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Between the first and second World Wars, a housing boom brought the development of luxury cooperative apartments and mansions to the neighborhood surrounding the club. After World War II, the new money of an upwardly mobile middle class replaced the old money of the original members. Membership peaked with the Golden Anniversary in 1956-only to decline as the 1960s brought racial and economic changes to the surrounding community. On July 14, 1974, the club held its last "members-only" event and closed the door on what some have described as "the party that lasted 68 years." The Chicago Park District now owns this once exclusive property. It has been restored to its original design and is now open to the public as the South Shore Cultural Center.

Decatur, Illinois has long had a proud tradition of workers and craftsmen who produced coal, water pumps, gloves, automobiles, clothing, corn meal, and many other products.

Though it is home to Caterpillar's second largest plant and serves as world headquarters for Archer Daniels Midland, a global processor of corn and soybeans, Decatur is much more than jobs and factories. If Illinois is the Heartland, then Decatur is the Heart of the Heartland. Decatur is the site of Abraham Lincoln's first Illinois residence, in 1830, and it is where he was nominated for the presidency on May 10, 1860.  Decatur is also home to a symphony orchestra, homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, a community college, and Millikin University.

The true story behind a Jazz Age crime that shook the Chicago region and shaped the fates of three very different men. 

On the morning of April 14, 1926, the Inland Steel payroll delivery was hijacked in Indiana Harbor. Later that afternoon, Will County deputy sheriff and Mokena resident Walter Fisher died in a hail of gunfire just outside Orland Park. That night, the bullet-riddled body of Santo Calabrese turned up on a Broadview road.

The exact sequence of events remains uncertain, but a jury was able to trace enough of the day’s violent trajectory to send Daniel Hesly on the path to Alcatraz.

Author Matthew Galik leaps into a drama of high-speed pursuit and mistaken identity that shocked the jaded sensibilities of Prohibition-era Chicago and plunged the town of Mokena into mourning.

Sometimes the coolest places are right outside your front door. Learning about Chicago’s interesting and unique culture has never been so super fun!

Did you know that Chicago’s Home Insurance Building was the world’s first skyscraper? Or that lacrosse was originally created by the Algonquian people? Have you ever heard that Walt Disney was born in Chicago? From the Great Chicago Fire, to delicious deep-dish pizza, Super Cities!: Chicago covers it all, and is sure to engage any reader with fun facts about the history, culture, and people who make this city great. Dive into Lake Michigan, explore Little Italy, and join in the fun at Lollapalooza, all right here. Take a peek inside to learn more about the impressive, unusual, super history of Chicago!

Fans of Abraham Lincoln will delight in this photographic account of the President's early years and his humble roots. Before he became an extraordinary president, Abraham Lincoln was a husband, father, neighbor, and friend. For 17 years—from 1844 to 1861—he lived in a modest house at the northeast corner of Eighth and Jackson Streets in Springfield, Illinois. During that time, people met with Lincoln and his family within these walls, enjoying conversation, a meal, tea, or a party. When he ran for president in 1860, Republicans from around the country came to discuss the issues or lobby for patronage. Since his assassination in 1865, schoolchildren, politicians, world leaders, and ordinary citizens have eagerly stepped through the front door with the “A. Lincoln” nameplate to stand in the rooms once occupied by the future president. Since 1972, the home has been administered by the National Park Service as the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. Tourists to this special place encounter the personal side of the man who saved the Union and issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Through historic photographs and portraits, Lincoln Home tells the stories of the generations of visitors who have encountered Lincoln here.

Jonathan W. White is the Patrick C. Oxford Professor in the School of Civic Leadership at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author or editor of 22 books on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, including New York City in the Civil War.

Meet the men from Southwestern Illinois who served in the Civil War. Learn about their lives prior to enlistment, follow them into battle, and bear witness to their legacy.

The men of southwestern Illinois, both white and Black, rallied to the Union banner when the Civil War broke out. Lewis Martin, an escaped slave, enlisted in the Union army and suffered horrendous injuries at the Battle of the Crater. Shurtleff College’s entire 1864 class joined up, and so many men from McKendree College served in the Illinois 117th that it became known as the “McKendree Brigade.” Some of the volunteers came from pioneer American stock, like Franklin Moore, whose forefathers fought in the War of 1812 and the Revolution. Others, such as Swiss-born John Kuhn, were immigrants. Author John J. Dunphy follows the men from southwestern Illinois who risked their lives to end the Southern rebellion.

Ghost stories from the City of Gardens have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery!

Welcome to the spooky streets of Rockford, Illinois!

Stay alert! Ghosts lurk around every corner. Even the most unexpected places might be haunted by wandering phantoms.

