legitimate taxpaying industries. Florida actually voted state-wide Prohibition into law before the dreaded 18th amendment and was the only state to elect a governor from the Prohibition Party. Florida's Bill McCoy "The Real McCoy" founded Rum Row and became an international celebrity as he made a mockery of the U.S. Coast Guard's inability to squelch his innovative rum running operations. Al Capone, the infamous gangster, vacationed in Florida while his henchmen perpetrated the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Many virtually unknown stories of tragic killings in Florida during Prohibition are also recounted.

Ghost stories from Northwest Florida have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery!/

em>Welcome to the spooky beaches and piers of Panama City!/em>

Stay Alert! Ghosts lurk around every corner. Even the most unexpected places might be haunted by wandering phantoms.

Pulled right from history, these ghostly tales will change the way you see Panama City forever, and have you sleeping with the lights on!

Founder Henry S. Sanford envisioned a place that would become the transportation hub for all of southern Florida and dubbed it ""The Gate City of South Florida.""

The city that became Sanford, named for its founder, is located in central Florida on the shores of Lake Monroe and the St. Johns River, a short distance from old Fort Mellon; with its railroad and riverboat connections, as well as well-planned businesses and residential areas, Sanford became a great center for trade. The citrus industry thrived in Sanford, as well as the harvesting of celery, and by the early 1900s, Sanford was one of the largest vegetable shipping centers in the United States and was nicknamed "Celery City'?. A disastrous fire, disease, and a deep winter freeze were just some of the early setbacks the city overcame, and today, Sanford is a progressive city that still retains its quaint charm and is dedicated to remembering its beginnings.

These pictorial images illustrate the people, places, and events that have shaped the African-American culture and history of St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg's African-American community enjoys a rich history that is evidenced within these pages of treasured images and detailed captions. Captured are the people, places, and events that have shaped this community from its earliest days to the present. Highlighted are the city's first black settlers John Donaldson and Anna Germain, former slaves, employees of Louis Bell Jr., and true pioneers. Acknowledged is the impact that the blacks who migrated here in the late 1800s had on the city's development. Shared are fond memories of black neighborhoods like Methodist and Pepper Towns that no longer exist, but can never be forgotten. Remembered is the community's fight for racial equality-using both peaceful and militant means.

Join resident and historian Frank J. Thomas as he recounts the rich and vibrant history of Melbourne Beach and Indialantic.

Southward, along the east coast of Florida, stretches a series of long, palmetto-covered islands that beat back the thundering surf of the Atlantic Ocean. Located about midway on this coast, between the Indialantic Bridge in the north and Sebastian Inlet in the south, is the community of Melbourne Beach. Since the historic arrival of Juan Ponce de Leon in the New World on April 2, 1513, at a site now believed to be within the bounds of Melbourne Beach, the area has experienced more than four centuries of progress, struggle, and success. Discover within these pages how the area's residents have made Melbourne Beach the strong and vital community it is today through a fascinating compilation of stories and recollections. Meet such colorful residents as bean farmer R.T. Smith, who had ""In Beans I Trust"" printed on his stationery, and the forward-thinking real estate developer Ernest Kouwen-Hoven.

The 1920s was a time of unprecedented growth in the nation's oldest city.

Fueled by a land boom that began in South Florida, St. Augustine was inundated with land speculators and new subdivisions, many only supported by a wing and a prayer. The city floated a million-dollar bond issue to construct the Bridge of Lions, and D.P. Davis filled in an entire marshland to build his magnificent subdivision of Davis Shores. When a new coastal highway linked the town with beached to the north and south and opened up St. Augustine's beautiful shoreline for development, tourists began flocking to the city in droves. All of this activity halted, however, when the land boom collapsed in the late 1920s, along with rest of the U.S. economy at that time.St. Augustine in the Roaring Twentiesdetails the roller-coaster events of the city in this exciting decade.