Astoria

9781467109581

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Established in 1811, Astoria, Oregon, holds claim to being the oldest US settlement west of the Rockies. After surviving devastating fires and severe economic downturns, modern Astoria--with its well-preserved historic homes and bustling downtown--is a beacon on the scenic Columbia River. Celebrating this multilayered history, author Dr. Chelsea K. Vaughn is a native of the Pacific Northwest who has called Astoria home for the past nine years. She now works as the curator for the Clatsop County Historical Society.

The Dwelling Houses of Charleston, South Carolina

9781596292611

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A famous, classic volume on the architecture of Charleston's houses and neighborhoods, with a new introduction and foreword by architectural historian Gene Waddell. Features a collection of twenty rare sketches by Alice R. Huger Smith from her portfolio on the Miles Brewton House.

The Dwelling Houses of Charleston, South Carolina

Perth Amboy's Historic Neighborhoods

9781467108393

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Perth Amboy, New Jersey, has always been a wonderful and unique place in which to live. Centrally located in New Jersey on Raritan Bay, the city has a deepwater seaport, a marina, white sand beaches, many historical landmarks, and proximity to New York City. The residences, businesses, and industries intertwined in each neighborhood gave the areas their own identities. Industrialization and immigration changed the land and lifestyle of its residents. As immigrants moved into areas with those of similar ancestry and culture, their descendants studied, worked, and played with people from other cultural backgrounds. The resulting assimilation created a strong, unified community in which all Perth Amboy residents accepted, respected, and celebrated their diversity without racial, religious, or ethnic disharmony.

Eccentric Kansas

9781467144230

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Kansas has tales as extraordinary as its plains, although the stories behind the legends are sometimes lost to time. Discover the history of the state's world-class violinist, homemade airplane and alleged volcano. Iola's Mad Bomber blew up the town's saloons after a hangover. The bulletproof and most "extinctest" creature lurked in sinkholes outside Inman. Hunters in Stafford County learned to leave out enormous quantities of food for local hermit Pelican Pete. Join author Roger Ringer as he delves into these and other facts behind the myths of the Sunflower State.

Whitesbog

9781467108416

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Nestled in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey, Whitesbog was established by James Fenwick in 1857 as a cranberry farm. During the 1890s, under the leadership of Fenwick's son-in-law Joseph J. White, Whitesbog became the largest cranberry operation in the United States. By then, Whitesbog housed workers from South Philadelphia, typically Italian immigrants, who would stay in the satellite villages of Florence and Rome for the duration of the cranberry harvest. In 1911, Elizabeth White worked to domesticate the highbush blueberry in collaboration with Dr. Frederick Coville of the US Department of Agriculture, making Whitesbog the official birthplace of the blueberry industry; this effort would not have been achieved if not for the knowledge of the locals known as Pineys. Into the 1960s, Whitesbog was more than just a multigenerational family farm and site of innovation--it was a year-round community complete with housing, a post office, and even a school.

The Raven Illustrations of James Carling: Poe's Classic in Vivid View

9781626196728

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One of the most popular poems in the English language, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" has thrilled generations of readers. In 1882, the Anglo-American artist James Carling decided to produce the definitive series of illustrations for the poem. Carling's bizarre images explore the darkest recesses of Poe's masterpiece, its hidden symbolism and its strange beauty. Although the series remained unpublished at the time of the artist's early death in 1887, the drawings reemerged fifty years later, when they entered the collection of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond. There they lined the blood-red walls of a Raven Room dedicated to their display. For the first time, author and Poe historian Christopher P. Semtner reproduces the entire series and tells the story behind these haunting works.

The Raven Illustrations of James Carling: Poe's Classic in Vivid View

Pocatello

9781467106580

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Few cities in the United States have been influenced by as many industries as Pocatello. Mining, agriculture, education, and the railroad--as well as the Departments of War, the Navy, Defense, and Energy--have all made lasting impressions on the "Gate City." Native Americans also played an important role in the shaping of the community's character.

