Arcadia Publishing

Track the history of the Chicago Great Western Railway through vintage images in this volume authored by David J. Fiore Sr.

The Chicago Great Western Railway (CGW) was a Midwestern line that operated in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska. Although this territory was served by much larger systems, the CGW was able to retain its share of passenger and freight business for 83 years through aggressive management, dedicated employees, innovations, and efficient operations. By the early 1960s, however, the growth of the trucking industry and airlines had taken away a substantial amount of the business previously handled by railroads. The CGW would not survive as operating costs increased while revenues declined. The only solution was to consolidate with another railroad, and a favorable agreement was reached with the Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW). At 12:01 a.m. Monday, July 1, 1968, the CGW ceased to exist, as it became part of the C&NW. Since that time, much of the system has been abandoned, and today only a few segments of former CGW trackage remain in service. This book provides nostalgic images and photographs of the operations, employees, locomotives, and stations of a little railroad that is now only a memory.

The Morris Canal was not the longest canal in the world, but it did have one superlative to its credit—it climbed higher than any other canal ever built.

In its time, it was world famous, visited by tourists and technical people from as far away as Europe and Asia.For nearly 100 years, it crossed the hills of northern New Jersey, accomplishing that feat with 23 lift locks and 23 inclined planes.From Lake Hopatcong, the canal ran westward through the Musconetcong valley to Phillipsburg, on the Delaware River, and eastward through the valleys of the Rockaway and Passaic Rivers to tidewater at Newark and Jersey City—a little over 100 miles horizontally and a total rise and fall of nearly 1,700 feet vertically.The Morris Canal, once an important soldier in the American Industrial Revolution, has been gone for most of the 20th century, but its memory lives on in the many photographs, postcards, and other memorabilia that its unique presence inspired.

The Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital was more than a building; it embodied an entire era of uniquely American history, from the unparalleled humanitarian efforts of Dorothea Dix to the revolutionary architectural concepts of Thomas Story Kirkbride.

After well over a century of service, Greystone was left abandoned in 2008. From the time it closed until its demolition in 2015, Greystone became the focal point of a passionate preservation effort that drew national attention and served to spark the public's interest in historical asylum preservation. Many of the images contained in this book were rescued from the basement of Greystone in 2002 and have never been seen by the public. They appear courtesy of the Morris Plains Museum and its staff, who spent many hours digitally archiving the photographs so that future generations may better know Greystone's history.

Pan American World Airways could be considered a corporate Cinderella--a rags-to-riches-and-back-again phenomenon.

From its founding in 1927 and its relatively obscure inauguration as a mail carrier on a 90-mile mail run from Florida's Key West to Cuba, Pan Am's route system grew to span the globe. The company that would eventually become famous for its blue-and-white-world logo grew into a conglomerate of hotels, airlines, business jets, real estate, a helicopter service, and even a guided missiles range division. But financial problems plagued Pan Am in its last two decades, and in 1991, Pan American World Airways ceased flying after 64 years of service. The story of Pan Am is as much the story of president Juan T. Trippe as it is an account of airplanes, pilots, flight attendants, and glamorous destinations. As the company moved throughout the world building airfields from jungles, crossing oceans, and forcing the development of new airplanes, it was Trippe's airline and his vision. A global pioneer, Pan Am was the first airline to use radio communications, to employ cabin attendants and serve meals aloft, and to complete an around-the-world flight. The company's achievements were legendary, but its failures, tragedies, and disasters were also part of a complex corporate life.

Idora Park opened on May 30, 1899, as Terminal Park, a picnic area at the final trolley stop on the south side of Youngstown, Ohio. The name was changed to Idora Park on November 25, 1899.

Initial features and attractions included a Dentzel carousel with stationary animals, a casino stage, a bandstand, swings, picnic tables, drinking fountains, and toilet facilities. People flocked to the new park, jamming streetcars to capacity. On August 27, 1899, twenty thousand people crowded into the park. The trolley tracks had to be doubled in number, and many more streetcars were added. On Independence Day, 1901, thirty thousand people came to see the fireworks display. Idora Park needed to expand in order to accommodate these huge crowds. And expand it did. By 1915, the park had doubled in size. On April 26, 1984, it all came crashing down. Fire destroyed the two premier rides and half of one midway. Idora Park did not recover, and 1984 was its final year.