Did you know the Burpee Museum is haunted by the ghosts of years past? Or that if you take a cruise down Blood Point Road, you may be chased by haunted hounds and a pickup truck determined to run you off the road? Have you heard the of the witch who kidnapped children as an act of vengeance?

Pulled right from history, these ghostly tales will change the way you see Rockford forever, and have you sleeping with the lights on!

The Quad Cities have a rich history of brewing that started with the influx of German citizens in the 1800s. Breweries were established on both sides of the Mississippi River. Some of these historic breweries managed to reopen after Prohibition, but national competition ultimately closed the last of these stalwarts in 1956. In 1989, Iowa created a special class “A” brewpub permit, and the first of many brewpubs in the area, Front Street Pub & Eatery, opened in 1992. Blue Cat Brew Pub, on the Illinois side of the river, opened shortly after. The brewing renaissance has helped to establish the Quad Cities as a craft beer destination. Join authors Michael McCarty and Kristin DeMarr as they celebrate the heady heritage of the region.

From Holy Family Log Church to Jarrot Mansion, the over 300 year history of the close knit Cahokia community is detailed in this photographic history.

In 1999, Cahokia will celebrate 300 years as the historic, close knit community located directly across the great Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. The village's proximity to St. Louis allows residents to enjoy all the cultural opportunities of a large city, while keeping its small-town atmosphere. Cahokia has a distinctive French heritage and is today still inhabited by many of the same families whose ancestors came to the community in the 18th and 19th centuries. Among the many fascinating pieces of Cahokia's history featured in this book is the Holy Family Parish, founded by missionary priests from Quebec. The first Mass was said there on December 8, 1698, establishing Holy Family as the oldest continuous parish in the United States. Today, the treasured Holy Family Log Church, dating from 1799, occupies this site. Other images among the 200 shown here include the historic sites of the Cahokia Courthouse and Jarrot Mansion, as well as scenes of daily life around town.

The Chicago Outfit, which evolved from the Capone gang at the end of Prohibition, became the most successful of the Cosa Nostra crime families in terms of enriching its members.

This was primarily due to the criminal abilities of two men, Paul Ricca and Tony Accardo, who were at the top of the organization for years. At its height in the 1960s, the Chicago Outfit was involved in gambling, labor racketeering, juice lending, prostitution, narcotics, and strong-arm activities such as hijacking and robbery. It did so by using violence and, since many of its activities were essentially out in the open, by corrupting numerous police officers and politicians. During the early 1960s, before the US government was fully up to speed on fighting organized crime, honest local politicians and members of law enforcement fought an uphill battle against it.

The discussion and photographs in this book, which are largely from author John J. Binder’s extensive personal collection, cover the many aspects of the Chicago Outfit during this decade when it was at its zenith, with operations in the Chicago area and elsewhere in the country.

About half came from the extensive collections of the Public Library and the Historical Society, while the rest were borrowed from local residents. This fascinating compilation features various past and present residents of Chicago Heights, a look at its diverse ethnic groups and religious denominations, and glimpses of old downtown buildings that no longer exist. The city's church groups, ethnic clubs, businesses, factories, and transportation facilities are all pictured here. Along with detailed captions, Chicago Heights offers the rare chance to experience the history of old Chicago Heights, bringing its exciting past alive again.

In January of 1963, Bradley Hall, and the student records it contained, was destroyed by fire. No effort was made until now to reconstruct or document the African-American population and its contributions to the institution. Using annuals, student newspapers, and photos provided by African-American alumni, this nearly lost history is being documented for the first time.

The pictorial history of Assyrian immigration to Chicago that encompasses more than 100 years.

The first Assyrian pioneers came to the United States in the late 1800s. Eventually, by the turn of the century, they began to reside in Chicago. Following several waves of persecution in their homeland, these indigenous people of Mesopotamia continued to migrate to America, and now the largest concentration of them reside in Chicago.

Through the medium of historic photographs, this book captures the evolution of the Assyrian community of Chicago from the late 1800s to the present day. These pages bring to life the people, events, and industries that helped to shape and transform this vibrant ethnic community in Chicago. With more than 200 vintage images, Assyrians in Chicagoincludes photographs from the collection of the Assyrian Universal Alliance Foundation.

This book depicts the many faces of the Assyrian American in various facets of American life interwoven with traditions from their homeland.

Authored by the Palatine Historical Society and Alice Rosenberg, Palatine, Illinois: Then and Now illustrates how the area looked when it was first settled, how it developed through the years, and what it has become. From the generations of Palatine residents who lived, worked, and played in the area to the thriving municipality they created, the images contained in this book bring to life a fascinating evolution.