Northampton Fires and Firefighting

9781467160070

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Settled not long after the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Plymouth, Europeans were living in Northampton, Massachusetts, by 1653. Throughout the early years, fire was a constant threat. And not long after the first fires destroyed buildings constructed of thatched roofs and wooden chimneys, townspeople organized a fire department. Although not officially established until 1857 after a spate of arson fires throughout the 1840s, the earliest fire protection equipment was purchased in 1792, comprised of buckets and hooks and ladders that were grabbed by anyone in town available to assist within earshot of the dreaded cry of "fire." By 1870, the Northampton Fire Department was comprised of four companies located in downtown, Florence, Bay State, and Leeds, each with hose wagons and hand tubs pulled by men before they were replaced by horse-drawn steam-powered engines and then motorized apparatus. Today, Northampton Fire Rescue responds to more than 3,000 calls each year, providing a variety of emergency services to the people of Northampton.

Detroit's Grand River & Greenfield Neighborhood

9781467129831

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Grand River Avenue and Greenfield Road marked the center of a community bustling with retail, recreation, faith, and civic pride during the 1950s. Once a rural farming village, the neighborhood gained popularity following the World War II housing boom. New schools were built, local businesses filled storefronts, and the area prospered for 20-plus years until suburban life, facilitated by new superhighways, beckoned white, middle-class residents and business owners to abandon life in the city. Like a microcosm of Detroit, the neighborhood echoed the trend commonly called white flight. Today, strip malls have replaced national retailers and once well-manicured homes are in disrepair; however, another wave of dramatic change is promised as the city targets the area for urban renewal.

Detroit's Grand River & Greenfield Neighborhood

Boca Grande

9780738506135

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Once known as Gasparilla Island, Boca Grande has become one of the best places to vacation and live.

Life on Gasparilla Island once had a very different rhythm. With a past intimately tied to Charlotte Harbor and the rich fishing grounds it provided, Gasparilla Island was, in its early history, the site of a small fishing village and a commercial fishery. The discovery of phosphate deposits in the region and the introduction of the railroad soon increased the pace of life, and a thriving port was built on the island's south end. As the twentieth century dawned and the Florida boom loomed on the horizon, the town of Boca Grande began to hum with the activity of a rapidly growing population. Though much has changed through the years--the little fishing village has vanished, the estimable Boca Grande Hotel is gone, and the once bustling port is now a state park--much of the region's unique history continues to inform the modern landscape. The venerable lighthouse, constructed in 1890, now serves as a museum of local history, and the grand Gasparilla Inn still stands firmly upon its original 1911 site. Those who now call Boca Grande home cherish it for the same island magic that fishermen and railroad officials recognized long ago: its unspoiled natural beauty, inviting climate, world-class fishing, and welcoming community.

South Providence

9781467105767

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The themes of South Providence--urbanization, immigration, and industrialization--best characterize the nation's modern development. This volume reveals how a well-known Providence community worshipped, studied, worked, played, ate, and drank. The denizens of South Providence were an extraordinary mix. The geographic and demographic developments of the 19th century crafted the economically diverse, dense, and multicultural community of the 20th century. Today, almost every major avenue still contains a varied mixture of residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional uses with institutional development on the rise. The theme of this volume transcends South Providence and serves as the prototype of a 20th-century, inner-city ethnic neighborhood with variegated and successive waves of immigrant arrivals. Its focus is on their upward socioeconomic mobility, their social and cultural activities, and their religious traditions. Thirty-nine neighborhood residents have been inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame. That group exceeds the number of inductees from any Rhode Island city or town, except, of course, Providence, of which this vibrant neighborhood is a part.