The stars were in alignment to transform the isolated hamlet of White Oak Flats into the major tourist destination that Gatlinburg is today.

Settlers arrived at the end of the 18th century to farm, and a community emerged. When the ladies of the Pi Beta Phi Women's Fraternity established a school in Gatlinburg in 1912, the mountain people learned they had the skills to produce marketable, handmade items. With interest in a national park developing in the 1920s, people began to visit the area to buy handcrafts and to enjoy the scenery. Enterprising residents then built hotels and shops to accommodate them. Today, Gatlinburg supports approximately 11,000 people with an active chamber of commerce, a prize-winning community center, an outstanding public school system, a national art education center, and a nationally known public library.

Powerful: this single word aptly describes a naval vessel known as a battleship. The USS Alabama (BB-60) was the last of four South Dakota-class battleships built for World War II.

She is well armored and designed to survive an attack while continuing to fight. Her main battery, known as Big Guns, consisted of nine 16-inch guns; each could launch a projectile weighing as much as a small car that could hit a target 21 miles away. Her crew numbered 2,332 men, none of whom were lost to enemy fire, earning her the nickname Lucky A. She served as more than just a battleship: she carried troops, supplies, and seaplanes and served in the Pacific and Atlantic; her doctors treated patients from other ships; she was the wartime home for a major-league ballplayer; the movie setting for Hollywood films; and she traveled home to the state of Alabama with the help of schoolchildren.

A fascinating history of the Ohio and Erie Canal, from a national leader in agricultural output to a recreational resource.

George Washington first proposed the idea of a canal connecting the Great Lakes to the Ohio-Mississippi River System in 1784. Inspired by the Erie Canal in New York, the State of Ohio began surveying routes in 1822 for its own grand internal improvement project. Completed a decade later, the 309-mile-long Ohio and Erie Canal connected Cleveland, Akron, Massillon, Dover, Roscoe, Newark, Columbus, Circleville, Chillicothe, Waverly, and Portsmouth. Success was immediate, as this vital transportation link provided access to Eastern markets. Within a span of 35 years, canals transformed Ohio from a rural frontier wilderness into the nation's leader in agricultural output and third most populous state by 1860. Railroads marked the end of the canal as an economic engine, but traffic continued to operate until the Great Flood of 1913 destroyed the system as a commercial enterprise. Today, the Ohio and Erie Canal is enjoying a rebirth as a recreational resource.

The Philadelphia Phillies, one of the oldest teams in Major League Baseball, have maintained a strong, loyal fan base for over 125 years.

Despite historic set backs, the franchise has proven resilient and evolved into a perennial contender with consistently large attendance figures. In fact, the Phillies claim 37 Hall of Famers, two World Series championships, seven National League pennants, and nine division titles. The Philadelphia Phillies chronicles the greatness of Grover Cleveland Alexander, the remarkable career of Richie Ashburn, the perfection of Jim Bunning, and the teams of success and luster as well as those shining stars of the less successful eras.

Join author and Louisiana historian Eric J. Brock on a visual tour of the most captivating New Orleans burial sites -  above ground!

The mysticism of cemeteries is inescapable and the cemeteries of New Orleans are no exception. They have long enticed residents and visitors alike with their beauty and rich history. We are intrigued by the way these sacred cities of the dead have the ability to both fascinate and unnerve us at the same time. Within these final resting places lie many personal histories marked by myriad monuments ranging from grand architectural homages to endearing sculptures and simple gravestones. In New Orleans, the cemeteries are unique in that they are primarily built above ground. Done in part because of the city's location below sea level, this type of burial is also a common practice rooted in the area's Latin culture tradition. Witness this for yourself with over 200 photographs accompanied by an illuminating narrative of some of the most intriguing burial sites of the Crescent City.

