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Readers will be drawn to the quaint feel of suburban Pennsylvania that author Michele Murray has captured within these pages.

Drexel Park, founded in 1924, is a result of the city of Philadelphia bursting at its seams as it experienced an industrial boom fueled by advances in manufacturing, transportation, and technology. Having maintained dominance as the largest port in North America for nearly 150 years, rapid industrial growth led to mass overcrowding, which forced the expansion of urban neighborhoods and the creation of new suburban neighborhoods. The founder of Drexel Park, Thomas Conway Jr., was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and was a professor of finance at the Wharton School. He originally established himself as an interurban railroad innovator by transforming failing railroad lines into profitable businesses. Conway revolutionized suburban planning by leveraging existing railroad connections to develop a rural community near Philadelphia. He donated land for a local public hospital and used cutting-edge marketing techniques to attract clients, shaping his vision of an “ideal community.”

The Drexel Park Homeowners Association celebrated Drexel Park’s centennial in 2024. Committee chairperson Michele Murray, working with the history committee, researched Drexel Park’s unique history and compiled its origins and development, drawing on photographs and anecdotes from residents, local historical societies, and museums.

With the opening of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in 1964, Staten Island was changed forever.

Sewers, schools, roadways, and even the politicians of New York City were not prepared for the onslaught of relocating Brooklyn residents who sought a rural lifestyle. Houses were bought as quickly as they were built. Schools were scrambling to find seats for thousands of newly arriving students. The antiquated sewer system of Staten Island could not handle the overload and there simply wasn't enough room for all of the septic tanks needed.

Who were the allies or adversaries of development? Who sought to make a meaningful plan for Staten Island's future?

Author Patricia Salmon examines the preparation, design, and opening of "The Bridge," as well as how it impacted the citizens of Staten Island during the next decade. 

Secondary education for African Americans in Washington, DC, marked a defining moment in the history of a people less than a decade removed from chattel slavery and legally prohibited from learning. In 1862, when legislation passed creating a “colored” school system, an educational foundation had been laid; by the decade’s end, thousands of people had received a basic education, and thousands more were in need.

A high school was needed to train grammar school graduates to teach in the rapidly growing system, which ultimately became a catalyst for academic excellence. When the first courses for Preparatory High School for Colored Youth were organized in a church basement in 1870, Black youth embarked on a journey of life-changing academic and personal growth. Many graduates not only became notable in fields ranging from arts to sciences, but even more helped to expand the city’s school system. Armstrong, Dunbar, and Cardozo High Schools emerged from this segregated system, each offering rigorous academic curriculums while shaping students’ civic, social, and physical development. 

Alice K. Thomas, educated in Washington, DC, holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism and a master’s degree and doctorate in sociology. She writes and lectures on topics related to the experiences of African Americans. Her encounters with DC graduates often lead to nostalgic stories of the “good old days.” 

Revel at the tales of these locals boys from Southwestern Pennsylvania going west to seek their Sin City dreams.

As turmoil rocked New Castle in the 1970s, a group of young men completed their military service and came home to a bleak future. Without college degrees or marketable skills, they found few options in Western Pennsylvania. Looking for a better life, they turned their eyes west.

Las Vegas promised women, gambling, excitement, and the chance to make a buck. Over their decades on the floors of Sin City’s casinos, they would rub shoulders with gangsters and stars and keep a sharp eye out for opportunity—and for card counters.

Based on hours of exclusive interviews, author Dale Perelman unfolds this cavalier group’s frolicking adventures as they navigated their way from the belly of the downtown Golden Gate to some of the Strip’s premier casinos, all while teetering along the right side of the law.

Explore the history of our nation's capital through this history of its bridges.

In the late 1700s, the first bridges, now completely gone, connected the new Federal City to the outside world. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, more and bigger crossings arose to support industry, allow the expansion of suburbs, commemorate cultural and civic leaders, and enhance the aesthetics of the District’s waterfronts and parks. Although the city abandoned civic-minded, commemorative, and monumental constructions for utilitarian highway monoliths in the mid-twentieth century, a recent renaissance has seen a welcome shift to walkability and beauty instead of brute utility.

Using the city’s bridges as an index of the times, author and D.C. native Bob Dover tracks the growth, decay, and rebirth of the District from the 1750s to today.