Name: Route 66 in Illinois
Brand: Cheryl Eichar Jett
SKU: 9781467111942
Price: 16.79 USD
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Route 66 in Illinois

9781467111942

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%

Route 66 goes through the heart of Illinois: between the great cities of Chicago and St. Louis, there are 300 miles of adventure, history, culinary delights, and quirky attractions.

This is the Land of Lincoln and roadside giants. There are cozy motels, cozy diners, and Cozy Dogs. Interstate 55 will speed travelers to their destination, but Route 66 offers something more. It goes through the hearts of the towns, wandering onto old brick pavement far from the roar of the interstate. Historic restaurants like Lou Mitchell's in Chicago, the Palms Grill in Atlanta, and the Ariston Cafe in Litchfield still keep their coffee pots warm. Waitresses, pump jockeys, gangsters, cops, and politicians all gave the Main Street of America its distinctive personality, and their stories are within these pages. So slow down, take the next exit, and head toward the beckoning neon in the distance. Come explore Route 66 in Illinois - where the road began.

Cover image for Route 66 in Illinois, isbn: 9781467111942

Route 66 in Kansas

9781467116510

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

There are only 13.2 miles of Route 66 in Kansas, but the Sunflower State packs in as much history and adventure per mile as any of the eight Route 66 states. Route 66 in Kansas includes the wild tales from the days of Red Hot Street and the First Cowtown in Kansas. Blood was spilled here during the Civil War and when workers in the mines fought for their rights. Travelers will meet a beloved character from the motion picture Cars, cross a rare Rainbow Bridge, and see classic scenes along the Main Streets. Kansas was completely bypassed and was not even mentioned in the Bobby Troup song (Get Your Kicks) on Route 66, but it would be a major mistake to pass it by today. It deserves to be experienced slowly—with the top down and the radio up.

Cover image for Route 66 in Kansas, isbn: 9781467116510

Route 66 in Missouri

9781467102667

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Route 66 is the Main Street of America, heralded in song and popular culture. It took a maze of different routes through St. Louis before slashing diagonally across the Show-Me State through the beauty of the Ozarks. In between, there are classic motels, diners, tourist traps, and gas stations bathed in flashing and whirling neon lights. Natural wonders include crystal-clear streams, majestic bluffs, and wondrous caverns. Roadside marketers concocted legends about Jesse James, painted advertisements on barns, lived with deadly snakes, or offered curios such as pottery and handwoven baskets. That spirit is alive today at the Wagon Wheel and the Munger-Moss, the Mule, Meramec Caverns, and Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, just to name a few. Their stories are included here.

Cover image for Route 66 in Missouri, isbn: 9781467102667

Route 66 in St. Louis

9780738552163

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

In 1926, highway planners laid out a ribbon of roadways connecting the nation. One of the most important wove its way across eight states, from the cities of the heartland to golden California. In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck calls it "the Mother Road." Route 66 has become a legend, celebrated in books, movies, works of art, and popular music. The interstates could not kill it. As "the Main Street of America," Route 66 had to pass through "the Gateway to the West," St. Louis. Crossing the Mississippi River, the road took many different paths through the busy city and then united to travel into the rolling hills of the Ozarks. Along the way there were mom-and-pop motels, tourist traps, roadside restaurants, a man selling frozen custard, one living with snakes, and another who claimed to be Jesse James. Their stories are here.

Book cover Route 66 in St. Louis showing a sepia-toned bridge over a river with a small building nearby.

The Lincoln Highway in Iowa

9781467149808

$23.99

Iowa's Great Highway

Before there was Route 66, there was the iconic Lincoln Highway. A symbol of limitless potential, America’s first coast-to-coast highway spanned Iowa from the Mississippi River to the Missouri River. When you travel U.S. 30 across Iowa today, you’re never far from the historic Lincoln Highway, if not right on top of it. Learn the history of an Iowa landmark.

Cover of The Lincoln Highway in Iowa a history book featuring a collage of Iowa landmarks.

Going-to-the-Sun Road

9780738596983

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

The Going-to-the-Sun Road is rightfully recognized as one of the most spectacular alpine highways in the world and certainly among those in the United States. The landscape is one of peerless beauty, but the road itself is an engineering masterpiece. In 1910, Glacier National Park was created in that million-acre swath of mountains, lakes, and glaciers that the great naturalist George Bird Grinnell called the Crown of the Continent. Soon, plans were being made for a road that would take visitors into the heart of this amazing place. The result was the Going-to-the-Sun Road, which has been the centerpiece of the visitor experience in Glacier since it was formally dedicated in 1933.

