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Levittown, the prototype for suburban housing development in America, emerged from the hands of legendary builders Abraham, William, and Alfred Levitt in 1947, in response to the housing dilemmasfaced by veterans returning home after World War II.

Skeptics predicted that the community would deteriorate, but Levittown soon became the model for housing developments throughout the nation. Its strategically planned neighborhoods were reproduced overseas as well, including cities in Germany, France, Spain, and Israel. Through more than 200 vintage photographs combined with a thoroughly researched text, Levittown Volume II illuminates the evolution of this close-knit community and invites readers to meet the families that contributed to itsgrowth. This second volume of Levittown images takes us a step beyond the pre-Levitt history presented in Levittown: The First 50 Years and further explores the town's progress to date.

East Fishkill offers a fascinating glimpse of life in the town while it was still rural.

In Revolutionary days, East Fishkill was on the route of an important highway from Boston to the Hudson River, traveled by Gen. George Washington, Gen. John Burgoyne, and John Jay. The town separated from Fishkill in 1849 and received its own charter. East Fishkill remained a mainly agricultural community until 1960, when IBM opened a chip-manufacturing plant in town. Then it changed dramatically: the farmland disappeared under housing and commercial development.

At the turn of the 20th century, Long Island's North Shore, the so-called Gold Coast, was becoming the most desirable residential area in the United States.

Estates belonging to American captains of finance and industry lined the bluffs and bays from the city line to Eaton's Neck. Some of the nation's most renowned families—including the Astors, Bakers, Huttons, Morgans, Pratts, Sloans, Roosevelts, Whitneys, and Vanderbilts—used their yachts for racing, cruising, commuting, or epic voyages. These vessels regularly plied the waters of the North Shore and bolstered the development of yacht clubs like the New York and Seawanhaka Corinthian—city institutions that established stations at Glen Cove and Centre Island, respectively. These clubs served to provide many outlets for the social gatherings that accompanied this pastime. Although the Great Depression and then World War II would bring the era of the great yachts to an end, a wealth of images remain that can be marveled at a century later.

The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center follows nursing from the age of strict curfews and required nursing uniforms to the modern era of greater nursing freedom and responsibility. As nursing practice evolved, so did attire. Hats, gloves, high collars, caps, and ankle-length dresses gave way to above-the-knee hemlines, pantsuits, scrubs, and bare heads. Among celebrated Albany graduates are Anne Strong (class of 1906), inducted into the Nursing Hall of Fame, and Nancy Cameron (class of 1900), decorated with the Royal Red Cross and received by Queen Alexandra during World War I.

In Perinton, Fairport, and the Erie Canal, you will meet Daniel DeLand, founder of the DeLand Chemical Works which, beginning in 1852, shipped by canal hundreds of barrels of the leavening agent saleratus and baking soda to markets in New York City and the West. You will find out the secret ingredient of Taylor's Oil of Life and will read its endorsement by Buffalo Bill Cody. You will see the Main Street lift-bridge, which was cited several times in Ripley's Believe It or Not, and Cobb's Preserving Company, which experimented and promoted the solderless can that revolutionized food storage in America.

Tour the zoos and aquarium that came to be featured favorites in New York tourism and recreation.

Situated within the five boroughs of New York City are five zoos and one aquarium. New York City Zoos and Aquarium chronicles the establishment of the Central Park Zoo, the Bronx Zoo, the Prospect Park Zoo, the Queens Zoo, the Staten Island Zoo, and the New York Aquarium. Popular children's zoos are also featured. The city's first zoo opened in Central Park in the 1850s, while the newest zoo opened in Queens after the 1964 World's Fair. While each one of these facilities has many similarities, they all have their own unique attributes. All of the facilities are focused on education, conservation, and the care of the animals that now reside in natural habitats.

Visit the private world beyond the gates of this North Shore Long Island hamlet and view over 200 photographs from its history as a playground for the cultured denziens of the past.

