Business & Economics

Meriden, Connecticut was once known as the “Silver Capital of the World” for its prominent silver manufacturing. By 1867, the city was part of a manufacturing boom that produced everything from ivory combs, buttons, tinware, and cutlery to coffee grinders and organs. In 1944, the business of manufacturing in the city would find the War Manpower Commission naming Meriden “The Nation’s Ideal War Community,” for its industrial and patriotic contributions during World War II. While many of those traditional manufacturers have closed, the city still plays host to several world-recognized establishments, especially in the fields of culinary arts and medicine. From baseball legend Connie Mack to the invention of the steamed cheeseburger, local author Justin Piccirillo reveals some of the lesser known but fascinating history of this vibrant community. 

Before the Flood

The lost town of Sopris lies silently beneath the depths of Trinidad Lake. Once a thriving mining community in the late 1800s, it was renowned for abundant coal deposits and a bustling population. Three generations called Sopris home. They fought in the Civil War, homesteaded and immigrated to work in the mines. Unfortunately, the town's fate took a drastic turn with the construction of the Trinidad Dam, which flooded the area and submerged the town. Authors Genevieve Faoro-Johannsen and Robert Daniel Vigil, Jr. preserve an enduring legacy of community and resilience through first-hand accounts, historic photos and never-before-seen maps.

Discover the vanished history of Napa Valley

Once known for its cattle and silver mines, Napa Valley has grown into an international wine destination. From the Von Uhlit family’s fruit farm in Napa to the Wheeler Ranch in St. Helena, fields and orchards became neighborhoods and vineyards. The Dolphin, a steamboat that once delivered travelers from San Francisco, was replaced by faster transport and the Napa State Hospital’s original ‘castle’ was demolished. The Sawyer Tannery, in operation for over one hundred years, closed its doors in 1990, and places like the Kay-Von Drive-In and the Bel Aire Bowl now live on only in memory.

Join author Lauren Coodley as she celebrates these once-beloved landmarks in California’s Wine Country.

Like the Cheshire Cat, much of Chicago’s history fades away while perched in plain sight.

For more than a century, the brick walls of the city served as a ready canvas for advertisements that married artistic experimentation and commercial endeavor. Intrepid painters planted signs for horseshoers and Hamlin’s Wizard Oil in places where they would outlast the way of life they represented. Since author Joseph Marlin began documenting the city’s advertisements more than thirty years ago, many of them have completely vanished beneath the onslaught of blizzard and bulldozer. From national brands to mom-and-pop shops, his collection offers the last glimpse of a bygone era.

Washington has a rural history of agrarian landscapes and country estates. John Adlum, the Father of American Viticulture, experimented with American grape cultivation at The Vineyard, just north of today's Cleveland Park.

Slave laborers rolled hogsheads - wooden casks filled with tobacco - down present-day Wisconsin Avenue from farms to the port at Georgetown. The growing merchant class built suburban villas on the edges of the District and became the city's first commuters. In 1791, the area was selected as the capital of a new nation, and change from rural to urban was both dramatic and progressive. Author Kim Prothro Williams reveals the rural remnants of Washington, D.C.'s past.

The Joseph Horne Company, popularly known as Horne’s, was a beloved and integral part of Pittsburghers' lives for generations.

It was the first department store in the Steel City, staking its ground at the landmark flagship store on Penn Avenue and Stanwix Street. Starting as a small dry goods store, the company expanded into a regional retail powerhouse with a reputation for selling high-quality goods in elegant spaces. Horne’s succumbed to the fate of other department stores amid changing consumer habits, and a short-lived stint as a Lazarus store was the final chapter in more than 140 years of history. The community still enjoys the tree on the corner of the former Horne's building, now Highmark, that is lit each year to usher in Pittsburgh's holiday season. Author Letitia Stuart Savage shares the history and memories of Horne’s department store.

Join department store historian Bruce Allen Kopytek in this history of Jacobson's, a beloved Michigan institution for over 100 years. Winner of the Michigan Notable Book Award for 2012.

