Holland

9781467114004

$24.99

Holland, Michigan, has a provincial feel while being cosmopolitan, offering the best of both worlds to residents and visitors alike. In 1847, emigrants from the Netherlands founded Holland. For 85 years, the city has remembered its heritage with Tulip Time, a festival that attracts 250,000 visitors each May to view six million tulips. Clinging to tradition, the residents of Holland dress in Dutch costumes to scrub streets and dance in wooden shoes as they are joined by parading bands in the shadow of a 200-year-old windmill. Over the last 50 years, Holland's cultural diversity has evolved along with an outstanding business community in which numerous industries and unique retail outlets flourish. The city is home to Hope College, has won America in Bloom floral honors, contains an award-winning hospital, and features sugar sand beaches.

Eastpointe

9781467113250

$24.99

Located in southeast Michigan, Eastpointe is typical of many suburban cities of middle America. During its development phase, Eastpointe's businesses and residents became involved in work or services related to the automotive industry. Structural changes occurred at a rapid rate as population density and diversity, technology, and economic changes impacted the community in rapid succession. When the automotive industry slowed, the income to Eastpointe residents, schools, and the city also slowed, yet the resiliency of the community allowed the city to survive.

Hamtramck

9781467113519

$24.99

Fueled by a massive immigrant influx in the early 20th century, Hamtramck went from being a small farming village to a major industrial town in the space of 10 years. This phenomenal growth attracted national attention and set the city on a sometimes precarious path toward the future. Despite often teetering on financial ruin, the city has always managed to right itself. Once predominantly Polish, Hamtramck has recently turned in a new direction to become one of the most diverse cities in the nation. This human tapestry--intertwining memorable people, places, and events of the past and present--is woven with the many colors that are so richly evident on these pages.

Ypsilanti

9781467113465

$24.99

Ypsilanti, Michigan, home to Eastern Michigan University, is a small city where a great deal happens. This is a community with a strong sense of history and historic preservation. Homes and buildings about to fall in on themselves in the 1960s were preserved and restored and have found new uses today. It is a place of festivals, parades, concerts, and performances. There have been problems and turmoil, such as the time when the president of Eastern Michigan University needed a new house, but in each instance the people of Ypsilanti have come through stronger than before. Here, local historian James Mann shares why the people of Ypsilanti take pride in their city.

Battle Creek

9781467111577

$24.99

In the 1960s, Battle Creek was a successful industrial town known around the world as the Cereal City due to the area's largest employers, the ready-to-eat breakfast food companies of Ralston Foods, the Kellogg Company, and the Post division of General Foods. As these long-established businesses began to downsize, automate, and relocate, the community met the new economic and social challenges by developing a downtown pedestrian mall, converting a former military base into a vibrant industrial park, and merging two municipalities into the third-largest city (by area) in Michigan. These changes, along with many others, have continued to guide this Midwestern community into the 21st century.