Locust Valley, a hamlet on the North Shore of Long Island with Quaker roots, grew from an agrarian settlement into a tight-knit community in the exclusive Gold Coast enclave. With its natural beauty, great estates, and elite clubs, Locust Valley and the surrounding villages of Lattingtown, Matinecock, and Mill Neck became a playground of the famous and cultured. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were frequent visitors, and notable residents included H.P. Davison, Frank Nelson Doubleday, and internationally renowned artists Ray Johnson and Elizabeth Shoumatoff. In Locust Valley, 200 carefully selected photographs reveal a proud community steeped in traditional values and the private world behind the gates that have made the area legendary.

A special mood infuses the village. It is small-town America in spite of its proximity to New York City. When Riverside was Main Street, tranquility, individuality, decency, simplicity, and peace of mind were common. These same features still attract newcomers, who add greatly to the quality of life. They are here because of the trees and highlands, the diverse population, and the location between two splendid rivers. Old Riverside was made up of buildings that tended to be sturdy rather than architecturally distinguished. The solid working-class community had a newspaper that echoed the interests of the people. The economy featured a mix of small industries, retail shops, and service establishments. Regardless of how wages were earned, most people participated in village life.

Discover the Black pioneers who shaped St. Lawrence County through grit and determination. From its origins as part of New France through the Civil War and eventual industrialization of the region, St. Lawrence County has been shapped by all too often overlooked Black families and individuals. Author Bryan S. Thompson reveals the history of the African American community in New York's North Country. 

The village of Clinton and town of Kirkland are neighboring communities in central New York. Clinton was founded in 1787 and has served as an educational hub anchored by Hamilton College. Clara Barton, Grover Cleveland, and Leland Stanford were educated here, along with Elihu Root, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912. The natural resources of Clinton and Kirkland, including Oriskany Creek and hematite ore, facilitated local prosperity.

Clinton native Zach Lewis, an educator, journalist, and photographer, explores the area’s heritage, highlighting the evolving landscape and why he believes that “all roads lead to Clinton.”

Fires were a scourge in nineteenth-century New York, destroying personal property, prominent buildings and, in many cases, a sense of community. In Madison County, fires changed the community, included the mysterious burning of the Madison County Courthouse, the complete loss of business districts in both Canastota and Hamilton and the arsonist who terrorized Cazenovia for nearly five years. Fires destroyed the historic Gerrit Smith Mansion in Peterboro, the Munnsville Plow Company and Duffy-Mott in Bouckville, drastically affecting the future of the county. Madison County historian Matthew Urtz examines the fires, their causes and the economic and psychological impact they had on this peaceful community.

New York's Harlem Valley, with the last stops on the Metro-North train line from Manhattan, has an incredibly eclectic history for a predominantly agricultural region .

A Victorian utopian community claiming to see fairies settled in Wassaic, attracting Japanese samurai and remaking the townscape of Amenia. An early version of the “Borscht Belt” began on the shores of Lake Amenia, where a once-thriving resort community vanished along with the lake itself. Amidst a crisis of dwindling membership, the NAACP was brought together at major conferences held at Amenia’s Troutbeck estate, owned by Joel Spingarn, the organization’s first Jewish president. Young graduates from the Rhode Island School of design and other art schools launched the Wassaic Project, a festival and art residency using a converted agricultural grain elevator as their venue. 

Author Tonia Shoumatoff presents these and other fascinating stories from Life at the End of the Line in the Harlem Valley.

This colorful history explores New York’s coffee culture from the brew’s initial arrival in the 1600s to today’s artisanal connoisseurs.

The coffee industry was made for New York: complex, diverse, fascinating and full of attitude. Since arriving in seventeenth-century New Amsterdam, coffee held patriotic significance during wartime, fueled industrial revolution and transformed the city's foodways. The New York Coffee Exchange opened tumultuously in the Gilded Age. Alice Foote MacDougall founded a 1920s coffeehouse empire. In the same decade, Brooklyn teenager William Black started Chock Full o’Nuts with $250 and a dream.