Raritan Bayshore, The

9781467109154

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The Raritan Bayshore region of central New Jersey is an area that encompasses communities in Monmouth and Middlesex Counties on the northernmost part of the Jersey Shore--a place rich in history, nature, and recreation. The region has played a significant role throughout history, dating back to its earliest indigenous inhabitants and later European arrivals. Raritan Bayshore residents have been leaders in a number of fields, including politics, technology, architecture, the arts, and sports. Home to multiple national historic landmarks, the region has long been a summer tourism hot spot because of its abundance of beaches, vacation homes, amusements, and resorts. The region's people have encountered their fair share of trials and proven time after time that when faced with adversity, they respond by coming together as a community--the memorials and monuments in the area are a testament to this.

Around Gaithersburg

9781467104623

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Located in the heart of Montgomery County, Gaithersburg is one of the largest cities in Maryland and home to a highly educated and diverse population. The arrival of the railroad in 1873 spurred a residential and industrial boom, making Gaithersburg the market center for Darnestown, Quince Orchard, and Hunting Hill-and the agricultural powerhouse of Montgomery County. Rare photographs of these forgotten crossroads villages, as well as surrounding farms, houses, and mills of the Gaithersburg and Germantown areas, reveal places from the past, many of which have long since disappeared from the modern landscape. Despite the loss of a number of these landmarks, many still stand due to the efforts of the citizens.

Cover image for Around Gaithersburg, isbn: 9781467104623

Murder in Roanoke County

9781467144100

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Did her rival for a man's love get away with murder? It was a story of violence, bigamy, race and a quest for justice. The strange but true story of James and Susan Watkins.

A drama played out in the mountains of southwestern Virginia in 1891 that attracted nationwide attention and held the citizens of the Roanoke Valley spellbound. The tale of the trial of Charles Watkins for the murder of his wife was marked by threats of lynching, a fugitive manhunt, a disappearing witness, mistaken identities, claims of insanity and finally a secret letter to break the case wide open. In its day, the story was as closely followed as a modern televised murder trial. Despite the rapt attention of the public then, it has entirely faded from the history books - until now. Historian John Long resurrects the truth of who killed Susan Watkins.

Garden City

9781467105309

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Authors Constantine and Emmanuel Theodosiou take the reader back in time through the distinguished history of Garden City, one of New York's earliest and most successful planned communities. Historic photographs and meticulously researched text bring to life the upper-class gentility and civic responsibility of this Long Island treasure.

Positioned at the heart of Nassau County, Garden City sits like a crown jewel among the communities on Long Island. And it has a history to match. The brainchild of textile mogul Alexander Turney Stewart, who bought the last of the treeless Hempstead Plains to build his village, Garden City would emerge as the Eden of Long Island, a community for people with refined tastes but who believed in living a virtuous life. Thanks to his devoted wife, Cornelia Clinch Stewart, Stewart's legacy was furthered with the creation of the iconic Cathedral of the Incarnation and the Cathedral Schools of St. Paul and St. Mary. The Garden City Company later ensured that Garden City would remain an ideal place to live and to raise a family. But there is more. Its genteel reputation aside, Garden City showed the entire country that it could also meet a higher purpose, playing a vital role in Long Island's Golden Age of Aviation and during World War I with the formation of Camp Mills. With so much history to draw from, Garden City is a community nonpareil, a proud product of an extraordinary heritage. Father-son history team Constantine E. and Emmanuel C. Theodosiou are proud to offer this timely pictorial to honor Garden City's sesquicentennial. William A. Bellmer currently serves as Garden City's village historian and archivist.

Maritime Milwaukee

9780738583099

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In 1778, the first sailing vessel with cargo holds, the Archange, a schooner built for prominent British trader John Askin, found "quiet waters" in Milwaukee Bay. These quiet waters and the Milwaukee, Menomonee, and Kinnickinnic Rivers made Milwaukee a favorable destination for early settlers. Maritime Milwaukee explores the growth of the city's port and three riverfronts through a variety of photographs spanning the 1800s to the present thanks to the archival preservation of collections by the Port of Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Public Library, and the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.

