Business & Economics

Prolific inventor Thomas Edison and automobile pioneer Henry Ford shaped the modern world like few others in history.

The lives of these close friends intersected at their winter homes in southwest Florida. Edison first visited the tiny cattle-ranching community of Fort Myers in 1885, building a home and laboratory soon after. There, he wintered with his wife, Mina, and their children, Madeleine, Charles, and Theodore. Ford purchased the adjacent estate in 1916, wintering in the area with his wife, Clara, and son, Edsel. Here in southwest Florida, these famous neighbors relaxed and found time to explore new projects.

Plainview–Old Bethpage presents an intriguing story of two vibrant Long Island communities that share a colorful 300-year-old history.

They were once quaint farming communities that almost overnight found themselves facing seismic cultural changes. In just 10 years, from 1950 to 1960, the combined population of Plainview and Old Bethpage soared from 2,000 to over 33,000. Plainview–Old Bethpage presents a journey back in time to the Native Americans, the settlers who followed, the farmers who worked the land, and the thousands who came to make a better life for their families. Discover why every town surrounding Plainview–Old Bethpage has a railroad station but it does not. Read about the resident who raised a Confederate flag during the Civil War and drew the ire of his neighbors. Ride along with race car drivers as they hurtle along dirt roads at breakneck speed. Learn about the deadly brawl on Election Day in 1890, the infamous Plainview kidnapper who got the electric chair, and a local company's role in molding a national memorial to Vietnam veterans.

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.

For more than 50 years, there was no more iconic Florida tourist attraction than Silver Springs.

Its sheer popularity meant that the surrounding area—indeed, the entirety of Marion County—serviced the entertainment, gas, food, and lodging needs of millions of tourists annually. Visitors flocked to places like Ross Allen’s Reptile Institute, Tommy Bartlett’s Deer Ranch, and natural attractions like Rainbow Springs and Ocala Caverns. Sadly, as Florida tourism moved into the theme park era, scores of smaller attractions and their related businesses were abandoned. Author Tim Hollis revisits these once-thriving tourist spots and what happened when those tourists stopped coming.

Craving a blast of nostalgia with a side of pecans? Pull over and explore Stuckey's, the Georgia highway staple.

Beginning as a single roadside stand selling pecans in Eastman, Georgia, by the 1950s, the name Stuckey's was synonymous throughout the South with candy, souvenirs, clean restrooms, and the other necessities of automobile travel. During the 1960s, the Stuckey's stores moved into the new frontier of the interstate highways, where quite often they sat alone at the exits like oases in the middle of a desert. Their bright aqua-colored rooftops were a welcome beacon for those who had been driving long distances. Travel has changed a lot since then, but Stuckey's can still be found along the nation's highways, still providing dozens of types of candy and nuts, plus the same mix of souvenirs, as always. Anyone need a rubber alligator or a pecan log?

Author and historian Anthony Sammarco reveals the fascinating history of Boston's beloved Jordan Marsh.

Jordan Marsh opened its first store in 1851 on Milk Street in Boston selling assorted dry goods. Following the Civil War, the store moved to Winthrop Square and later to Washington Street between Summer and Avon Streets. The new five-story building, designed by Winslow & Wetherell, unveiled the novel concept of department shopping under one roof. It attracted shoppers by offering personal service with the adage that the customer is always right, easy credit, art exhibitions and musical performances. By the 1970s, it had become a regional New England icon and the largest department store chain in the nation.

A magic nostalgia ride awaits.

Life in Fairfield in the decades after World War II was an unparalleled experience. From cruising down Texas Street on weekends to catching a carnival in the Wonder World parking lot, fond memories of long-lost times haven't been forgotten. People flocked to vintage eateries like Joe's Buffet and Smorga Bob's, and played on the rocket ship slide at Allan Witt Park. Roller Rinks like the M&M Skateway hosted not just skaters, but dances featuring Fats Domino and Roy Orbison. Commuters hopped aboard the FART bus to save on gas, and frequenting Dave's Giant Hamburgers was a rite of passage.