When the world comes to Tennessee, the world is going to have a good time.

Once referred to as the "scruffy little city by the Tennessee River," Knoxville hosted the world's fair from May 1 through October 31, 1982, and provided one big party for people to visit from all over to witness the live entertainment, parades, displays, exhibits, musical and sporting events, food, costumes, rides, games, and arcades. Based on the theme "Energy Turns the World," Expo '82 was the first world's fair to be held in the southeastern United States in 97 years, hosting 22 countries and more than 11 million people. The news reports of the day declared the "World Came to Knoxville" as it hosted the official international exposition, fully licensed and sanctioned by the Bureau des Expositions Internationales in Paris, France.

But Speedway is more than a town that surrounds the most famous automobile racing track in the world. The city is proud of its quality schools, and residents have prospered from the businesses in the area. Civic pride runs strong through this community where generations of families have remained in the same neighborhoods, and sometimes in the same house.

Images of America: Geauga Lake: The Funtime Years 1969–1995 captures the park's transformation and some of the countless memories that resulted from Funtime's 26-year ownership.

In 1968, three businessmen left their jobs at Cedar Point in Sandusky to purchase Geauga Lake Amusement Park. Geauga Lake had been a summertime escape since the 1870s, but by the 1960s it had fallen on hard times. The businessmen's company, Funtime, Inc., transformed the aging facility into a modern amusement park and established a reputation as an innovative operator in one of the nation's most competitive amusement park markets. Geauga Lake became the first park with two looping roller coasters and the first to integrate a full-scale water park, Boardwalk Shores. The company broke even more new ground in 1988 when it resurrected a classic roller coaster design to construct Raging Wolf Bobs.

A look into one of America's most beloved amusement parks and the story behind the historic Cedar Point.

In 1870, Louis Zistel began ferrying passengers from Sandusky to the Cedar Point Peninsula's beer garden and sandy beaches. In 1888, the Grand Pavilion was built, housing a massive theatre, bowling alley, photographic studio, and kitchen, and shortly thereafter, the resort's first roller coaster was installed. George Boeckling transformed the resort into a self-sufficient city and amusement park, but the park suffered badly in the 1930s economic depression. However, after Cedar Point changed hands several times in the 1950s, it became one of America's leading amusement parks. Today, the park is best known as the world's largest amusement park and the Roller Coaster Capital of the World.

Hess's Department Store was a unique department store that with a combination of style and showmanship became a shopping legend for almost 100 years.

Founded in 1897 in Allentown by brothers Max and Charles Hess as a dry goods store, it became the downtown heart of Pennsylvania's third-largest city for much of the 20th century. The Hess family was from Germany, and it was Max Hess Sr. who realized the Germans in Pennsylvania had limited access to quality dry goods; with his sons’ backgrounds in the retail industry, and a higher quality of merchandise, particularly Hess’s French Room, filled with the most in vogue fashions from France. The department store entered its golden age under by Max Hess's son, a showman for merchandising who embraced the life of a department store mogul, living in a giant mansion and rubbing shoulders with celebrities such as Bob Hope and Zsa Zsa Gabor. From the single store in Allentown to more than 80 by the 1990s, it seemed that Hess’s was unstoppable, but a national recession and increased retail competition would eventually sink the titan of Pennsylvania retail. Through a series of photographs, many from private collections and seldom seen, Hess's Department Storebrings the glory days of Hess's to life again.

Pittsburgh: 1758-2008 surveys the city's evolution from strategic fort in the wilderness to bustling industrial workshop to high-tech center for universities and health care.

A boatbuilding center and gateway to the West at the beginning of the 19th century, Pittsburgh later produced iron and steel used to construct bridges and buildings around the country and provided the cannons, shot, and ships that helped win wars around the world. In the process, Pittsburgh became a magnet for successive waves of immigrants - workers and entrepreneurs who shaped the culture and character of the city with their customs, churches, clubs, food, and an impressive collection of museums. With a roster of notable historical figures and as the birthplace of a slew of world-changing innovations, Pittsburgh is a city that left its mark on the history books.