Arriving in Chicago in the mid 60s, the first wave of Indians were mostly professionals who intended to return home. But as they stayed on and were joined by others, their population began to reflect the tremendous ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity of India. Today, Indians are the largest Asian-American immigrant group in the Chicago area.

Recognizing that first-hand resources would still be available for compiling their history, the Indo-American Center appealed to Chicago area residents of Indian origin and to their organizations to select photographs and documents from their personal collections to tell the story of the community. This book is a result of their enthusiastic response. Here, then, is a history in the making,-the record, in pictures, of the life of a diverse and vibrant community as told by the people who live it and shape its course.

The pictorial history of Filipino immigration to Chicago encompasses 100 years, moving from the Philippines to this country of unknown landscapes and uncertainties.

The pioneering Filipinos came in the early 1900s to seek the land of milk and honey. They were mostly pensionados-government-supported students-and self-supported students who settled in the Garfield Park, Hyde Park, and Near North Side neighborhoods of Chicago. From the close of World War II to the present day, the Filipino American population became the largest urban group of Asians in Chicago Through the medium of historic photographs, this book captures the evolution of the Filipino community of Chicago from the early 1900s to the present day.

These pages bring to life the people, events, and industries that helped to shape and transform the Filipino community of Chicago. With more than 200 vintage images, Filipinos in Chicago includes many photographs from personal albums of Filipino American families. This book depicts the many faces of the Filipino American in various facets of American life interwoven with Philippine traditions from the homeland.

The history of west central Illinois is presented here through memorable photographs and rare documents dating back to before, during, and after the Civil War. This book introduces a wide variety of characters, including 18th century explorer Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, pioneer Free Frank McWhorter, and comedian Richard Pryor.

Chicago's Opulent Age examines the buildings, events, parks, and people of the city from the 1870s through the 1940s. Also featured are ""funlands,"" fairs, sculptures, and transportation.

The fires that destroyed Chicago in the 1870s just happened to be events that have led to the city's importance today. Chicago, after the destruction of its downtown, was free to use new architectural concepts and to examine how to use its crowded land space. It was free to reinvent itself. Soon, new Jenny-inspired ""tower"" buildings began to claw their way into the sky, enabling the city to concentrate its commercial core. By the turn of the century, Chicago had added many lakefront buildings, parks, and temples of art and music, built an elevated railway system, and hosted a World's Fair. Chicago was the first city to let the inventiveness of industrialism mold the way it went about its business and pastimes. More than 200 pictures and colorful narratives provide a fitting tribute to the past history of this great city.

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.

Historic, haunted, chilling tales of the town of Naperville, Illinois as told by America's Ghost Storyteller. A must-read for fans of the paranormal.

Established in 1831, Naperville is one of the oldest settlements in the Greater Chicago area. The city's rich and fascinating heritage has been carefully passed down from one proud generation to the next; however, nowhere has Naperville's ghostly oral tradition and haunted history been preserved until now.

Most of Naperville's unique legends--compiled for the first time ever in these pages--arose from accounts of actual historic events and from the lives of notable personages in the city's long history. As the tragic events and persons faded from living memory, all that might remain of them would be ghost stories whispered by firelight and, later, by flashlight tucked under a teenager's chin at slumber parties.

Some eerie legends in these pages have origins that are lost in time, and still other hair-raising ghost stories included in this work are chilling contemporary, firsthand accounts of paranormal encounters within Naperville's sprawling boundaries . . . perhaps from even just down the street.

See the story of Western Pennsylvania's Homestead and the Steel Valley, home to the great furnaces of America that supported the nation in wars and the immigrants that provided labor and build the area's proud heritage.

Western Pennsylvania is dotted with what are known locally as mill towns, but few of these communities epitomize this definition more than the municipalities of Homestead, West Homestead, and Munhall. Commonly referred to as the Steel Valley, these towns were home to some of the greatest steel-producing operations in the world. As the Mon Valley's steel production answered the nation's call during two world wars, so did the workers who unloaded countless barges of coal and fed the mills' great furnaces that produced the material needed for weapons, armament, and tanks. Workers emigrated from every country in Europe to make their mark in America. Many of these people spoke little or no English and endured long hours of labor in often hazardous conditions. Their families brought with them the traditions of their varied European cultures, filling their communities with ethnic diversity. Through 200 photographs, Homestead and the Steel Valley conveys the proud heritage of three communities and their role in the nation's history.

Discover how the Midwest refined the nation's sweet tooth through a delicious mix of immigrant traditions and American ingenuity.