The Ghostly Tales of Ellicott City

9781467198318

$12.99 $6.50 Save 50%

Ghost stories from Ellicott City, Maryland have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery! The haunted history of Ellicott City comes to life--even when the main players are dead. Visit the Third Ellicott City Firehouse and catch a glimpse of the people who died in the tragic fire that occurred there. Or step inside the ruins of Patapsco Female Institute, and be sure to keep an eye out for the ghoulish girls that may be running around! Dive into this spooky chapter book for suspenseful tales of bumps in the night, paranormal investigations, and the unexplained; just be sure to keep the light on.

How to Live in Detroit Without Being a Jackass

9781948742313

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In one of Curbed: Detroit's Top 11 Books about Detroit, Aaron Foley, editor of The Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook, offers the definitive inside look at one of America's most talked-about and least understood cities.

With a wry sense of humor, Foley, a native Detroiter, walks you through the most difficult questions about the Motor City, offering seven simple rules for making it there. Perfect for coastal transplants, wary suburbanites, unwitting gentrifiers, or start-up disruptors, this recently updated guidebook offers advice on everything from the glories of Vernors ginger ale to how to rehab a house to how to not sound like an uninformed racist. In twenty short chapters, Foley walks you through:

- How Detroiters do business

- The unofficial guide to enjoying Faygo

- How to be gay in Detroit

- How to raise a Detroit kid

- How to party in Detroit.

Both hilarious and insightful, this no-frills look at Motown is written for those who live there but also, as Vanity Fair put it, for anyone participating in contemporary global urbanization who would like to avoid behaving like a subjugating dick.

Cover image for How to Live in Detroit Without Being a Jackass, isbn: 9781948742313

Red State Blues

9781948742061

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Much was made of the 2016 electoral flip when traditionally Democratic states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio tipped the presidency to Donald Trump. Countless think pieces explored this newfound exotic constituency of blue voters who suddenly swung red. But what about those in the Midwest who remain true blue?

Red State Blues speaks to the lived experience of progressives, activists, and ordinary Democrats who are pushing back against simplistic narratives of the Midwest as Trump Country--a narrative that has erased the region's rich history of grassroots, progressive politics. They've been living there all along, and as the essays in this collection demonstrate, they're not leaving anytime soon.

Edited by Martha Bayne (Rust Belt Chicago, The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook), the collection includes work from:

- Sarah Kendzior, author of The View from Flyover Country

- Kenyon College president Sean Decatur

- Pittsburgh city councilman Dan Gilman

- Phil Christman, and many more.

A nuanced look at the true complexity of a region that has always refused to submit to stereotypes about it.

Radical Suburbs

9781948742368

$16.95 $8.48 Save 50%

Radical Suburbs is a revelation. Amanda Kolson Hurley will open your eyes to the wide diversity and rich history of our ongoing suburban experiment.--Richard Florida

America's suburbs are not the homogenous places we sometimes take them for. Today's suburbs are racially, ethnically, and economically diverse, with as many Democratic as Republican voters, a growing population of renters, and rising poverty. The cliche of broad lawns and white picket fences is well past its expiration date.

The history of suburbia is equally surprising. Rather than bland, sprawling cookie-cutter developments, some American suburbs were once fertile ground for utopian planning, communal living, socially conscious design, and integrated housing. In Radical Suburbs, Amanda Kolson Hurley, an editor at Bloomberg Businessweek, takes us on a tour of some of these radical communities, including:

- the co-housing commune of Old Economy, Pennsylvania

- a tiny-house anarchist community in Piscataway, New Jersey

- a government-planned garden city in Greenbelt, Maryland

- a racially integrated subdivision (before the Fair Housing Act) in Trevose, Pennsylvania

- experimental Modernist enclaves in Lexington, Massachusetts

- and the mixed-use, architecturally daring Reston, Virginia.