Reenter the marvelous stores and meet the personalities who transformed Jacobson's from its humble Reed City origins to a staple of sophistication throughout Michigan and into the rest of the country. The brainchild of a retail genius, this deluxe specialty store gave customers a peerless social, shopping and dining destination. Experience anew the refined beauty of its Williamsburg-style Grosse Pointe store, the chic designer world of its Birmingham ensemble, or the charm and allure of its original Florida branch in Sarasota, revealing the secrets which made Jake's the dazzling store it was, and why it remains so profoundly missed by anyone who entered through its solid wooden doors.

Wolf and Dessauer documents the rich and interesting history of this chain of department stores.

Remember how it used to be at W&D? From its humble beginnings as a dry goods store in 1896, Wolf and Dessauer grew to provide customers with revolutionary services and previously unheard of amenities: personal shoppers, in-store models, escalators, an open-air French café and the magical Christmas WanDerland—home to Santa and his precious elf, Wee Willie WanD. Join Jim and Kathie Barron on this glorious return to one of the most progressive department stores in history. Relax in the tearoom with one of Edith Goodyear's California Dream Bars, don elegant couture from around the world and luxuriate in this remembrance of a beloved Fort Wayne icon.

Department stores were a midwest institution, none more prominent in downtown Columbus Ohio than F&R Laazarus & Company.

For more than 150 years, F&R Lazarus & Company was the heart of downtown Columbus. Headed by the first family of American retailing with an eye for flair and a devotion to the customer, this uniquely midwestern institution won the hearts and minds of a community. Look to Lazarus draws on the memories of those who worked and shopped in this grand emporium to tell the unlikely story of a love affair between a city and a store. It was a love affair born of the solemn promise You can always take it back to Lazarus, no questions asked.

Stories to SavorWashington has a tortured history with liquor. Efforts to ban or restrict it date back to1854, before the region even attained statehood, with blue laws remaining on the books well into the twentieth century. From Jimmie Durkin, an enterprising saloon owner, to Roy Olmstead, a former Seattle cop turned gentleman bootlegger, the business of liquor has inspired both trouble and innovation.Join author and journalist Becky Garrison as she traces the history of the barrel and the bottle from early settlement to the modern craft distilling boom in the Evergreen State.

Local author Jane Simon Ammeson leads a tasty tour of historic Region restaurants.

A wonderful diversity of flavors has defined Northwest Indiana as a dining destination from its early days to the present. Now almost a century old, Teibel's pan-fried fish carries on the tradition of "perch palaces'? like the now lost Phil Smidt's. Pierogis have been a staple at the Cavalier for decades. So great was the demand for frog legs at Vogel's that they used to raise their own. The same dish has remained on the menu at the Town Club since opening in 1947. Serving Northwest Indiana-style, crisped-edge hamburgers, Miner-Dunn and Schoops both survived the onslaught of fast food chains and continue on today.

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.

Many Americans are familiar with Thomas Edison's invention factory in Menlo Park, where he patented the phonograph, the light bulb and more than one thousand other items. Yet many other ideas have grown in the Garden State, too.

New Jerseyans brought sound and music to movies and built the very first drive-in theater. In addition to the first cultivated blueberry, tasty treats like ice cream cones and M&Ms are also Jersey natives. Iconic aspects of American life, like the batting cage, catcher's mask and even professional baseball itself, started in New Jersey. Life would be a lot harder without the vacuum cleaner, plastic and Band-Aids, and many important advances in medicine and surgery were also developed here. Join author Linda Barth as she explores groundbreaking, useful, fun and even silly inventions and their New Jersey roots.

Dreamers, Risk Takers, Innovators…

The chain of barrier islands that skirt the coast of North Carolina from the Virginia border to Cape Lookout were once remote. Today the Outer Banks is one of America’s most popular vacation destinations, welcoming millions of visitors each year. Like Walt Disney World or Las Vegas, the initial ideas around what is today a glittering vacation capital were, at one point, nothing more than a shared vision of what was possible. A series of dreamers fired the engines of the popular attraction to this scattering of sandy islands that resonates across much of the Eastern United States today.

Author and Outer Banks native Clark Twiddy chronicles the region’s journey from isolation to popularity through the stories of these innovators and risk-takers.

New Orleans history is steeped in coffee. Café du Monde and Morning Call started serving café au lait more than a century ago.