Longtime Daily Republic journalist and accidental historian Tony Wade takes a deep dive into the Fairfield of yesteryear.

How this roadside attraction became a BEAR-y big hit and turned into a must-see New Hampshire destination that still exists today!

In 1928, Edward and Florence Clark opened a roadside attraction in Lincoln, New Hampshire, for visitors to the White Mountains. Ed Clark's Eskimo Sled Dog Ranch featured guided tours with its purebred Eskimo sled dogs and artifacts from Labrador, Canada. The Stand offered souvenirs, tonic, and maple products to motorists. Three black bears, Soggle, Toggle and Woggle, joined the family in 1935, and the bears acted as the perfect visual attraction, gaining the attention of curious passersby.

In 1949, Ed and Murray, sons of Florence and Edward, began training black bears for show work. The Clark brothers and their bears delighted guests with humor and hospitality as they entertained and educated the audience. Generations later, that philosophy lives on as the Clarks offer bear shows, rides on the White Mountain Central Railroad, family entertainment, and good, honest fun to visitors. There are up to 20 family members working at Clark's Trading Post on any given day, including fifth-generation descendants.

When Torrington's first English settlers, Ebenezer Lyman Jr. and his wife, Sarah, arrived in the hills of northwest Connecticut in 1737, they found little more than a lonely wilderness.

Although the town grew steadily, it was only in 1813, when Frederick Wolcott built his woolen mill on the banks of the Naugatuck River, that Torrington was set on the path to becoming a significant manufacturing center. A railroad line completed in 1849 linked the town with larger population centers and further stimulated industrial growth. For the next 100 years, Torrington supplied the world with needles, woolen cloth, hardware, tools, sheet and rolled brass, bicycles, skates, golf shafts, ball bearings, and other manufactured products. Together, Torrington's farmers, laborers, builders, artists, and entrepreneurs created a dynamic and progressive community in the hills of Litchfield County.

Reading about Reading's long history and influence in industry.

The town that began its life as Lynn Village in 1639, Reading has seen many changes during its 375-year history. Its initial settlement in the woods, Wood End, became a village of farms with countless stone walls.  On April 19, 1775, Readingites marched to Meriam's Corner and helped drive the British back to Charlestown. Beginning in the late 18th century, the town saw the development of widespread industry with the manufacturing of shoes, clocks, neckties, organ pipes, and more, led by prominent residents such as Everett Richardson, Daniel Pratt Jr., and numerous other illustrious families. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Reading has further evolved into a suburban community of homes and light industry, only a half-hour away from the area's largest metropolis, Boston.

One of the unsung heroes of the auto world, C. Harold Wills designed the Model T when he worked as Henry Ford's right-hand man.

Later, he founded his own company to produce the legendary Wills Sainte Claire. Every endeavor displayed his trademark inventiveness, from the development of the overhead cam engine to the toboggan run on the roof of his house. He used his money to create one of the first worker model cities at Marysville, Michigan. In this long-overdue biography, Alan and Lynn Lyon Naldrett preserve the legacy of an automotive icon.

Join author Michael W. R. Davis as he retraces the history of what went on behind the scenes of testing automotive tracks in Detroit, Michigan.

The catastrophic failure of a new but unproven copper-cooled Chevrolet in 1923 led the General Motors Corporation to buy back the 100 cars it had sold to the public and recall another 400 in company and dealer hands. As a result, in 1924 General Motors started building the industry's first scientific proving ground to test new vehicle designs before they were released for production and sale. Before this, all automakers tested new cars haphazardly on public roads and within limited engineering laboratories. Better known by the public as test tracks, the proving grounds became a source of curiosity for decades about the secrets they might hold. Detroit Area Test Tracks goes behind the test track walls to show how the facilities evolved and what typically takes place inside.