Here you will find blueprints for affordable, walkable, and integrated communities, filled with a range of environmentally sound residential options. It's a timely reminder, as NPR put it, that any place, even a suburb, can be radical if you approach it the right way.

An insightful study that will make you rethink your assumptions about suburbia and possibly remake its future.

Life Sentences

9781948742597

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A collection of poetry and prose by six incarcerated men. Featuring an introduction by Amber Epps and an afterword by novelist John Edgar Wideman.

The six authors of Life Sentences―Fly, Faruq, Khalifa, Malakki, Oscar, and Shawn―met at the State Correctional Institution in Pittsburgh and came together in 2013 to form the Elsinore Bennu Think Tank for Restorative Justice. The men met weekly for years, along with other writers, activists, and political leaders who bonded over the creation of this book, a hybrid of prison memoir, philosophy, history, policy document, and manifesto.

Centered around the principles of restorative justice, which aims to heal communities broken by criminal and state violence through collective action, Life Sentences is more than a literary collection. It is a how to guide for those who are trapped inside any community. It's also a letter of invitation, asking readers to join with the incarcerated and their families so we can all continue to fly over walls, form loving connections with each other, and teach one another to be free.

An urgent collection that sheds light on the criminal justice system, written by those most directly involved in it.

One of Ours

9781948742535

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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1923, One of Ours is the story of Claude Wheeler, the son of a Nebraska farmer. As a young man, Claude is dissatisfied with Nebraska farm like as well as his marriage to a childhood friend, desperate for a more cosmopolitan life. When America joins the Great War, Claude decides to enlist, where he finds excitement and fulfillment--as well as tragedy--on the battlefield.

One of Ours was considered a failure by some male critics of the day: H. L. Mencken said it drops to the level of a serial in the Ladies' Home Journal, fought out not in France, but on a Hollywood movie-lot, and Ernest Hemingway panned Cather for not having experienced the front-line herself.

However, the Pulitzer committee considered it the greatest novel of the year, and this accessible, dramatic novel sold many more copies than Cather's more famous ones, O, Pioneers! and My Antonia.

The Shame of the Cities

9781948742511

$14.95 $7.48 Save 50%

Lincoln Steffens's Tweed Days in St. Louis, published in McClure's magazine in October 1902, is considered the first work of muckraking journalism, exposing corruption between businessmen, politicians, police officers and other municipal actor, as well as how apathetic citizens allow machine politics to proceed unfettered.

The article also highlights residents who do fight back, including civil rights lawyer Joseph W. Folk and the workers involved in the St. Louis Streetcar Strike of 1900. Tweed Days was so successful that Steffens traveled on to Minneapolis to report The Shame of Minneapolis, which appeared in the same 1903 issue of McClure's as another muckraking classic, Ida Tarbell's The History of the Standard Oil Company.

Steffens would go on to expose machine politics in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York City. In 1904, McClure's published the series as a book, The Shame of the Cities, which remains stubbornly timely and prescient more than a century later.

Old Creole Days

9781455627493

$19.95 $9.98 Save 50%

These stories reflect the Creole way of life during the transitory post-Civil War period.

Butler County Revisited

9780738544779

$24.99 $12.50 Save 50%

In its very early years, Butler County was a vast wilderness of untamed forests. The fi rst pioneers suffered insurmountable odds while scratching out an existence in this frontier west of the Allegheny River. With determination, they succeeded, and the 1800s brought the development of many towns from the scant settlements. Butler City, the county seat, was laid out in 1800, and many smaller towns followed suit. With the arrival of oil after the Civil War, the county grew. The railroads and trolley lines that expanded into the area furthered the growth and helped industries prosper. Butler County Revisited celebrates the history of the area with 200 postcards, including scenes of the Chicora Whip Factory, a Memorial Day parade in Evans City, the Buhl Trolley Trestle over Connoquenessing Creek, and a large bear wrestling his trainer on Bruin Street.