Outside the Cathedral of St. Louis in Jackson Square, early entrepreneurs like Old Rose provided eager churchgoers with the brew, and it was sold in the French Market beginning in the late 1700s. People gathered for business, socializing, politics and auctions at five hundred coffee exchanges and shops in the 1800s. Since 1978, myriad specialty coffee shops have opened to meet increasing demand for great coffee. Author Suzanne Stone presents the full story of this celebrated tradition, including how chicory became part of the city’s special flavor.

A culinary history of the Gateway City and the memorable restaurants that once made their home there.

St. Louis is a food town, but of the many restaurants that have captured the heart of the city, some are no longer around. Rossino’s low ceilings and even lower pipes didn’t stop the pizza-hungry residents from crowding in. Jefferson Avenue Boarding House served elegant “Granny Food” in plush surroundings. King Burgers and onion rings ruled at the Parkmoor. Dohack’s claimed it was the first to name the “jack salmon.”

Author Ann Lemons Pollack details these and more restaurants lost to time in the Gateway City.

“Few St. Louisans know the history of the St. Louis food scene like local food and travel writer Ann Lemons Pollack. . . . The book is a treasure trove for St. Louis history-lovers, beginning with an extensively researched look at the food served at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition—better known as the 1904 World’s Fair—hosted in St. Louis. She debunks some myths—hot dogs were not “invented” at the fair, but perhaps found a wide audience there—and charts the various restaurants and cafes that fed eager fairgoers.”—Feast Magazine

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.

Hidden History of Atlantic City tells the stories of the legendary nightspots, spectacular hotels and the glittering casinos of the real Boardwalk Empire.

For decades, Atlantic City was deservedly known as the queen of resorts. All the glitz and glamour imaginable shined on the boardwalk, where visitors of all ages enjoyed breathtaking views of a pristine beach overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The city by the sea had grand hotels, iconic restaurants, and amusement piers. Its nightclubs introduced Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis as a comedy team and booked stars like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and many more. As the city slipped from its one-time prosperity, its decay was on view nationally when it hosted the 1964 Democratic Convention, but when legalized gambling arrived in 1978, some of the legendary glamour returned.

Entertainment journalist, author, and jazz performer Bruce Klauber traces the incredible history of a city that’s been up and down and over and out—and up again.

In 1867, less than three years after the Civil War left the city in ruins, Hungarian Jewish immigrant Morris Rich opened a small dry goods store on what is now Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta.

Over time, his brothers Emanuel and Daniel joined the business; within a century, it became a retailing dynasty. Join historian Jeff Clemmons as he traces Rich's 137-year history. For the first time, learn the true stories behind Penelope Penn, Fashionata, The Great Tree, the Pink Pig, Rich's famous coconut cake and much more, including how events at the downtown Atlanta store helped John F. Kennedy become America's thirty-fifth president. With an eye for accuracy and exacting detail, Clemmons recounts the complete history of this treasured southern institution.

"Zip, Speed, Sport, Thrills'? - Frank J. Murray Harley-Davidson Agency, Sacramento Bee, May 16, 1929

In 1913, the merger of the Sacramento Motorcycle Club with the Capital City Wheelmen catapulted Sacramento into one of the biggest motorcycle hubs in the state. Cycles roared into town from all corners of Northern California to participate in championship races, hill climbs, endurance runs and field meets. Races teemed with motorcycles of every make and model, including Indian, Thor, Yale, Excelsior and Jefferson, piquing the interest of prominent merchants, city leaders and superior court judges. Discover the stories of a transcontinental motorcycle relay, a ride through a blizzard to deliver Olympics film to network TV, and how women formed a trailblazing motorcycle club.

Author Kimberly Reed Edwards brings to life the exciting early days of "The Greatest Sport in the World'? in California's capital.

Michael J. Lisicky, the author of several critically acclaimed department store history books, brings out charming stories about this beloved Baltimore institution.