To demonstrate the special place Italian immigrants hold in the city of New York to this day, readers will experience a visual tour of their traditions and landmarks.

New York City’s five boroughs have been home to more Italian immigrants than any other place in America. Over the last 140 years, scores of Italian neighborhoods have spanned Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, and the Bronx. These communities preserve their heritage by celebrating special events and feasts, such as Manhattan’s 130-year-old Feast of St. Rocco, the Dance of the Giglio in East Harlem and Williamsburg, and saint processions for Padre Pio and Maria Addolorata; maintaining famous Mulberry Street storefronts and the Arthur Avenue Market in Little Italy, as well as popular bakeries and restaurants in Greenwich Village and Queens; and supporting and worshipping at notable Italian churches, like Brooklyn’s Our Lady of Mount Carmel Shrine Church and Alba House, a religious bookstore on Staten Island.

Relieve the excitement of State Street's Christmas parade through these historic photographs, many of which have never been published ... until now!

State Street, that Great Street. The name itself stands the test of time, remembered by anyone who lived in or visited Chicago. It is the main artery of the heart of the city. It is where memories were made and kept. This book vividly recreates, for the first time, a Christmas holiday trip down State Street. You will visit many of the major shops and stores that existed during the 1940s and beyond, viewing old display windows and getting reacquainted with famous Christmas characters such as Weiboldts's Cinnamon Bear, Montgomery Wards's Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and the crown jewel of State Street, Marshall Fields's Uncle Mistletoe. Get into the Christmas spirit, taste the charm of holiday dining in State Street's fine restaurants, and the go back to that magical wonder of a child's first holiday trip to State Street, complete with a visit to Santa.

St. Augustine conjures up images of Spanish architecture, a massive fort, splashes of color against a backdrop of river and ocean, and always, always the omnipresent tourist.

This ancient town, established along the banks of the Matanzas River in 1565, is the oldest city in America. Founded to protect Spain's trade route from South and Central America to Europe, this colorful community was thriving years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock and decades before Jamestown was settled. No other place in the United States embodies more charm than this hallowed city. Within these pages, images taken from the St. Augustine Historical Society's archives will educate, enthrall, and entice history buffs, tourists, and residents alike. These vintage photographs will link readers to the past and transform them into more than mere spectators visiting a popular tourist attraction. Rediscover the Spanish connection and see how early settlers built their homes, harvested their crops, educated their children, and protected their land. Walk the same worn and winding paths that the town's forefathers trod and acknowledge both the good and the bad times of life before modernday conveniences.

Through historical images and regional folklore step into the past of the ""Grand Canyon of the East.""

Letchworth State Park, now a century old, grew out of a generous donation made by William Pryor Letchworth to the State of New York. The park's remarkable history reaches back as far as the last ice age. From the Portage Gorge to the mighty highbanks at Mount Morris, Letchworth State Park follows the flow of the Genesee River, exploring the natural and human events that have shaped this inspiring landscape. Drawing on historical images and regional folklore from the collections of the authors, the park, and various local sources, the reader is invited into the past of a park that has been called the ""Grand Canyon of the East.""

Professional historian Mark Beach tells the story of Manzanita, Nehalem, and Wheeler through well-research narrative alongside crystal-clear historic snapshots of shipwrecks, railroads, breathtaking coastal landscapes, and scenes from the everyday lives of the people who called these communities located on Oregon's Pacific Coast "home.'?

Bill Cotter is a longtime world's fair enthusiast and his collection of world's fairs photographs, the world's largest, has been featured in museum exhibits.

After enduring 10 harrowing years of the Great Depression, visitors to the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair found welcome relief in the fair's optimistic presentation of the ""World of Tomorrow."" Pavilions from America's largest corporations and dozens of countries were spread across a 1,216-acre site, showcasing the latest industrial marvels and predictions for the future intermingled with cultural displays from around the world. Well known for its theme structures, the Trylon and Perisphere, the fair was an intriguing mixture of technology, science, architecture, showmanship, and politics. Proclaimed by many as the most memorable world's fair ever held, it predicted wonderful times were ahead for the world even as the clouds of war were gathering. Through vintage photographs, most never published before, The 1939-1940 New York World's Fair recaptures those days when the eyes of the world were on New York and on the future.