Chef Jenny Lewis dips a spoon into generations of homemade desserts and examines the inner workings of some of the biggest brands of the baking industry. Learn how to make Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, witness the rise of Red Star Yeast, and plumb the secrets of the Kraft Oil Method, before sitting down to consume an engaging history in which Midwest beet sugar, vanilla cream and evaporated milk are mixed into a narrative of wars, social shifts, and politics. Encounter a rich medley of true stories and irresistible recipes from Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan in this delightful collection.

Learn about the Aurora man who hired Abe Lincoln to defend his business and the police chief who solved the nation's most gruesome crime.

Check in on visits from Orville Wright, Casey Stengel, John Dillinger and JFK. Discover what happened to the man who recorded a landmark blues song in Aurora's tallest tower and how a boy born in the city's poorest neighborhood went on to play for the Chicago Bears in Matt Hanley's fascinating collection of stories from the City of Lights.

Journey to the past with historian David M. Sokol as he reveals the city that nurtured and inspired the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Ray Kroc and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Though it is a handsome village, with stately trees and often-generous lawns, Oak Park has neither major waterways nor dramatic vistas. But it is rich in figures of historical importance such as Ernest Hemingway, Doris Humphrey, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Percy Julian, Ray Kroc, and William Barton. It is also blessed with the world's largest concentration of Prairie School buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and his followers. The Oak Park community has nurtured such innovation with one hand while fiercely holding on to its own identity with the other, negotiating its relationship with Chicago and facing down a century and a half of constantly-shifting challenges.

Images of America: Hyde Park features vintage images of this famous IIlinois park.

Since the early twentieth century, Hyde Park has been known as a refuge and incubator for intellectuals, artists, novelists, poets, and freethinkers. Its best known institution, the University of Chicago, drew many of these persons close to its boundaries with the promise of a steady diet of conflicting ideas and lofty conversations. Throughout the first few decades of the twentieth century, Hyde Park went through a steady period of growth, both in residents and the construction of a dense network of walk-up apartment buildings and commercial facilities that offered a stark contrast to the more bucolic atmosphere of Hyde Park before the Columbian Exposition of 1893. By the late 1940s, parts of Hyde Park were showing signs of blight, as the area continued to house larger numbers of migrants from other depressed areas of the United States and programs of deferred or nonexistent maintenance began to have irreversible effects on the built environment. Images of America: Hyde Park, Illinois, focuses most of its attention on the period after World War II, all the way through the creation of the Hyde Park-Kenwood Urban Renewal Project, the first major urban renewal project in the United States.

If any place in Chicago has been all things to all men, it has to be the corner of the city that is occupied by Edgewater and Uptown.

Babe Ruth and Mahatma Gandhi found a place of refuge at the Edgewater Beach Hotel, but the locale has also been a sanctuary for Appalachian coal miners and Japanese Americans released from internment camps. Al Capone reportedly moved booze through a secret tunnel connecting the Green Mill and the Aragon Ballroom, Burglar Cops moonlit out of the Summerdale police station, and a Kitchen Revolt by some not-very-ordinary housewives sent once-invulnerable machine ward boss Marty Tuchow on his way to Club Fed. Ferret out the hidden history of Uptown and Edgewater with veteran beat reporter Patrick Butler in this curio shop of forgotten people and places..

The 1890s was a time of great growth for Hyde Park. The construction of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park had a profound and lasting effect not only on Hyde Park and the city, but on the entire country. The famous University of Chicago was founded in 1890 and was under construction simultaneously with the World's Columbian Exposition. The area grew, attracting additional businesses, people, and an expanding economy to the area.

Like many large American cities in the early 1900s, Chicago's industrialization and waves of immigration spawned crowded, unhealthy urban conditions. The Prairie Club turned to nature for relief from these societal ills. From its first outing on Saturday, April 18, 1908, around Mount Forest District near Willow Springs, members sponsored hikes and outdoor activities from Palos and Tinley, through Hinsdale and Downers Grove, and up to the North Shore. With each of these walks, public support grew for what ultimately became victorious efforts to establish the forest preserves, Indiana Dunes, and other nature spots around the burgeoning cityscape.

The character of this singular suburb is preserved and celebrated in Images of America: Maywood. A must-have for fans of Illinois history.

Ten miles west of Chicago on the west bank of the Des Plaines Riversits Maywood, a village that was founded in 1869 by seven New England businessmen who established the Maywood Land Company. This prairie community, carefully laid out along the railroad, experienced a population boom after the Great Chicago Fireof 1871. Soon industry arrived, followed by a variety of ethnic groups. Maywood was one of the few early suburban communities with an African-American neighborhood.

Explore the fascinating history of Maywood, Illinois, with author Douglas Deuchler, a journalist, playwright, and historian who taught in the community for 34 years. Maywood transports readers back in time to meet the people and visit the places that provide the town with its unique heritage.