Discover the transformation of the small community of Breslau, built by German immigrants, to the vibrant village of Lindenhurst, New York.

The 1867 advent of the South Side Railroad provided the transportation infrastructure for a new Long Island community conceived by Irish immigrant Thomas Welwood and Prussian immigrant Charles Schleier. Specifically marketed to German immigrants, the city of Breslau was dedicated in 1870. Welwood and Schleier encouraged business and manufacturing growth, providing local employment and economic stability. The gentlemen planned a model community, but their business dealings were not as harmonious and ended in years of litigation. Although thriving, in 1891, the community sought to discard the name Breslau, and residents chose the name Lindenhurst, honoring the proliferation of local linden trees. In the early 20th century, local business prospered, the population blossomed, and the community built by German immigrants strove to demonstrate their American patriotism when the United States joined the war against Germany.

Anything but Boring

The town of Boring has seen more than its fair share of interesting events since its founding in 1903. From secretly hiring an up-and-coming boxer to fight the town bully to the time firecrackers were blamed for burning down half the town, memorable moments abound. Discover the story of the wild man who lived in the woods and the attempts of Prohibition-era moonshiners to evade the law. Uncover the true identity of the Wild West Gang, and the real story of a runaway train loaded with potatoes.

Join author Bruce Haney as he explores the peculiar side of this exciting town.

Join author Russell C. Shaddox as he tells the history of East Haddam in stunning images.

Perched along the Connecticut River, much of East Haddam sits on land originally purchased from Native Americans in 1662 for 30 coats (about $100). From that modest beginning sprang a town whose residents became famous patriots, scholars, and explorers. Driven by industries common to 1700s river towns - lumber, agriculture, and shipbuilding - East Haddam spent the 19th century transforming into one of the area’s largest manufacturers of cotton twine, netting, and fabric. Prosperity brought an influx of immigrants. As the 1900s dawned, many of the mills shuttered due to faltering demand, and the town turned to its natural beauty to attract a growing leisure class. Resorts of all varieties popped up in town, changing East Haddam from the “Twine Capital of America” to the “Catskills of Connecticut.” The town was home to many prominent residents, including a governor, business magnates, fine artists, scholars, and popular stage actor William Gillette, who helped shape the iconic image of Sherlock Holmes. With the resorts in turn seeing a decline in the late 20th century, the town faced another wave of change. Still, with a deep history and a varied beauty that includes stunning forest, hilltop, and river views, East Haddam continues to captivate.

Choctaw County, one of Alabama's largest counties by area at 909 square miles, is also one of the smallest in population.

Established at the end of 1847 by taking land from Sumter and Washington Counties, Choctaw County today is a recognized leader in the pulpwood industry and renowned for its hunting and fishing. Cattle farming and agriculture also play a large role in daily life and economics, and residents take pride in having the first producing oil well in the state of Alabama. Choctaw County is even home to the remains of the historic healing waters of the former Bladon Springs Hotel, and a curious connection with the basilosaurus cetoides, a prehistoric sea mammal found near Melvin, currently on display in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

From the American Railroad to Space - Discover the fascinating history of the Michoud Assembly Facility.

After an auspicious beginning as a royal land grant from French king Louis XV to a wealthy French citizen of New Orleans in 1763, the land Michoud Assembly Facility occupies remained in private ownership until 1940, when it was sold to the US government. Prior to World War II, the site was used to grow sugar, hunt muskrat, and build railroad and telephone lines. In 1941, the world's largest industrial site was built, covering 43 acres of unobstructed, low-humidity, air-cooled space under one roof to construct C-46 cargo planes. The Korean War required the assembly of Sherman and Patton tanks there, while the space race compelled the design and assembly of the colossal Saturn I, IB, and V rocket boosters for the Apollo program that reported directly to Dr. Wernher von Braun. The 1970s saw the fabrication of the enormous external tank for the Space Shuttle program. Today, Michoud Assembly Facility continues to support the US space program by building major components for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (or MPCV).