Founded in 1884 as the company town of the United States Rolling Stock Company, Hegewisch became Chicago’s most remote and isolated neighborhood in 1889. Surrounded by waterways and railroads, the community even today is mistakenly considered an independent town. In order to gain amenities that other neighborhoods seemed to take for granted, Hegewisch often went toe to toe with bureaucrats who in some instances claimed it was not even a part of Chicago due to its remote location. In the 1970s, the city allowed landfills to burgeon on Hegewisch’s outskirts and then threatened to replace the entire neighborhood with an airport in 1989. The resilience of Hegewisch in the face of big business and politics has given it a history unique in the annals of Chicago and the Calumet Region.

The fading memories of Greater Boston's Blizzard of 1978 return to life for those who experienced it and those who can only imagine.

The great blizzard of 1978 is an event seared in the memory of anyone who lived through it. Most of Greater Boston was quickly overwhelmed by the storm, which shut down all forms of transit, stranded thousands of cars and motorists along Route 128, and virtually shut down most of the state for a week. But for many coastal communities, the impact of the storm, which brought record high tides and pounding surf, was pure devastation. The common thread shared by almost everyone in the region was positive memories of neighbors and strangers helping each other and finding new bonds of community.

Greater Boston's Blizzard of 1978is illustrated with approximately 200 photographs from government archives and private collections and is told by author Alan R. Earls, who somehow managed to drive through the worst of the infamous storm.

Discover the people and places of Brooklyn from a decade of growth and prosperity in the 1920s.

Now home to approximately 2.5 million people, Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs that make up New York City. It was during the 1920s that Brooklyn experienced some monumental changes in the early motorized world of cars, trucks, buses, and trains. In this decade, Brooklyn saw the construction of the world's largest promenade, the Coney Island Boardwalk, as well as the construction of most of the homes that still exist in Brooklyn. The 1920s also brought Brooklyn's sewers and paved roads. Slowly but surely, farms and gardens began to vanish in the name of progress. Brooklyn became a refuge for many. It offered the opportunity for peaceful living in a growing urban society.

Travel back to the beginnings of a diverse community with a rich ethnic heritage and join author Eric Ierardi in this celebration of a unique American city with a fascinating past.Brooklyn in the 1920sis sure to appeal to both residents and newcomers and will serve as a valuable tool in teaching the history of Brooklyn to future generations.

Levittown was created in Bucks County outside of Philadelphia in 1951. As one of the largest "planned communities" in America, this book's superb collection of history and photographs illustrates the birth and growth of this unique area.

In 1951, Levittown was created in Bucks County outside of Philadelphia by builder pioneers Levitt and Sons. Dubbed the largest and "most perfectly planned" community in America, it featured single-family homes, schools, churches, shopping centers, and swimming pools. A symbol of the "American Dream," Levittown defined the phenomenon of post-World War II suburban developments, which for the first time gave working- and middle-class families the option of affordable, detached houses outside congested urban neighborhoods. Levittown was a melting pot, attracting people from cities, rural areas, and all walks of life, including many World War II veterans with young families. Houses came fully equipped with appliances and landscaping and started at $9,000. Levittown's superb collection of history and photographs illustrates the birth and growth of this unique area, explores the community that resulted, and features residents' personal memories of the golden years.

Take a fascinating journey through the history of Allentown, Pennsylvania with more than 200 vintage photographs and anecdotes from the locals who experienced it.

Allentown, the Queen City of the Lehigh Valley, is the youngest but largest of the three cities in the valley. Founded in 1762 by William Allen, it was little more than a crossroads and small market town along the Lehigh Riveruntil it became the county seat in 1812. Heavy industries based on iron developed in the mid-eighteenth century along the Lehigh Riverand, by the 1860s, Allentown had become the largest community in the Lehigh Valley. In 1867, Allentown became a city.

