Images of America

Discover the history of your hometown with Arcadia Publishing's best-selling Images of America History Book series, crafted by local authors. Visit landmarks like the Yellowstone National Park, the Biltmore Estate, or Alcatraz Island without ever leaving your backyard. Hike to the rural Angwin village on Howell Mountain, time-travel to Chicago’s 1893 World Fair, or experience sports history at Fenway Park. Through iconic images of America, these local history books open a window into yesterday for eager history lovers. [View all Images of America books]

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Cotati

Prudence Draper

$24.99

San Bernardino Fire Department

Foster City Historical Society

$24.99

Prudence Draper

Cotati

9780738528731

$24.99

The town of Cotati, once the Coast Miwok village of Kot'ati, was by 1850 a 17,000-acre diamond-shaped ranch set in the center of Sonoma County's golden fields. Dr. Thomas Stokes Page and his heirs ran that ranch until the 1890s, when they laid out a town and a distinctive hexagonal plaza with streets named after Dr. Page's sons. That wheel-like plaza earned centrally located Cotati the title, Hub of Sonoma County. For many years Cotati was the gathering place for hundreds of hardworking chicken ranchers, who bought up small farms in the surrounding countryside, but it was transformed in the 1970s into a hippie haven fed by nearby Sonoma State University. Old chicken houses then became student housing and the Plaza hub that was the setting for traditional community festivals became a vibrating stage for dancing and demonstrations. Cotati's famous downtown nightclub, the Inn of the Beginning, was the proving ground for many now-famous musicians, including John Lee Hooker, Huey Lewis, Vince Guaraldi, Roseanne Cash, and Kate Wolf.

Steven Shaw

San Bernardino Fire Department

9780738528519

$24.99

Sixty miles east of Los Angeles, the now-bustling city of San Bernardino established its first fire department in 1865 with just 4 ladders, 4 axes, 4 hooks, and 24 buckets. Though this company was soon disbanded, another rose to take its place following several disastrous blazes in 1878. From these early days of leather helmets and hand-drawn trucks to the modern era of computerized equipment, the San Bernardino Fire Department has kept step with the community's rapid growth through the 20th century and, today, continues to provide first-class service to the citizens of San Bernardino.

Claudia Salewske

Gilroy

9780738528601

$24.99

Located along the El Camino Real at the crossroads of the Pacheco and Hecker Pass highways, Gilroy is surrounded by the rich farmland of southern Santa Clara County. The region boasts a mineral hot springs, prime grazing land in the eastern foothills, and redwood forests to the west. In addition to successful lumbering enterprises, vast cattle ranches, and thriving resorts, Gilroy claims to be The Garlic Capital of the World. From the early settlements of the Ohlone, through the vibrant Rancho era and post gold-fever boom, to the present-day world-famous Garlic Festival, this book illustrates the unique history of this town at the southern end of Silicon Valley. Drawn from the archives of the Gilroy Museum and the albums of pioneer families are more than 200 vintage images of the businesses, dwellings, pastimes, hopes, and high-jinks of the individuals who made Gilroy what it is today.

Foster City Historical Society

Foster City

9780738529080

$24.99

Many of California's cities evolved haphazardly, the natural but disorderly result of an early settlement expanding over time. Foster City, on the other hand, is an example of a community that was carefully envisioned and built according to a master plan. The city was conceived in the 1950s when real estate developer T. Jack Foster and his sons began the arduous task of preparing tidal mudflats on the San Francisco Bay's shore to support a series of roads, housing developments, industrial parks, and a picturesque but functional system of lagoons. Through the years, Foster City has risen from these humble beginnings to become a major Bay Area city, one that is home to 30,000 diverse residents and several important corporations.