For 132 years, Hutzler Brothers Company was a beloved part of the Baltimore retail and cultural scene. Charm City natives still recall with nostalgia the distinctive Art Deco design of the Downtown store, the glitter of the fashion shows, the unforgettable Christmas celebrations and the chocolate chiffon pie served in the store's Colonial Restaurant. Local author Michael J. Lisicky pays tribute to Hutzler's as he chronicles the rise of the family-run department store, its growth into Towson and other Maryland cities and its eventual and much lamented passing. Interviews with John Waters, former Hutzlerites and statesmen provide a glimpse into the role that Hutzler's played in the lives of so many Baltimoreans. With his vivid prose and some classic Hutzler's recipes, Lisicky brings to life this lost Baltimore institution.

The sleepy frontier capital of Santa Fe transformed abruptly in 1880.

The city, already a vibrant mix of cultures, jolted suddenly into the industrial age when it was inundated with hordes of newcomers from the East. The freshly laid tracks of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway provided easy access to the Wild West and changed the city almost overnight. Learn about the daily lives and surprising adventures of its local inhabitants, including Sisters of Charity challenging the establishment, Buffalo Soldiers pursuing an Apache chief across the desert and Billy the Kid’s escape from prison. Author Allen R. Steele recounts these events and more from firsthand accounts of that dynamic year.

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.

Winnebago County has long been a bellwether of Wisconsin beer making.

In the mid-1800s, German immigrants launched small breweries in Butte des Morts, Menasha, Neenah, Oshkosh and Winneconne. By the 1950s, breweries such as Walter Brothers, Peoples and the Oshkosh Brewing Company had a combined output of more than 100,000 barrels of beer annually, and iconic brands like Gem Pilsener and Chief Oshkosh were known across the state. This rich tradition continues today with the rise of modern craft breweries in Omro, Oshkosh and Neenah. Local author and founder of the Oshkosh Beer website Lee Reiherzer reveals stories behind the breweries, past and present, that fostered an enduring beer culture.

Asheville, North Carolina has a long history with beer, one that is still easily seen in this city today, from moonshine to craft beers and breweries.

Drinking local harks back to the founding of Asheville in 1798. Whether it be moonshine or craft beer, the culture of local hooch is deeply ingrained in the mountain dwellers of Western North Carolina. Both residents and visitors alike enjoy Asheville's wealth of breweries, brewpubs, beer festivals and dedicated retailers. That enthusiasm earned the city the coveted Beer City, USA title year after year and prompted West Coast beer giants Sierra Nevada, New Belgium and Oskar Blues to establish production facilities here. Beer writer and educator Anne Fitten Glenn recounts this intoxicating history, from the suds-soaked saloons of Hell's Half Acre to the region's explosion into a beer Mecca.

A Delicious Pacific Northwest Legacy.

Fisher Scones, a Pacific Northwest tradition, were introduced at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. This sweet treat, slathered with butter and raspberry jam, has outlived the very brand it served to promote. Founded in Seattle, Washington during the early 20th century, Fisher Flouring Mills grew into a family empire encompassing real estate, radio, and television. Now a part of Conifer Specialties, memories of that flourishing flour legacy may have faded, but more than a century later their tasty biscuit remains an icon. At fairs, festivals, and special events, the enticing scent of baking scones still draws crowds eager for a taste.

Jim Erickson, author, educator and scone baker, delves into the history of Washington’s most beloved baked good. Bon Appetit!

Under the Clock documents the fascinating historical chain of department stores Miller & Rhoads through its many transformations.

Under the Clock tells the story of Miller & Rhoads, from its incarnation as a little dry goods store in 1885 through more than a century as a beloved Richmond landmark. Earle Dunford, longtime city editor for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and George Bryson, a Miller & Rhoads veteran for thirty-nine years, usher us behind the scenes at the famous department store, sharing anecdotes they have collected from the many devoted shoppers and loyal employees who remember the good old days at Miller & Rhoads. Meet them ""under the clock"" to read about the famous Tea Room, Book and Author Dinners, fashion shows, Sara Sue hats, Christmastime with Santa Claus and countless other memories of a bygone era in shopping.