In Allentown, readers nostalgic for times past will find photographs showing the places they remember from years ago, the Pennsylvania Power & Lighttower, and the effects of the devastating floods on the Lehigh River. Equally, newcomers who have heard about the great department stores of Hamilton Street, the trolley systems, Central Park, the breweries, and the iron and silk industries will treasure the images in this volume. Many places that still exist are shown in Allentown as they appeared in their earlier days.

Local historian and author Ann Bartholomew has compiled a riveting photographic record of the vibrant city of Allentown. Perusing these pages will evoke memories and will provide opportunities for parents and grandparents to introduce a younger generation to the city as it was in their youth.

See how the Pennsylvania Turnpike proved the doubters wrong and came to be known as the World's Greatest Highway.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike is one of the best-known highways in the United States. Most Pennsylvania Turnpike travelers are unaware that its construction was inspired by the route of the never-completed South Pennsylvania Railroad. In the 1930s, men of great vision conceived, planned, and built the nation's first long-distance superhighway using the abandoned railroad's partially finished tunnels as its foundation.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike draws from the extensive photograph collection in the Pennsylvania State Archives. Many were taken by photographers hired by both the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and its contractors, and most have never been published previously. Originally predicted to be a financial failure, the project wound up being a tremendous success and, eventually was expanded and improved, laying the groundwork for the nation's Interstate Highway System.

Chicago’s Motor Row earned a spot in the National Register of Historic Places by pioneering a new way to market an invention that was remaking America—the automobile.

John F. Hogan is a veteran broadcast journalist and corporate executive. He was a reporter and editor for WGN Radio and Television in Chicago and director of communications for one of the nation’s largest electric utilities. John S. Maxson, a lifelong antique car enthusiast, retired as president of the advocacy organization for businesses on Chicago’s North Michigan Avenue. Jay Leno, who contributed the foreword, was host of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Jay Leno Show from 1992 until 2014. One of the country’s most respected authorities on automobiles old and new, he currently hosts Jay Leno’s Garage.

Since their creation thousands of years ago, the Niagara Falls have captured the hearts and imaginations of all those who witness their endless power and strength.

As settlers arrived and began to harness the falls as a resource, the population climbed. Small hamlets, including Bellevue, Clarksville, Schlosser, and Manchester, grew to become the villages of Suspension Bridge and Niagara Falls, which were incorporated in March 1892 into the current city of Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls: 1850–2000 depicts the natural beauty of the falls, the emergence of the booming tourism trade, and the advances of electrical technology that have relied on the mighty falls' power. Many hands have crafted and bent steel to span the Niagara Gorge while many others fought to keep industry from turning nature into asphalt. Culled from the archives of the Niagara Falls Public Library's Local History Department, these images represent the people, from those stepping close to the brink in amazement and awe to those who live and work within the roar of Niagara Falls, and places that make up the landscape that is Niagara's past.

Hershey, Pennsylvania, went from relative unknown to an American dream come true thanks in large part to the risk taken by its founder, Milton Hershey.

In 1903, successful candy-maker Milton Hershey began a new enterprise that many people thought was doomed. He planned to build the biggest chocolate factory in the world, and a town to house its employees. The location he chose, near his birthplace in rural Derry Township, Pennsylvania, was most unlike the traditional urban factory settings of the era. Hershey is the pictorial history of what happened next. Through period photographs, many of them in print for the first time, and engaging narrative, Hershey reveals how the place, the people, the industrial age, and Milton Hershey himself contributed to the success of his scheme. Hershey includes an introduction to the history of Derry Township, tracing it from Milton Hershey's birth in 1857 to his return in the early 1900s. The book follows the intertwining stories of Milton Hershey's life, the growth of his chocolate company, the development of the school for needy boys that he endowed with his entire fortune, and the evolution of his model company town. The transformation of Hershey into a tourist destination and its survival after the death of its founder in 1945 conclude this chronicle of a vision turned into reality.