Remaking Virginia Politics

9781467151122

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Go behind the scenes with never before reported stories of intrigue from some of the most colorful characters in Virginia politics over the last half century.

Read about the changes that political figures have brought to the Old Dominion, from Henry Howell's legendary gubernatorial run in the 1970s through 2020's successful battle for Richmond Public Schools against the Dominion Coliseum. Along the way, see how visionaries challenged Virginia to overcome her legacy of segregation and how that history still affects our destiny today.

Hailed by the New York Times as part of "a major revolution in racial politics in America'? for running the groundbreaking campaigns of Governor Doug Wilder, author Paul Goldman has spent decades on the leading edge of Virginia politics.

Adams Morgan

9780738542836

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Americans, especially Washingtonians, are very proud of our nation's capital, particularly the city's neighborhoods. Adams Morgan is one neighborhood that boasts the best of what America has to offer: thriving, multilayered diversity with a rich international flavor. Soon after the ruling of Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, the John Q. Adams School, a white school, combined with the Thomas P. Morgan School, a black school, to create the diversity we know and cherish today.

Manistee County

9781467106603

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Through a carefully-curated selection postcards, author Emma Wolf takes the reader through the bygone days of Manistee County, full of lumber barons, streetcars, steamships, and charming images of daily life in this coastal Michigan community.

The name "Manistee'? comes from the Ojibwa who lived in the region. Some believe it means "Spirit of the Woods'?--and that seems fitting. The abundance of towering white pine trees attracted John Stronach to build the first sawmill in the area in 1841. A thriving lumber town rose up along the river. A fire destroyed much of the town in 1871, and wealthy lumber barons decided to rebuild the town out of brick; those structures still line River Street today. The Manistee streets are quieter now than they were in the town's heyday, but the Victorian charm and over a century of remarkable history remain. Drawing from the postcards of lifelong collectors and information from residents whose families have lived in the town for generations, Emma Wolf and the Musculus family bring the unique history of Manistee County to life.

Webster

9780738572543

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The town of Webster, New York, is framed with a rugged, natural beauty that sets it apart from other local communities, and there is a spirit of independent thinking here that is valued. In 1840, the newly incorporated town was named after Daniel Webster, the outspoken statesman, who had never actually set foot in the town. Favorable soil conditions and climate tempered by Lake Ontario contributed to Webster's growth as a prosperous agricultural center for growing fruit. The production of dried apples, baskets, and food processing were all early industries. From the earliest days of Webster to the mid-20th century, this book highlights pioneer settlers such as the Constant Holt family who came in an oxcart from New England; recalls happenings such as train wrecks, fires, horse races, baseball teams, and children's flower parades through the village; and celebrates the social heritage and spirit of the town whose motto is "Where Life is Worth Living."

Francis "Two Gun" Crowley’s Killings in New York City and Long Island

9781467144353

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On a May morning in 1931, Nassau County police officer Fred Hirsch was gunned down by the notorious New York City gangster Francis Crowley. Nicknamed "Two Gun" for tricking and murdering cops with a second loaded firearm, Crowley left a bloody trail from the Bronx to Long Island. He shot and wounded two men at a local dance hall and a New York City police detective and murdered one of Nassau County's finest. Eventually, he was tracked to a hideout in Manhattan, where a two-hour gun battle, including more than two hundred cops and ten thousand spectators, led to his capture. His murder spree involved thousands of law enforcement personnel, stole national media attention and cut across the New York metropolitan area. Author Jerry Aylward presents the murderous life of Francis "Two Gun" Crowley from the streets of New York to the electric chair in Sing Sing.