Cover image for Going-to-the-Sun Road, isbn: 9780738596983

Old Chicago Road

9780738578101

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

With origins dating back to the end of the last ice age, the road known as Michigan Avenue was most familiar to early settlers as the "Old Sauk Trail." Old Chicago Road: US-12 from Detroit to Chicago traces one of America's oldest and most famous routes--from its eastern origin at the very center of Detroit to its western terminus on the north side of Chicago. Vintage views, many of which have never before been published, explore the cities, towns, and villages along its path. While it has been known by many names throughout its history, the road continues to weave a unique American story in its present form as modern-day thoroughfare US-12.

Old Chicago Road cover showing a vintage bus in front of twin towers along US-12 Detroit to Chicago.

Route 66 in Chicago

9780738551388

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

It winds from Chicago to L.A."--so says Nat "King" Cole's classic hit "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66." Beginning in 1926, Route 66 was the only U.S. highway
providing a direct connection between the Windy City and the City of Angels; thus, it is no wonder that Route 66 would become the metaphor of the American
journey. The crescent-shaped route from the shore of Lake Michigan to the southern Pacific Coast followed a corridor blazed by Native American footpaths,
pioneer waterways, and transcontinental railroads. As the frontier moved across the Great Plains to the ocean, Chicago was the point of embarkation for people emigrating from the east, and it was the marketplace for the products harvested in the west. During the golden age of the car culture, Chicago was where people started their California trips as they took "the highway that's the best."

Old Chicago street scene with a cafe and diners featured on the Route 66 in Chicago cover

Route 66 in the Missouri Ozarks

9780738560304

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Route 66 in the Missouri Ozarks picks up the journey west where its companion book, Route 66 in St. Louis, leaves off. As Bobby Troup's song says, Route 66 travels "more than 2,000 miles all the way." But one would be hard-pressed to "Show Me" a more scenic and historic segment than the Missouri Ozarks. The highway is lined with buildings covered with distinctive Ozark rock. It winds through a region of deep forests, sparkling streams, hidden caves, and spectacular bluffs. This book will take the traveler from Crawford County to the Kansas line. Along the way, there are small towns and urban centers, hotels and motels, cafés and souvenir stands. Take the time to explore Missouri's Route 66--it is waiting at the next exit.

Cover for Route 66 in the Missouri Ozarks with a roadside 4 Acre Cabins sign and vintage gas pumps.

Chicago's Historic Prairie Avenue

9780738552125

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Prairie Avenue evolved into Chicago's most exclusive residential street during the last three decades of the 19th century.

Chicago's wealthiest citizens--Marshall Field, Philip Armour, and George Pullman--were soon joined by dozens of Chicago's business, social, and civic leaders, establishing a neighborhood that the Chicago Heraldproclaimed, "a cluster of millionaires not to be matched for numbers anywhere else in the country."

Substantial homes were designed by the leading architects of the day, including William Le Baron Jenney, Burnham and Root, Solon S. Beman, and Richard Morris Hunt. By the early 1900s, however, the neighborhood began a noticeable transformation as many homes were converted to rooming houses and offices, while others were razed for construction of large plants for the printing and publishing industry. The rescue of the landmark Glessner House in 1966 brought renewed attention to the area, and in 1979, the Prairie Avenue Historic District was designated. The late 1990s saw the rebirth of the area as a highly desirable residential neighborhood known as the South Loop.

William H. Tyre is executive director of the Glessner House Museum, H. H. Richardson's masterpiece of residential design that features an extraordinary collection of original English and American arts and crafts furnishings.

Cover image for Chicago's Historic Prairie Avenue, isbn: 9780738552125

Indiana's Historic National Road

9780738588629

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Cruise down Indiana's ""road that built the nation"" and delve into its history and beauty told through hundreds of images.

The Indiana National Road Association works to preserve, protect, and promote the Historic National Road. This byway is designated an All-American Road through the National Scenic Byways program and traverses six states from Baltimore, Maryland, to East St. Louis, Illinois. The road began as a primary route west for pioneers, and today the byway allows travelers to explore the American past--it is truly ""the road that built the nation."" This volume continues the story that began on the eastern leg of Indiana's Historic National Road, inviting readers to complete their photographic journey westward from Indianapolis to Terre Haute. These images document the people and stories that are part of the National Road's heritage, and it is hoped this book will encourage advocacy for the protection of important heritage resources.

Cover of Images of America Indiana's Historic National Road with a nostalgic street scene and flags.

The Lincoln Highway across Indiana

9780738561080

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

The Lincoln Highway across Indiana explores Indiana's unique role in Lincoln Highway history and celebrates Indiana's place in early automotive and road-building history.