Illustrating the boroughs, townships and villages of Luzerne County in a rare collection of photographs, advertisements and history dating back to the 18th century.

The Susquehanna River meanders through Luzerne County in Northeastern Pennsylvania, passing communities historically known for the mining of anthracite coal. Settlement of the area began in 1769 during the first Yankee-Pennamite War. Historical photographs from the Luzerne County Historical Society depict businesses, churches, coal culture, street scenes, area disasters, entertainment, railroads, steamboats, and veterans, including the last survivor of the Battle of Wyoming in 1778 and the Civil War.

The Orange County International Raceway (OCIR) was a dream come true for Southern California race fans. From 1967 to 1983, the raceway featured the best of the best from the world of drag racing.

All the stars of the sport flocked to OCIR just to say they raced there. Race fans from all over the United States and beyond came to experience the comforts and innovations built into Southern California’s super raceway. For spectators, the raceway offered reserved seating, electronic scoreboards, and restaurant-style food. It was also a dream come true for racers with running water in the paved pit area; shade trees; and parking for trailers, recreational vehicles, and big rigs. But eventually the land the track was built on became too valuable as the population in the area grew, and the Orange County International Raceway closed its doors for good on October 29, 1983. 

Author and photographer Steve Reyes made the 10-hour round-trip drive from his Northern California home to Southern California to attend and be a part of OCIR race coverage from 1967 to 1983. His publications with Arcadia Publishing include Southern California Top Fuel Dragsters, Northern California Drag Racing, and Southern California Funny Cars.

Fort Holabird was a US Army facility near Baltimore, Maryland and began as a training center for a relatively new military technology, the motor vehicle, it would later bear witness to intrigue as a center of US Army intelligence and counterintelligence.

Fort Holabird was a US Army facility near Baltimore, Maryland. Opened as Camp Holabird in preparation for World War I, Holabird trained vehicle drivers and mechanics. After World War II, Holabird became home to the US Army Intelligence School. It was around this time the facility was renamed Fort Holabird. The intelligence school relocated to Fort Huachuca, Arizona, in 1971, and Fort Holabird closed in 1973. Holabird has an amazing history. It began as a training center for a relatively new military technology, the motor vehicle. Holabird would later bear witness to intrigue as a center of US Army intelligence and counterintelligence. Holabird is also remembered by many Vietnam-era draftees as an induction center.

Author David B. Lari is an attorney, historian, US Army veteran, lifelong resident of Maryland, and a graduate of the University of Baltimore. The sources of these photographs include the US National Archives, the US Army Heritage and Education Center, the National World War I Museum and Memorial, the Dundalk-Patapsco Neck Historical Society and Museum, and the Kansas Historical Society.

Throughout Chicago, historic mansions built by legendary architects were the homes to characters just as great and whose impact is still felt today.

Chicago is known throughout the world for its architecture. Although many people are familiar with the city's skyscrapers and public buildings, they often overlook or are unaware of Chicago's mansions that are located throughout the city. These mansions represent Chicago's past and its future, and it can even be said that they are the very embodiment of Chicago and its architecture. These fashionable residences were built to make a statement, and what better way to have done this than to employ the leading architects of the time to design them. These architects included men such as Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Henry Hobson Richardson, Daniel Burnham, and John Wellborn Root. While the city's mansions are significant because of who built them, they are just as important because of who lived in them.  Many of these mansions were built for Chicago's elite businessmen and captains of industry-men who represented old money, new money and big money.  Just as important were the families of these men and the other residents who came to live in these mansions-for they left a legacy of their own that contributed to the city's history.

Travel back in time through the heyday of the old Erie Canal and see how it unleashed the growth of the United States.

The building of the Erie Canal was spearheaded by the vision of Gov. Dewitt Clinton, New York State to build the engineering marvel that opened the West to settlement and made New York City the center of finance and commerce. Opened in 1825, the canal proved so commercially viable that construction of an enlarged Erie Canal began just 11 years later. The success of the canal spawned the growth of cities, towns, businesses, and industries along its route in upstate New York.