Third wave coffeeshops like Joe and Ninth Street Espresso offer single origin pour overs and push the limits of latte art. Through stories, interviews and photographs, author and coffee professional Erin Meister shares Gotham’s caffeinated past and explores the coffee-related reasons why the city never sleeps.

Freedomland opened on June 19, 1960, in the Baychester section of the Bronx, New York. Historically themed attractions and costumed cast members were located throughout the seven sections.

Designed by Marco Engineering of Los Angeles for International Recreation Corporation, it was the third and largest innovative theme park built across America to mimic Disneyland. Constructed in the shape of the United States and presenting 200 years of American history, Freedomland was intended to be both exciting and educational. In addition, Freedomland offered national and local stars, big bands, and daily entertainment events. Professional character actors also worked throughout the park. Through photographs, Freedomland: 1960-1964 takes a tour of all seven sections of Freedomland and more. Although it was open for just five seasons, the park's guests and cast members were fortunate to have their very own "Disneyland of the East."

Gravesend: The Home of Coney Island takes readers on a fascinating journey from the town's first settlement in the 1640s by Lady Deborah Moody, an intrepid and visionary leader of religious freedom, across four centuries of progress, conflict, and change. Containing over 120 black-and-white images, this stunning illustrated history brings to life early figures and events that shaped Gravesend's past and initiated Coney Island's prominence as the world's playground. Like a visitor of yesteryear, readers will stroll along the busy boardwalk, taste the world-famous hot dogs from Nathan's Restaurant, explore the renowned dance halls, race tracks, and casinos, and thrill at the kaleidoscopic assortment of roller coasters and other breathtaking rides, such as the Parachute Jump, at the celebrated Dreamland, Luna, and Steeplechase Parks.

Chronicling the incomparable life of boxing and Saratoga Race Course legend John Morrissey.

John Old Smoke Morrissey was one of the most dynamic characters of his time. He went from a career as an undefeated bare-knuckle boxer, founded the Saratoga Race Course and eventually won elections to Congress and the New York State Senate. A poor, uneducated Irish immigrant, Morrissey became a leader in the Dead Rabbits street gang. He won fame as a fighter and fortune as the operator of a string of successful gambling houses.

Morrissey then took Saratoga Springs by storm, improbably resurrecting thoroughbred racing during the Civil War and opening his famous Club House, which was the most glamorous casino the country had ever seen. Author and National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame director of communications Brien Bouyea takes you on this fascinating journey and shows just how Morrissey did it all.

The Hudson Highlands launched revolutions of independence, industry and creativity, and have long enchanted artists and hikers with countless mysteries that still thrive in the area.

Leni-Lenape legend told of an ancient giant slumbering between Storm King and Breakneck Ridge. During the Revolution, George Washington saved the new nation from a military coup by donning glasses. The ghost of the twice-hanged pirate William Kidd returns to secluded caves and hamlets in the Highlands to guard his treasure. Professional storyteller Jonathan Kruk unveils a treasure of stories of the historic, mysterious and colorful Hudson Highlands.

Few schools have a reverence for their hockey history as Cornell University. Perfect for fans of Cornell University, hockey, and New York sports history.

The tradition of Cornell University Hockeyis largely a winning one, punctuated by the only perfect season of the modern era, a 29-0 mark in the 1969-1970 season. Started on a frozen pond in 1900, Cornellhockey was revitalized in the late 1950s with the completion of the campus's first indoor facility, Lynah Rink. Since then, names like Ken Dryden, Ned Harkness, Lance Nethery, Joe Nieuwendyk, Daren Eliot, Mike Schafer, and David LeNeveu have won championship after championship.