Once known as the "Main Street of America," the Lincoln Highway route was established across northern Indiana in 1913, linking larger cities--Fort Wayne, Elkhart, Goshen, South Bend, LaPorte, and Valparaiso--to smaller communities. Most Lincoln Highway towns renamed their main streets Lincolnway in recognition of the nation's first coast-to-coast auto road. When the Lincoln Highway Association shortened the route in 1926, the route linked Fort Wayne to Columbia City, Warsaw, and Plymouth, giving the state two Lincoln Highway routes. From Fort Wayne to the famous Ideal Section, between Dyer and Schererville, Indiana's Lincolnway towns remain proudly connected to Lincoln Highway history. Through vintage photographs, postcards, advertisements, and other historical records, this armchair tour of the highway visits sites favored by early tourists, documents the people and places that made the highway a vital corridor, and celebrates Hoosier Carl Fisher's leadership in the formation of the Lincoln Highway Association, as well as the people who work to preserve its legacy today.

Cover image for The Lincoln Highway across Indiana, isbn: 9780738561080

Indiana's Historic National Road

9780738560557

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

The Indiana National Road Association hopes the photographs and stories within this book will give readers an appreciation for the 200-year past of the Historic National Road, often called "The Road that Built the Nation." This federally designated All-American Road retains much of the integrity from its early days as a pioneer corridor. It is important for people to learn about these stories and about those who lived and worked along the road so that they can understand more about both themselves and the importance of preserving the highway. This volume looks at the section of the road from Richmond to Indianapolis.

Book cover showing a sepia photograph of a large brick building with people along Indiana's historic National Road.

Along Iowa's Historic Highway 20

9781467112901

$24.99

US Highway 20 was designated a federal highway in 1926. For the first half of the 20th century, it was the most important east-west road across northern Iowa, extending from the Mississippi to the Missouri River. The road connected 13 counties, four major metropolitan areas, and many smaller communities along its route. Fortunately, the historic two-lane road remains almost completely intact and can be driven much as travelers did in years gone by. Along Iowa's Historic Highway 20 celebrates such a trip, illustrated by more than 200 antique postcards that show the personality of the road: town and city scenes, rural vistas, rivers, bridges, and historic sites. Not to be forgotten are the tourist courts, hotels, diners, and gas stations that made travel possible.

Cover of Along Iowa's Historic Highway 20 with a sepia postcard scene showing Main Street and vintage cars.

Along Illinois's Historic Highway 20

9781467129671

$23.99

Congress designated Highway 20 as a federal highway in 1926. The result of this was the evolution of Highway 20 as the most important road traversing northern Illinois. From Chicago to the Mississippi River, the road served both as farm-to-market route for local farmers and a vital link for interstate travelers. This book celebrates a journey across Illinois on historic Highway 20 as illustrated by more than 200 postcards showing the personality of the road, small towns, scenic vistas, and historic sites, as well as the tourist courts, hotels, diners, and roadside businesses that helped make automobile travel possible.

Cover of Along Illinois's Historic Highway 20 with a sepia road scene and a vintage car.

The Lincoln Highway around Chicago

9780738551975

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Once known as the "Main Street of America," the Lincoln Highway through western Indiana and eastern Illinois became the first urban bypass on the first hard-surfaced transcontinental highway in the nation. This stretch of the highway is also home to the famous Ideal Section, which set the national standard for road construction in 1923. Through some 200 vintage photographs, this armchair tour of the highway from Schererville, Indiana, to Geneva, Illinois, visits sites that early-day tourists saw and documents the people who made the highway what it was in 1913 and the people who worked to preserve its spirit and history at the close of the century. The Lincoln Highway around Chicago defines and describes the role of the Lincoln Highway in the Chicago area from a gravel track to a miracle mile that has served local residents as well as cross-country travelers for nearly 100 years.

Book cover The Lincoln Highway around Chicago featuring a vintage car and a man by a gate in a residential street.

Crossing Nebraska

9781467171243

$24.99

Journey the historic path from wagon ruts to blacktop highways across Nebraska.

For centuries, Nebraska’s Platte River Valley has served as a natural passageway for the nation’s travelers. The Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails guided intrepid settlers west. Soon, the Pony Express, roughly following those trails, provided the first direct mail service connecting the West Coast with east of the Mississippi River. These historic routes later evolved into the transcontinental railroad, the Lincoln Highway, and eventually modern-day Interstate 80. History buffs, road-trippers, and the generally curious alike can navigate the tracks that each era of travel left locally and nationally.