A Tale of Two Lone Stars

Two different breweries from two different centuries, both steeped in German and Texas history, happen to be connected in name only. St. Louis’s seasoned beer man Adolphus Busch and several San Antonio businessmen sought to modernize brewing in Texas and leave their distinctive mark on the burgeoning industry. They brought more than just German lager, serving up porters and bocks as well. Ultimately, Prohibition precipitated their shuttering. Meanwhile, Karl Haegelin’s Sabinas Brewery in Sabinas, Mexico, raised the bar for quality while enduring the whims of Pancho Villa. Eventually, Haeglin would move the operation to San Antonio at the end of Prohibition. By 1940, name and ownership had changed too, rebranded as Busch’s old trademark—the Lone Star Brewing Company. The reborn Lone Star, steered by Harry Jersig, would craft a recognizable, purely Texas persona—in its identity, its approach to brewing, and its relationships with customers. Join author Jeremy Banas and savor the lineage and legacy of a cherished local libation. 

“The great concerns of the southern states have made their products so well known that few people realized that tobacco can be grown elsewhere than Virginia and Cuba.” – Clarence Olson, Edgerton Reporter, 1953

Widely known as America’s Dairyland, Wisconsin also has a long, fertile history with tobacco. For centuries, Indigenous tribes cultivated it for spiritual, medicinal, and ceremonial purposes. First introduced commercially in Dane and Rock Counties, and later Vernon County, the crop earned a reputation among generations of local farmers as the "mortgage lifter.” Specializing in the broadleaf tobacco used to bind cigars, local farms became major producers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—a lifeline for newly arrived Norwegian immigrants. Ultimately, the state’s golden age of tobacco spawned the creation of the country’s first cooperative tobacco marketing association.

Author and Wisconsin historian Gail Klein surveys the Badger State’s historic tobacco regions and the agricultural commodity’s lasting impact.

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.

Michael J. Lisicky is the author of several bestselling books, including Hutzler's: Where Baltimore Shops.

In demand as a department store historian, he has given lectures at institutions such as the New York Public Library, the Boston Public Library, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, the Milwaukee County Historical Society, the Enoch Pratt Free Library and the Jewish Museum of Maryland. His books have received critical acclaim from the Baltimore Sun, Baltimore City Paper, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Pittsburgh Post Gazette. He has been interviewed by national business periodicals including Fortune Magazine, Investor's Business Daily and Bloomberg Businessweek. His book Gimbels Has It was recommended by National Public Radio's Morning Edition program as One of the Freshest Reads of 2011. Mr. Lisicky helps run an Ask the Expert column with author Jan Whitaker at www.departmentstorehistory.net and resides in Baltimore, where he is an oboist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Charlotte has entered a golden age of craft brewing. Join author Daniel Hartis for a journey into the center of this of the Queen City’s beer scene.

While the fermented frenzy of Charlotte’s craft brewing fans may feel altogether new, it evokes a forgotten heritage that dates back to colonial days. Beginning with Captain James Jack, whose tavern was a Patriot haven burned by the British during the American Revolution.

Local beer writer, and founder of charlottebeer.com, author Daniel Hartis follows a frothy trail through the highs and lows of this sudsy story. Grab a pint and discover how Prohibition took hold of Charlotteans. Ruminate over odes to beer by the Brew Pub Poets Society, and sample the personality and spirit on tap today around this North Carolina city. Charlotte Beer includes photos and a foreword by the Executive Director of the North American Guild of Beer Writers, Win Bassett.

Vermonters love all things local, so it is no surprise that the Green Mountain State has had a thriving craft beer scene for more than 20 years.

Early Vermont brewers faced a strong uphill struggle however, as a state-imposed alcohol prohibition began in 1852, and continued well after the ending of federal prohibition. Conditions remained unfavorable until Greg Noonan, founder of Vermont Pub & Brewery, championed brewing legislation that opened the door for all breweries and pubs in the 1980s. About the same time, the now beloved Catamount also began brewing, and Vermont’s craft beer scene exploded. Years ahead of the rest of the country, local favorites like Hill Farmstead, Long Trail, and Rock Art Brewing have provided world-class beer to grateful patrons. From small upstarts to well-recognized national brands like Magic Hat and Harpoon, Vermont boasts more breweries per capita than any other state in the country. With brewer interviews and historic recipes included, discover the sudsy story of beer in Vermont.