Their stories are expertly recounted in Cornell University Hockeyby authors Adam Wodon, who has covered Cornell hockey since 1988, and Arthur Mintz, sports columnist for the Ithaca Times for seventeen years.

First established in 1870 as a teaching college for women, Hunter College of the City of New York has provided exceptional education to all peoples for over a century.

Providing experiential learning opportunities from the very start, the college has successfully fostered many generations of students with its challenging and cutting-edge curriculum. Founder Dr. Thomas Hunter, an Irish immigrant, insisted that the school admit people of all races, religions, and ethnicities, despite segregation laws in the early years. In the 1920s, Hunter College began opening branch campuses in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. During World War II, the Bronx campus was used by the U.S. Navy as a training center for over 95,000 female volunteers for military service as WAVES and SPARS, and in 1946, it was the first site for the United Nations sessions. Over the years, alumni of Hunter have gone on to careers in politics, education, social work, medicine, media, and many other fields. Graduates have included Fulbright and Mellon Fellows and Nobel prizewinners. Here we can see for the first time hundreds of striking and nostalgic photographs that tell the story of Hunter College's development over its 150 year history.

Located midway up the legendary Hudson River, the city of Kingston has its own storied past.

In the Stockade National Historic District in uptown Kingston where the city was founded in 1658, many of the sturdy limestone houses built by the early European settlers still stand. Downtown Kingston offers a view of the thriving maritime village that mushroomed on the waterfront in the 19th century when the Delaware and Hudson Canal opened there in 1828. The storefronts, homes, and churches of the former village of Rondout, now the Rondout National Historic District of Kingston, are the legacy of the immigrants and entrepreneurs who poured in hoping to ride the tide of prosperity promised by the canal, while Midtown reflects the pride of the new city of Kingston after the two villages united in 1872 and a robust industrial district grew on former grazing fields.

Few resorts could have boasted the kind of history that the Huletts Hotel had.

Built in Huletts Landing, NY, on Lake George, the first hotel burned in 1915, and this arson was the subject of a sensational Upstate New York trial. Capitalizing on the notoriety that this trial created, the Eichler family rebuilt, only to again lose the hotel, this time it in a scandalous tax dispute in 1958. This book is about the burning of the first hotel, ensuing arson trials, rebuilding, the glory days of Huletts (when people like Amelia Earhart and Kennedy family members were frequent visitors), and the untimely closing of the second hotel. A second mystery surrounds 20 photographs of the original hotel taken in 1916, which were recently uncovered taped to the back of a painting of Abraham Lincoln. Kapusinski will use that story to unravel the other mysteries surrounding this lost hotel.

The Lower East Side has long been one of Manhattan's most vibrant neighborhoods.

For centuries, it has been home to hundreds of enclaves of immigrants from every part of the world; as they became New Yorkers, the neighborhood in turn became infused with their cultures, foods, traditions, and personalities. In this book, Lower East Side historians Eric Ferrara and Nina Howes document the memories of 25 people who lived in this larger-than-life corner of New York. From childhood memories with family to observations of the constantly changing face of the neighborhood, discover the Lower East Side through the eyes and voices of the people who have made it what it is today.

Utica fulfilled a vital function in New York State's overall role as the gateway to the American West.

Vintage and contemporary photographs come together in this uniquie volume, portraying Utica's evolution from a wilderness crossroads to eventual stopover and tradelocation on the world-famous Erie Canal.

Vassar College was founded in 1861, two miles from the banks of the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie by Matthew Vassar, a self-made businessman.

The college grew to confirm its founder's precedent-breaking vision that women would profit from intellectual opportunities in the liberal arts similar to those that Ivy League institutions had long offered the other gender. The college has grown and changed with the times, first countering Victorian prejudices that women were not suited for serious study, always leading the way as opportunities to broaden the spectrum of women's education developed. In the tumultuous decade of the 1960s, Vassar College again broke precedent, turning itself from a single-sex institution into one in which true coeducation exists. After 139 years, Vassar is poised for the changes under way and yet to come in the twenty-first century.