Blending vivid historical detail with memorable personal narratives, author Andrea M. Riley offers an enlightening journey through one of the country’s most important transportation corridors.

Cover image for Crossing Nebraska, isbn: 9781467171243

The Lincoln Highway Across Illinois

9780738593586

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

From southern Cook County to the Mississippi River, the Lincoln Highway meanders through many of Chicago's suburbs before heading west through Illinois's fertile farmland. America's first transcontinental highway once stretched nearly 3,400 miles from New York City to San Francisco. The story of the highway's role in shaping the contemporary American highway system is one that examines the interaction of technology and human spirit. Conceived by entrepreneur Carl G. Fischer in 1912 and endorsed by businessman Henry B. Joy, the idea of creating an automobile-friendly roadway spanning America would soon change the nature of travel in the 20th century. Lincoln Highway in Illinois defines and describes the role of the highway as it zigzags its way across the Land of Lincoln and highlights the cities, towns, and rural communities along its route.

Cover image for The Lincoln Highway Across Illinois, isbn: 9780738593586

Route 66 in Springfield

9780738583761

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

From 1926 through 1977, Route 66 carried millions of travelers from the shores of Lake Michigan to the Pacific Coast. Americans fell in love with the automobile and made a family tradition of the road trip. On its three different alignments through the capital city of Springfield, Route 66 took motorists around the Illinois State Fairgrounds, past the state capitol, and through Abraham Lincoln's neighborhood. Mom-and-pop motels, gas stations, and eateries opened along the highway and became familiar landmarks to travelers in the "Land of Lincoln." In Springfield, the "horseshoe" and the "cozy dog" became popular local foods, and one of the first drive-up window restaurants opened. A man spent 40 years on Route 66 operating his gas station before transforming it into an internationally known museum. Meet the proprietors of these businesses, witness the growth of the highway, and enjoy a generous dose of nostalgia.

Route 66 in Springfield book cover with a vintage roadside diner and people lined up outside

Along Ohio's Historic Route 20

9781467110426

$24.99

Route 20 was named a federal highway in 1926, and for the first half of the 20th century it was the most important east-west road across northern Ohio. Extending from the Pennsylvania border east of Conneaut to its western terminus with Indiana, it made Ohio the connecting link between Northeastern and Midwestern states. Fortunately, Route 20 has remained virtually intact and can be traveled much as people did in years past. Postcard History Series: Along Ohio's Historic Route 20 celebrates such a trip, illustrated by more than 200 vintage postcards depicting views along the way. Town and city scenes, rural vistas, and historic sites that drew early motorists to the highway are featured. Not to be forgotten are the tourist courts, hotels, diners, and gas stations that made automobile journeys possible.

Postcard History Series cover for Along Ohio's Historic Route 20 showing a sepia roadside inn with gas pumps.

Route 66 in Madison County

9780738583853

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Route 66 zigzagged southwest across Madison County, Illinois, before crossing the Mississippi River into Missouri. Various alignments of this segment of the Mother Road rolled through pastoral farmland, headed down main streets, and later straightened as it bypassed towns. From 1926 to 1977, the path of the highway changed numerous times and crossed the Mississippi River on no less than five different bridges. Along the way motorists watched for the blue neon cross on St. Paul's Lutheran Church to guide their nighttime travel; they counted on the doors of the Tourist Haven, Cathcart's, or the Luna Café to be open for business. Travelers crossed their fingers that they wouldn't get stuck at the bend of the Chain of Rocks Bridge and hoped they could make it up Mooney Hill in the winter. A later alignment took motorists right by Fairmount Park and Monks Mound.

Cover image for Route 66 in Madison County, isbn: 9780738583853

Chicago's Maxwell Street

9780738520292

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Maxwell Street is one of Chicago's oldest, distinct landmarks where a melting pot of nationalities lived. Home to the famous to the Maxwell Street Market, a hub of innovation, where where anything from eggs to shoelaces was sold.

The story of Maxwell street and its market is the story of immigrants and their children, generations of working class people who contributed to the advancement of our nation. The famous area became the ""Ellis Island"" of the Midwest drawing immigrants from all over the world. It's demise began in the 1950s and 1960s and was completed by the 1990s, but it will live on in many minds as the incubator for business and the electrified Chicago Blues, a starting place for working class immigrants and migrants and as a great streetscape for its shops and outdoor market.

Chicago's Maxwell Street cover shows a crowded street scene with a blue title plaque overhead.

