Name: The Swiss Colony
Brand: Jim Glessner
SKU: 9780738540245
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

The Swiss Colony

9780738540245

$24.99

Each year, millions of Swiss Colony mail-order catalogs featuring more than 30,000 items flow into American homes. Little did Raymond Kubly realize in 1926, when he had the goofy idea of selling cheese by mail, that his then-fledgling company would become a mail-order giant. In those first years, cheese wheels were cut and wrapped in consumer-sized pieces in the Kubly family basement and garage. Soon the company was selling not only cheese but sausages, meats, and pastry desserts, all from the pleasant, little southern Wisconsin city of Monroe. Today the ever-expanding Swiss Colony, having ventured into home furnishings, jewelry, apparel, and more, is one of the largest direct marketing companies in the United States.

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Ridgewood

9781467127141

$24.99

Given that Ridgewood lies within 20 miles of Lower Manhattan, it would be easy to dismiss this little town as another New York suburb. Settled by Johannes Van Emburgh in 1700, this slice of New Jersey was a pivotal safe haven for the founding fathers, such as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr. In 1894, the State of New Jersey incorporated the area as a village, and what followed were 100 years of business and leisure with places like Woolworth's, the Erie Railroad Company, and First National Bank dominating the landscape. Today, Ridgewood serves as a home for those who wish to evade the city life of the boroughs. With its distinct mix of history and comfort, Ridgewood is unique in comparison to other towns in New Jersey and a fine place to call home.

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Furnace Creek Resort

9781467134705

$24.99

Since opening on February 1, 1927, with just 12 guest rooms, Furnace Creek Resort has achieved preeminence among US National Park lodges and hotels. Conceived by the Pacific Coast Borax Company in 1926, the inn was the answer to the declining mining industry, which had left the Death Valley Railroad with nothing to haul. The construction of Furnace Creek Inn helped to shift Death Valley's draw from mining to tourism, bringing a new industry to the Old West. Steeped in history and tradition, the inn and the ranch have become as much a destination as the park itself. With naturally heated swimming pools, the world's lowest golf course, four-diamond hospitality, and surroundings of unsurpassed natural beauty, Furnace Creek offers experiences that are long remembered by its guests.

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Smithville

9781467103565

$24.99

In 1865, industrialist/inventor Hezekiah Bradley Smith purchased Shreveville, later renamed Smithville, an abandoned textile mill and town located along the Rancocas Creek in Burlington County, for $20,000.

He moved many workers from his Lowell, Massachusetts, plant to the new location, rebuilt the factory, and prepared it for the manufacture of his patented iron woodworking machinery. Smith began to improve the aging housing in the surrounding village. He opened a school and, later, constructed a new school building. Smith erected a boardinghouse for factory workers that contained shops and a concert hall. Through farming on land adjacent to his mansion, he made fresh produce and milk available to his workers. Smith’s company also expanded into new industries by working with outside inventors, like George Washington Pressey, who needed a manufacturer for his American Star Bicycle. Later, Arthur Hotchkiss contacted the company to build the world’s first bicycle railroad to transport workers from Mount Holly to the Smithville factory. This book captures life in the village and factory, memorializing the intertwining lives of the Smithville workers and H.B. Smith through photographs.

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The Portland Company

9780738511405

$24.99

The Portland Company commenced operations in 1846 in Portland, Maine, under the leadership of John A. Poor. It was founded primarily to manufacture railroad locomotives for the Atlantic & St. Lawrence Railroad. The company played a major role in the economy and development of the state of Maine and continued in business until 1982, producing a wide range of cast-metal and fabricated products.

The Portland Company manufactured a total of six hundred thirty steam locomotives, starting in 1848, along with hundreds of railroad cars, boilers, marine engines, ships, steam fire engines, elevators, and paper and textile mill equipment. Locomotives, ships, and cannons were built for the Civil War, and munitions were manufactured for both world wars. Later, the Portland Company produced snowplows, nuclear plant components, and common castings from manhole covers to streetlights. In the early 1900s, the company sold five makes of new automobiles and trucks. In this rich photographic history, the Portland Company and the city of Portland, with its great waterfront and industrial heritage, come to life.