Journey through the complicated economic and environmental history of the steel industry in The Mon.Perfect for fans of the history of American industrialization.

Pittsburgh's Monongahela Riveris named after the Lenape Indianword Menaonkihela, meaning where banks cave and erode. The name is fitting: for over a century, these riverbanks were lined with steel plants and railroads that have now caved and erodedaway.

By the 1880s, Carnegie Steelwas the world's largest manufacturer of iron, steel rails, and coke. However, in the 1970s, cheap foreign steel flooded the market. Following the 1981–1982 recession, the plants laid off 153,000 workers. The year 1985 saw the beginning of demolition; by 1990, seven of nine major steel plants had shut down.Duquesne, Homestead, Jones & Laughlin, and Eliza Furnaceare gone; only the Edgar Thomsonplant remains as a producer of steel.

The industry could be said to have built and nearly destroyed the region both economically and environmentally. While these steel plants are lost today, the legacy of their workers is not forgotten.

While Middlesex County is one of the most historic communities in the nation, some of its past is little known.

Researchers found dinosaur tracks in Middlefield that date back 200 million years. The author of Dr. Dolittle, Hugh Lofting, lived in Killingworth, and a young Dr. Seuss spent summers in Clinton. Constance Baker Motley, the first female African American federal judge, resided in Chester. A Portland lake has water levels that fluctuate for no apparent reason. An Essex blacksmith shop was America's oldest continuously run family business. Local authors Robert and Kathleen Hubbard reveal these and many other unforgettable stories.

Visit historic Sag Harbor on Long Island, through whaling village to homes in the National Register and home to writers and artists.

A prosperous deepwater shipping port on the south shore of Long Island, Sag Harbor was in its heyday as a whaling village in the early 1800s. By 1850, whaling was unprofitable, petroleum had been discovered, and the 1849 Gold Rush led to an exodus. As Sag Harbor fell into economic decline, the arrival of the railroad helped reinvigorate it as a factory town, bringing Fahys Watchcase, Alvin Silver, Bliss torpedo testing, and Bulova, until those industries shuttered. The silver lining to Sag Harbor's boom and bust has been the preservation of its heritage. The grand homes of captains and whaleship owners, tradesmen's cottages, and factory houses were untouched for years, attracting a wave of artists, writers, and weekenders. This fine collection of 18th- and 19th-century homes and public buildings placed the village in the National Register of Historic Places, drawing tourists to walk in the footsteps of Native Americans, colonists, whalers, and resident-writers James Fenimore Cooper and John Steinbeck and to visit the village's war monuments and museums and charming Main Street.

Grand River Avenue details the history of this historical Michigan roadway, which has served as a footpath, wagon rut, and ultimately a two-lane highway.

Grand River Avenue, or Michigan US-16 as it was ultimately designated, is one of Michigan's true Blue Highways—an original two-lane, blacktop road still serving as a direct path through roadside America. Originally a Native American trail, this ancient path has been a westbound route from the Straits of Detroit to the eastern shores of Lake Michigan for more than 1,000 years. Over time, it has served as a footpath, horse trail, wagon rut, stagecoach route, plank road, and ultimately a two-lane highway that gave some of America's earliest motorists their first taste of long-distance automobile travel.

Throughout its existence, Dearborn has been a pioneer settlement, a multicultural hub, a college town, a major tourism center and a world-renowned industrial city.

Unfortunately, due to a variety of factors, significant structures have been lost to time. Almost all of the eleven U.S. Arsenal complex buildings have disappeared since the arsenal was closed in 1875. The hallways of the Edison School and Oxford School still live on in the hearts of their students but were razed long ago. Even beloved edifices such as the Ford Rotunda and the Ford Motor Company Administration building are now only a memory. Author Craig E. Hutchison endeavors to immortalize the important foundational building blocks of an evolving city.