Francis "Two Gun" Crowley’s Killings in New York City and Long Island

Bridges of the Mid-Hudson Valley

9781467105422

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The Hudson River bridges, iconic structures of the New York State Bridge Authority, are the cornerstone of the Mid-Hudson Valley. Opened in 1924, the Bear Mountain Bridge was the first vehicular crossing of the Hudson River, south of Albany. Twentieth-century growth in the Hudson Valley can be traced to each bridge opening, the result of grassroot efforts by local residents. The Mid-Hudson Bridge, named for the region these bridges span, was designated an "Engineering Epic" following the tipping of the east caisson that delayed construction for a year while engineers and laborers struggled to right that caisson in the waters of the Hudson River. The plan for the Rip Van Winkle Bridge required the creation of the New York State Bridge Authority, when funding was otherwise impossible during the Great Depression. Three more bridges were built connecting remaining areas of the Mid-Hudson region. The last crossing became the "twin spans" of the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, the New York State Bridge Authority's most traveled span. In 2010, the New York State Bridge Authority gained ownership of the bridge structure of the Walkway Over the Hudson, a pedestrian walkway built on the old Poughkeepsie Bridge, which opened for trains in 1889.

Middletown's High Street and Wesleyan University

9781467105460

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High Street and Wesleyan University (founded in 1831) share a fascinating, intertwined history. From this major inland port on the Connecticut River, Middletown's sea captains and merchants made fortunes in the 18th and early 19th centuries trading with the West Indies, South America, and China. Others enjoyed wealth amassed from the local manufacture of swords, firearms, and marine hardware. These prominent families built fashionable villas of the latest architectural designs on High Street. Many of their homes remain, and two have been designated national historic landmarks. With spectacular views of the river valley below, its avenue of arching elms, and the addition of Wesleyan's formidable "Brownstone Row," the street has attracted many to the hill. Dignitaries, including George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, William Howard Taft, and Martin Luther King Jr., came to High Street.

Middletown's High Street and Wesleyan University

Cascadian Hotel

9781467105156

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On August 9, 1929, the Cascadian Hotel opened in Wenatchee, Washington, the "Apple Capital of the World." It was (and still is) the tallest building in town. The opening ceremony--featuring a human spider scaling the facade--celebrated the coming to town of a technologically innovative and luxurious hotel that, for its 42-year existence, prided itself on quality service. The Cascadian had very strong ties to the community, apple themes ran throughout the building, and for years it was the go-to meeting place in Wenatchee. The hotel also served as the starting point for the hospitality careers of several men and women who rose to executive leadership positions in the international Western (later Westin) Hotels chain.

Martinez

9780738529202

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Martinez, nestled in a gentle valley by the calm waters of the Carquinez Strait, became an important early inland port that welcomed ships from all over the world. Once a commercial center for grain growers from as far away as the Livermore Valley, it was named Contra Costa's county seat in 1850. From the days of the Gold Rush when ferries carried hopeful miners across the strait on their way north, through the linking of its railway track to the transcontinental network in 1879, to the thriving industries of today, Martinez has remained the governmental and transportation center of the region.

Japanese Americans of Florin

9781467105910

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First-generation Japanese Issei immigrants arrived in Florin in the 1890s, after attempts at profitable strawberry cultivation by Florin landowners had failed. By 1905, however, Issei farmers had developed effective techniques for growing strawberries that delivered a resurgence of the crop. The Issei farmers discovered that Florin's shallow hardpan grew strawberries and grapes well; these fruits would blossom into Florin's major cash crops and lead to the crowning of Florin as the "strawberry capital of the world." But Japanese successes were hard-earned in the face of racist organizations such as the Asiatic Exclusion League and laws like Executive Order 9066, signed by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942. Florin was a community with a majority of Japanese Americans, but their forced removal--mandated by Roosevelt's order--dealt a crushing blow to the bustling agricultural town, as many Florin families never returned. The Japanese American Archival Collection (JAAC) was established in 1994 as an educational partnership between California State University, Sacramento (CSUS), and the Florin Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). The content collection was led by Florinite Mary Tsukamoto, an educator, author, and activist who was sent with her family to Japanese American concentration camps between 1942 and 1945.