Sepia toned vintage steam locomotive on display with a Portland Company plaque.

The Wigwam Resort

9780738548258

$24.99

The evolution of an arid desert area into the verdant oasis that is the Wigwam Resort was ultimately brought about by an unlikely crop needed by an important American corporation in the early 20th century. The crop was long-staple cotton and the corporation was the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. When the U.S. Department of Agriculture discovered that Arizona's Salt River Valley was an ideal location to domestically grow long-staple cotton, Goodyear purchased 16,000 acres in the desert west of Phoenix to cultivate the crop for their newly developed pneumatic tire. The company built a three-room lodge, originally called the Organization House, for the executives that came to oversee the farming operations. The location became a popular winter retreat within the company, and in 1929, Goodyear expanded the facilities and opened The Wigwam as a hotel. As the years progressed, amenities such as golf and fine dining were added, and the Wigwam Resort became one of the premier luxury destinations in the Southwest.

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Skytop Lodge

9781467123464

$24.99

Surrounded by the natural beauty of mountain lakes, streams, and cascading waterfalls, the historic Skytop Lodge resort sits on 5,500 pristine acres in the heart of the Poconos. Developers of the estate cultivated this aesthetic when they hired the Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm to site the main building and design Skytop's gardens. Planned during the Roaring Twenties, Skytop first opened its doors in June 1928, just one year before the stock market crash that began the Great Depression. Despite that challenge and others, the classic silhouette of the Dutch Colonial Revival lodge has continued to greet guests for almost 90 years. Founder and general manager Samuel H. Packer laid the foundation for Skytop's success through his tireless efforts in organizing talent, such as golf pro Harold Calloway, and arranging endless events to build Skytop's reputation as a premiere destination High in the Poconos.

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Seattle's Mayflower Park Hotel

9781467131346

$24.99

The Mayflower Park Hotel started life as the Bergonian Hotel on July 16, 1927. One of Seattle's first uptown hotels, it was designed by architect B. Dudley Stuart and built by Stephen Berg at a cost of $750,000. In the midst of the Great Depression, the hotel was sold and renamed Hotel Mayflower. In 1948, Washington State legalized cocktail lounges, and the Hotel Mayflower became Seattle's first hotel to open one. In the ensuing decades, Seattle prospered, and it hosted the 1962 World's Fair with its symbolic Space Needle. By the 1970s, Seattle was in a deep recession, and the hotel had become sadly neglected. In 1974, Birney and Marie Dempcy formed a limited partnership to purchase the hotel and renamed it the Mayflower Park Hotel. Restoration started immediately, and after 40 years, the Dempcys remain dedicated to the tradition of making the Mayflower Park Hotel Quite Simply, One of a Kind.

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Krauss

9781625858627

$21.99

For almost one hundred years, generations of New Orleans shoppers flocked to Krauss. The Canal Street store was hailed for its vast merchandise selection and quality customer service. In its early days, it sold lace and fabric to the ladies of the notorious red-light district of Storyville. The store's renowned lunch counter, Eddie's at Krauss, served Eddie Baquet's authentic New Orleans cuisine to customers and celebrities such as Julia Child. Although the beloved store finally closed its doors in 1997, Krauss is still fondly remembered as a retail haven. With vintage photographs, interviews with store insiders and a wealth of research, historian Edward J. Branley brings the story of New Orleans' Creole department store back to life.

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The Baker Chocolate Company

9781596293533

$21.99

In 1765, Dr. James Baker of Dorchester stumbled upon Irishman John Hannon crying on the banks of the mighty Neponset River. Hannon, though penniless, possessed the rare skills required to create chocolate, a delicacy exclusive to Europe, and Baker, with pockets bursting, wished to make a name for himself. Using a mill powered by the same river upon which they met, the duo built America's oldest and most beloved manufacturer of this rich treat. Local historian Anthony Sammarco details the delicious saga of Massachusetts's Baker Chocolate Company, from Hannon's mysterious disappearance and the famed La Belle Chocolatiere advertising campaign to cacao bean smuggling sparked by Revolutionary War blockades. Both bitter and sweet, this tale is sure to tickle your taste buds.