Erie Canal takes you on a journey where you can swim with the Volunteer Life Saving Corps as they sharpen their skills, view images of mule-drawn boats wending their way through scenic countryside, and marvel at the engineering of the bridges, aqueducts, and locks that facilitated the functioning of the canal. In addition, Erie Canal travels a step back in time and illuminates the people whose lives were shaped by the canal.

Incorporated in 1827, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad  was one of America's first railroads, and Maryland was its heart and soul.

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad’s (B&O)   creation was a tangible symbol of the Industrial Revolution, representing commerce and progress to towns along its route. Its headquarters and operations, centered in Baltimore, provided years of economic growth for the port city. This book contains images of well-known stations in Maryland, including Ellicott City Station, Gaithersburg Station, Camden Station, and the Mount Clare Shops—a self-contained industrial city, now home to the B&O Railroad Museum. Some stations still exist and are home to small museums or restaurants; others no longer stand, but images of them will remind even the casual historian of a time when railroads were a part of everyday life in America.

Take a step back in time and revisit the sites, stations, and trains of the B&Othat were once part of everyday life in Maryland and remember the glory of a bygone era.

Manhattan has long been renowned for the diversity of its offering of hotels--from some of the best in the world to some of the worst.

Around 1880, the entire nature of the hotel experience began to change. Formerly, hotels had been just a place to stop between here and there for a hot meal and a warm bed. Suddenly, the hotel itself became the destination. New affluence, new technologies, and new fashion all came together in the decades between 1880 and 1920 to influence the demands of hotel guests, eventually changing the hotel themselves. This book gives a glimpse into the hotels of the super rich, the not-so-rich, the middle class, the Bohemians, and the workers. In a city as dynamic as New York, it should come as no surprise that so many hotels have a juicy tidbit or two of historical gossip attached to them. Manhattan Hotels: 1880‚-1920 may well be the most extensive work in print on the subject of the city's hotels in this period. Far From being a book for specialists, however, it is designed to bring Manhattan and its hotels of this era to life for all those who have been captivated by the electric excitement of the place.

The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair: Creation and Legacy uses rare, previously unpublished photographs to examine the creation of the fair and the legacies left behind for future generations.

When the gates of the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair swung open on April 24, 1964, the first of more than 51 million lucky visitors entered, ready to witness the cutting edge of worldwide technology and progress. Faced with a disappointing lack of foreign participants due to political contention, the fair instead showcased the best of American industry and science. While multimillion-dollar pavilions predicted colonies on the moon and hotels under the ocean, other forecasts, such as the promises of computer technology, have surpassed even the most optimistic predictions of the fair.

During the turn of the century, the railroad was an extremely important transportation and shipping resource to thousands of people and businesses in Pennsylvania.

Along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad: From Cumberland to Uniontown dedicates its pages to this pivotal mass transportation provider. This book includes images from every B&O bridge and station from Cumberland, Maryland, to Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1891. Many of the towns stretched along the miles of tracks, such as Somerfield and Ohiopyle, are depicted in these vintage photographs. Experience the coal and coke booms of the 1880s to 1920s through people from many different locations who had one thing in common: the railroad.

Today, there are more than 100,000 Lithuanians in Chicago, making the city home to the greatest concentration of Lithuanians outside of the country itself.

Their presence in Chicago began in 1834 and drastically increased during the 20th century as immigrants and their descendants sought work in the stockyards and other industries. Lithuanians in Chicago were dedicated to celebrating and preserving their unique culture, evident in its churches, schools, museums, and community centers in neighborhoods such as Bridgeport and Marquette Park. They also maintained ties to the homeland and played an important role in Lithuania's struggles for independence throughout the 20th century. Many prominent Lithuanian Americans are from the "City of the Big Shoulders," including football great Dick Butkus, actor John C. Reilly, and director Robert Zemeckis. The former president of Lithuania, Valdas Adamkus, was a resident of Chicagoland for nearly 50 years.