Business & Economics

Downtown Gary: Millrats, Politics, and US Steel provides a glimpse of the Gary of yesteryear when downtown was the social, cultural, and political center of the community.

Before the era of gigantic shopping malls, big-box stores, and online shopping, the commercial centers of major American cities were located in areas often referred to as downtown. From the 1920s through the 1960s, people from throughout the Calumet Region flocked to the Steel City's popular stores, theaters, and restaurants by car, bus, and the South Shore Railroad. For many, Gordon's, Lytton's, Sears, and Goldblatt's bring back memories of window-shopping, making layaway plans, visiting Santa, and being asked May I help you? by courteous employees. Downtown Gary: Millrats, Politics, and US Steel provides a look at the stores, politics, churches, schools, and of course, United States Steel Corporation and the millrats of forgotten Gary.

In 1822, Gov. Lewis Cass defined the boundaries of six counties, including Lenawee. The Pottawattamies inhabited Lenawee County before settlers, many of Quaker descent, migrated from eastern states, predominantly New York. Abundant forests, prairies, hills, lakes, and streams surrounded by uncultivated fruit, berries, nuts, and wild game had enabled the county to lead the state in agricultural and industrial wealth by 1900. This early success is also partially owed to the establishment of the Grange by George B. Horton in 1873. Lenawee led the state with 34 Granges and more than 3,500 members by the turn of the century. Adrian would become known as the fence capital of the world, while Tecumseh was referred to as the celery capital. Michigan's first cheese factories began in Fairfield Township in 1866, with Samuel Horton creating a new form of soft cheese. Recognition of the historical significance of this area is shown throughout the region today with landmarks that pay tribute to the pioneers.

This fascinating and moving book brings to life the industrial and immigrant experience which gave birth to Manchester in the nineteenth century and continued to shape the city's destiny well into the twentieth century. More than a hundred years ago, thousands of immigrants from Europe and Canada were drawn to the mills of Manchester by the promise of a better life. In stirring photographs and text, Manchester: The Mill and the Immigrant Experience examines the aspirations, the struggles, and the everyday adventures of Manchester's immigrant families. Reaffirming the power of photography to move and inform us, Manchester: The Mills and the Immigrant Experience creates a vivid picture of life during nearly a century of rapid industrial change. We join the bustle of Elm and Hanover Streets in the 1880s, witness children working at the mighty Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, enter a Greek coffeehouse in the early 1900s, get caught up in the bitter labor strikes of the 1920s, and meet unusual local figures such as the Hermit of Mosquito Pond.

Known as New Hampshire's Queen City, Manchester could be called Change City. Throughout its history, it has reinvented itself many times. From a Native American fishing and gathering place called Amoskeag to a Yankee colonial town known as Derryfield, it became a multiethnic industrial center, the Manchester of America, home of the world-famous Amoskeag Manufacturing Company (1831–1936). When Amoskeag Manufacturing closed during the Depression, the city that would not die was reborn through more diversified industries that carried it through the post–World War II era. Several decades of urban renewal saw the demolition of many older buildings and entire neighborhoods. Lamenting the loss of Boston & Maine Railroad's Union Station and St. Mary's Bank's marble building, Manchester residents drew inspiration from the US bicentennial in 1976 to create a renaissance of interest in history and architecture, which brought about the adaptation to modern use of several remaining older structures. Yet more major losses came in 1978 and 1989 with the destruction of the State Theatre and Manchester's beloved Notre Dame Bridge.