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Energen Corporation

9780738514611

$24.99

Energen Corporation, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, traces its beginnings to October 14, 1852. On that date, John Jeffrey and Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, received a franchise from the City of Montgomery to provide street lighting using manufactured gas. Montgomery Gas Light Company purchased the franchise in 1853 and a year later, the first street gaslights were in operation. Since 1854, the Company has experienced mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and name changes. In 1937, Southern Natural Gas Company organized the utility into Alabama Gas Company and in 1948 merged it with Birmingham Gas Company to form Alabama Gas Corporation. The Company spun off from Southern Natural in 1953, becoming an independent and publicly traded company. Positioning itself for the future in 1974, the Company formed Alagasco, Inc., a holding company, with Alabama Gas Corporation as its primary subsidiary. In 1985, the holding company became Energen Corporation. Today, Energen Corporation is a diversified energy company with two major subsidiaries, Alagasco, its natural gas utility, and Energen Resources, its oil and gas acquisition and production company.

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Western North Carolina Beer

9781467139991

$24.99

Over the past two hundred years, Western North Carolina has evolved from a mountainous frontier known for illicit moonshine production into a renowned destination for craft beer. Follow its story from the wild days of saloons and the first breweries of the 1870s through one of the longest Prohibitions in the nation. Eventually, a few bold entrepreneurs started the first modern breweries in Asheville, and formerly dry towns and counties throughout the region started to embrace the industry. The business of beer attracts jobs, tourists and dollars, as well as mixed emotions, legal conundrums and entrepreneurial challenges. Join award-winning beer writer Anne Fitten Glenn as she narrates the storied history of brewing in Western North Carolina.

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North Dakota Beer

9781625859198

$21.99

Before North Dakota obtained statehood and entered the Union as a dry state, the region's commercial beer industry thrived. A lengthy era of temperance forced locals to find clever ways to get a beer, such as crossing the Montana and Minnesota borders for a pint, smuggling beer over the rails and brewing at home. After Prohibition, the state's farmers became national leaders in malting barley production, serving the biggest brewers in the world. However, local breweries struggled until 1995, when the first wave of brewpubs arrived on the scene. A craft brewing renaissance this century led to an explosion of more than a dozen craft breweries and brewpubs in less than a decade. Alicia Underlee Nelson recounts North Dakota's journey from a dry state to a booming craft beer hub.

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History of Iowa Wine, A

9781467141086

$21.99

Iowa has a history with grapevines that goes back more than a century. New York lawyer Hiram Barney obtained a tract of land in southeast Iowa as part of the Half-Breed program following the American Indian Wars and created the White Elk Winery. German settlers in Amana tended community vineyards for communal wines. Before Prohibition, the Council Bluffs Grape Growers Association grew grapes and shipped them eastward by the ton. In the early 1900s, the state was among the nation’s top producers of grapes. Pesticides, weather and government subsidies ended the time of the vines of the prairie until their recent return. Author John N. Peragine details the rise, fall and resurgence of the industry in the Hawkeye State.

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Eaton's

9781626192195

$29.99

Explore the broad, fascinating history of the Eaton's department store empire. Exhaustively researched and thoughtfully written by a prominent department store historian. Canada's largest and most well-known department store, Eaton's was an icon of Canadian culture. From its founding in 1869 to its famed catalogue and network of large stores spreading coast to coast, Eaton's offered something for everyone, in grand style. Relive the days when this remarkable store was a fixture in every Canadian province and served its customers with a distinctive personality that has all but vanished from the retail landscape.