For more than a century, Cincinnati's candy industry satisfied our national sweet tooth. Dive into its specialties and past.

Stick and drop candies appeared here long before their Civil War popularity. Opera creams, rich fondant-filled chocolate candy brought here by Robert Hiner Putman, provided decadence. Candy corn, which the Goelitz Company introduced to the United States before World War I, remains a ubiquitous treat. Marpro Products created and popularized the marshmallow cone candy. Doscher invented the French Chew and made caramel corn a baseball concession at Redland Field decades before Cracker Jack became synonymous with our national pastime. The city's many Greek and Macedonian immigrants influenced the unique Queen City tradition of finishing a Cincinnati-style threeway of spaghetti, chili and cheddar with a chocolate mint. Local food etymologist Dann Woellert tells these stories and more in this delectably sweet history.

Mills and textiles are a important part of the history of the South, and Greenville, known as the Textile Capital of the World played a key role.

Greenville's textile heritage is what made the community the economic force it is today. From its antebellum beginnings with only a handful of mills, Greenville continued to grow industrially as more and more Northern investors saw financial opportunity in the area. With its notable feats, such as having the largest textile mill under one roof to its many mills fighting off flying squadrons during the General Textile Strike of 1934, the county's textile past is as rich and colorful as the fabrics it produced. Greenville's ascension to the Textile Capital of the World was unfortunately followed by the flood of overseas goods, resulting in the closing of many Upstate institutions. Though these mills are now silent, their efforts are what attracted so many other industries to the area.

Well-illustrated and with fact-filled text, Slater Mill is a charming look back at a pivotal part of Pawtucket life.

As a working cotton mill, a space for varied types of manufacturing, and eventually as a project of historical preservation, the Slater Mill has played many roles in the history of Pawtucket. Leavitt's work includes such illuminating images as a turn-of-the-century bicycle shop, a crowded mill scene in the early twentieth century, and the transformation of the site into a tourist attraction in the 1920s. This volume also shows how the site was re-configured as a community museum in the 1950s and '60s, as well as how the industrial emphasis of the curators eventually resulted in the addition of a working water wheel to the site. Well-illustrated, with fact-filled text, Slater Mill is a charming look back at a pivotal part of Pawtucket life that will interest young and old alike.

This is a the tale of America's oldest continually running ferry service and incldues stories of the people who passed through its doors.

America's oldest continuously operating ferry service began running between Rocky Hill and Glastonbury in 1655. More than one hundred have operated on the river since the seventeenth century. The stories of the captains, crews and passengers define the history and personality of the region. Learn how Captain Ham Sandwich got his name. Discover the bond between Katharine Hepburn and a real ferry queen, Cathey LaBonte. Authors Wick Griswold and Stephen Jones detail the history of these charming anachronisms and why they are still afloat today.

Toledo’s history as a frontier town turned manufacturing powerhouse is well known. However, few know that it was once home to a champion racehorse.

Many are unaware that East Toledo’s verdant urban woodlands sprang from the work of just one man or that a local girl’s meteoric rise in Golden Age Hollywood saw her play alongside Groucho Marx. Fewer still have heard of Officer Dell Hair, crime fighter and rhyme maker who walked the beat and walked into the history books as a celebrated cop-poet. These tales and more await as award-winning local broadcaster Lou Hebert shines a light into the forgotten corners of Glass City history.

In the early 19th century, as settlers continued moving west towards Indiana, Perry Township and the town of Southport began to form in southern Marion County.

Named after Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, a War of 1812 hero, Perry Township was laid out in 1822 by county commissioners before becoming an independent township in 1824. One of the first to settle in the area, Jacob Smock farmed land near the pioneer town, which later came to be known as Southport. The town was formally established in 1832 - around the same time two notable pioneer settlers, Samuel and Mary Bryan, made the area their home. In 1853, Southport became the first community in the township to be incorporated, and a century later, Southport was one of the only communities in Marion County to remain its own city apart from Indianapolis.