The Dixie Highway in Illinois

9780738560021

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

The Dixie Highway, once a main thoroughfare from Chicago to Miami, was part of an improved network of roads traversing the landscape of 10 states. A product of the Good Roads Movement of the early 20th century, construction on the highway in Illinois took place from 1916 to 1921. When completed in 1921, the Dixie Highway was the longest continuous paved road in the state. It ran through parts of Cook, Will, Kankakee, Iroquois, and Vermilion Counties, with service stations, roadside diners, and campgrounds sprouting up along the way. With over 200 vintage photographs, The Dixie Highway in Illinois takes readers on a tour from the Art Institute of Chicago, in the heart of the city on Michigan Avenue, to the Illinois state line east of Danville, exploring this historic highway and the communities it passes through.

Cover image for The Dixie Highway in Illinois, isbn: 9780738560021

Cincinnati Parks and Parkways

9780738583945

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Over more than two centuries, Cincinnati evolved from a riverside settlement in the wilderness to a major center of business, commerce, and manufacturing. Boasting titles such as Queen City of the West and Porkopolis (for its many pork-packing plants), Cincinnati never suffered from a lack of self-esteem. Indeed, the city earned its place in the honor roll of American cities as it spread outward from the Ohio River into the surrounding hills. Blessed with good transportation by river, canal, and railroad, Cincinnati grew rapidly, attracting great numbers of native-born Americans and foreign immigrants alike. Drawn by abundant jobs and economic opportunity, Cincinnati's citizens lived in densely developed neighborhoods, walked crowded streets, and worked hard in mills and factories. Early in the city's history, farseeing individuals saw the benefit of creating public parks where the population could enjoy a few hours of recreation among trees, green grass, and gorgeous vistas of the Ohio River Valley. Starting from modest beginnings, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries Cincinnati developed a system of more than 5,000 acres of parks and connecting parkways that would be the envy of cities many times its size.

Cover image for Cincinnati Parks and Parkways, isbn: 9780738583945

St. Louis's Delmar Loop

9780738598789

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

In 1902, magazine publisher Edward Gardner Lewis needed greater space for his thriving business, then based in downtown St. Louis. He headed west, out Delmar Boulevard a mile past the city line, and bought five acres of open land adjacent to the loop in the trolley tracks that sent the 10D streetcar back downtown. By 1903, Lewis was building a complex that included the Woman's Magazine Building, a five-story octagonal tower with an eight-ton searchlight in its dome. In 1906, University City was incorporated, and Lewis became its first mayor, serving three terms. In 1913, Lewis went west again, this time to found the utopian colony of Atascadero, California. His octagonal dazzler is now University City's City Hall. In 2007, in its first such list, the American Planning Association named the Delmar Loop one of the country's Great Streets—it's a long story.

Cover image for St. Louis's Delmar Loop, isbn: 9780738598789

Dixie Highway in Indiana

9780738583679

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

In 1914, Carl G. Fisher knew the time was right to promote the second transcontinental auto highway. Following the success of the Lincoln Highway, the Dixie Highway pushed the development of commerce and tourism for the southern states. The Dixie Highway system grew to include routes from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Chicago to Miami Beach. In Indiana, the Dixie Highway became parts of Indiana 933, US 31, Indiana 25, Indiana 29, US 421, Indiana 37, and US 150. The dogleg from Chicago to Indiana became part of US 136.

Book cover Dixie Highway in Indiana with a vintage storefront photograph

Central Michigan Avenue

9780738520247

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Today Chicago's Central Michigan Avenue is a busy commercial and cultural center situated on the beautiful lakefront. Easy access to office buildings, major cultural attractions, and parks makes it one of the premier tourist destinations in the city. This book traces the history of the avenue from the 1860s to the present day. Once a genteel residential neighborhood, Central Michigan Avenue was reborn after the 1871 Chicago fire. Over time a street wall of buildings took shape on the west side of the street. The east side of the avenue was designed to remain open to green parkland and water. In this book more than 180 photographs document the fascinating history of Chicago's front yard.

Cover image for Central Michigan Avenue, isbn: 9780738520247

Old College Street

9781609496142

$21.99

Every city has a neighborhood that housed its earliest founders and their successors, an enclave of local power and financial success. For Rochester, Minnesota, this neighborhood is personified by a ten-block stretch of tree-shaded street originally platted in 1855 as West College Street, now designated as 4th Street Southwest. In the span of 150 years, two and sometimes three generations of remarkable buildings have come and gone in this neighborhood. Under the direction of movers and shakers like George Head and Dr. William J. Mayo, the street helped shape the city's architectural legacy and define its purpose. Join architectural historian Ken Allsen on a stroll down this storied street.