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Nevada County Wine

9781467139540

$21.99

Nevada County’s tumultuous wine history includes several booms and busts, starting in the 1850s when gold prospectors brought the first grapevines in their saddlebags. Economic downturns, prohibition and war all tried to kill the fledgling wine industry, but it hung on thanks to gentleman farmers and members of the mining industry who supplied a thirsty clientele. Today, although the mines have gone quiet, wineries are thriving in the hills of the Gold Country, and the pioneering spirit lives on in their distinctive vintages and growing techniques. Join author Mary Anne Davis as she explores the family vineyards of the California foothills.

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The Milders Inn of Fairfield, Ohio

9781467119184

$21.99

Mom Milders's Best in the Middle West fried chicken drew crowds of regular and famous folk alike to her Fairfield establishment for decades until it closed after World War II. Notorious gangster John Dillinger stopped in for a bite while on the lam, but Mom made sure he removed his hat inside the building just like everyone else. Hall of Famer Ernie Lombardi of the Cincinnati Reds was a regular, mingling with fans at the inn. Today, the family still serves up the original fried chicken recipe every week at Ryan's Tavern in Hamilton. Author Teri Horsley explores the nostalgia and beloved recipes of the former inn that served up delectable home cooking with a side of history.

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The William Marvy Company of St. Paul

9781626195691

$21.99

The William Marvy Company's barber poles, encased swirls of red and blue above a rounded stainless-steel base, hang on street corners around the country. The company began creating the vibrant signposts in St. Paul three generations ago. Modern versions of the bloody rags used by surgeon-barbers in the Middle Ages, barber poles are well-known icons, but the Marvy family story is largely unknown. From his humble beginnings as the son of a Latvian émigré carpenter through the growing pains of his namesake company, Marvy showed business acumen and innovation that culminated with his invention of a shatterproof barber pole, ensuring the company's continued success. From crew cuts and the Beatles up through today, barber poles have remained an easily recognized social constant.

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The Maine Lobster Industry

9781626194106

$21.99

Since the first recorded lobster catch in 1605, the Maine lobster fishery has grown into a multibillion-dollar force. Cathy Billings of the University of Maine Lobster Institute embarks on a journey from trap to plate, introducing readers to lobstermen, boat builders, bait dealers, marine suppliers and the expansive industry that revolves around the fishery. Maine lobster families extend generations back with an eye to their legacies. Strides in sustainability have been a hallmark of the Maine fishery throughout the centuries, from the time lobstermen themselves introduced conservation measures in the mid-1800s. Today, Maine's lobster fishery is a model of a co-managed, sustainable fishery. The people who work Maine's lobster fishery have developed a coastal economy with an international influence and deep history.

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Linden Row Inn

9781467122559

$24.99

Included in the National Register of Historic Places, the collection of Greek Revival row houses that make up the Linden Row Inn have played a significant role in the history of Richmond, Virginia, for two centuries. As a child, Edgar Allan Poe played in the private garden that occupied this site, and he later courted his first love, Elmira Royster, among the roses and linden trees. During the Civil War, Linden Row was a meeting place for leaders and supporters of the Confederacy; later, it was home to a prestigious girls' school, whose pupils included Irene and Nancy Langhorne, known in later years as the Gibson Girl and Lady Nancy Astor. In 1922, two of the original ten houses were torn down and replaced by the Medical Arts Building. In 1950, local preservationist Mary Wingfield Scott purchased the remaining houses to save them from the wrecking ball, donating them in 1980 to the Historic Richmond Foundation. In 1988, under the supervision of the foundation, seven of the eight remaining houses were renovated and restored to become the Linden Row Inn, which still welcomes travelers today.

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Twin Lights Tonic

9781467148788

$21.99

Since 1907, one Rockport family have continued to make their timeless soda pop the old-fashioned way. Twin Lights Soda--or tonic, as it's still known locally--was started by second-generation Portuguese immigrants in the back of a small-town family grocer and named after the iconic pair of lighthouses just off the coast of Cape Ann. The bottling industry was one of America's great entrepreneurial endeavors, and at its peak, Twin Lights outsold even the two largest national cola brands in the region. But today, while soft drinks are a $45 billion industry, few independents remain. Authors Paul St. Germain and Dev Sherlock trace the fascinating story of one of the last family bottlers still in operation.