For Italian immigrants and their descendants, moving from the city to Long Island was more than a change of address.

Even though the move wasn't far geographically, the societal move was large—it signaled that the family had achieved the American Dream, and in turn, elements of Italian values and culture are visible all over the island. Italians helped to build Long Island, whether as laborers or as contractors, such as the Castagnas. They brought their culinary traditions and opened markets, such as the still family-owned Iavarone Brothers Foods and restaurants, including New Hyde Park's Umberto's. Italians' industrialism helped them thrive in fields as diverse as medicine, politics, theater, and winemaking (including the nationally recognized Banfi label). Join author Salvatore J. LaGumina to discover the remarkable contributions and vibrant culture of Italians and Italian-Americans on Long Island.

Long Island and the Woman Suffrage Movement documents the historical movement of the right to vote for women in New York.

For seventy-two years, American women fought for the right to vote, and many remarkable ladies on Long Island worked tirelessly during this important civil rights movement. The colorful—and exceedingly wealthy—Alva Vanderbilt Belmont was undoubtedly the island's most outspoken and controversial advocate for woman suffrage. Ida Bunce Sammis, vigorous in her efforts, became one of the first women elected to the New York legislature. Well-known Harriot Stanton Blatch, daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, worked with countless other famous and ordinary Long Islanders to make her mother's quest a reality. Author Antonia Petrash tells the story of these and other women's struggle to secure the right to vote for themselves, their daughters and future generations of Long Island women.

Award-winning author and historian Kerriann Flanagan Brosky uncovers some of the most ghastly and fascinating historical crimes committed on Long Island.

Beyond the idyllic countryside and suburban communities of Long Island lies a murky history of murder and mayhem. A Victorian romance went awry in Huntington when wealthy farmer Charles Kelsey was tarred, feathered and murdered in 1872. Thirty-five years before the famous witch trials of Salem, East Hampton had its own Puritan hysteria among charges of witchcraft. The 1937 kidnapping of wealthy heiress Alice Parsons shook the quiet town of Stony Brook and remains a mystery to this day.

Less than an hour by train from New York City...

Croton Point Park encapsulates the history, beauty and promise of the Hudson Valley. The Westchester County Park encompasses miles of Hudson River shoreline with astonishing views and remnants of the region’s past. Incredible shell mounds shed light on the Native peoples who inhabited the area generations prior to European colonization. The remains of the first commercial vineyards in the Northeast are just steps away from historic brickyards that helped build Manhattan. The Point served as a dumping ground for years until local efforts restored the park into a model of environmental conservation. Today, bald eagles have returned to nest alongside visitors exploring remarkable landmarks, sailing the waters of the Hudson or enjoying a scenic picnic.

Authors Scott Craven and Caroline Ranald Curvan present Westchester’s crown jewel, Croton Point Park.

Battles, shipwrecks and abundant adventures await in this volume of maritime tales by local author Susan Gately.

Easternmost of the Great Lakes, Lake Ontario is bordered by both New York and Ontario. Upon its pristine surface, countless vessels have sailed, but its bottom depths are littered with the skeletons of shipwrecks, including HMS Ontario, caught and destroyed in one of the sudden storms that often turn this sea-like lake deadly. Daring mariners, male and female, have seen their share of peril, and battles during wars between Britain and the United States and Canada have also been waged here. From Huron canoes to today's Sunday sailors who venture from shore only during warmer months, local author Susan Gateley tells some of the lake's most exciting stories.

Discover the history of the Genessee River in this interesting pictorial journey.

One of the few rivers in the United States running south to north, the Genesee River was the result of the last great ice sheet that covered New York roughly 10,000 years ago. The Seneca Nation fished and hunted along the river, important to New York since the beginnings of time. In the early 1800s, it served as a source of waterpower for numerous industries. It provided water for early canals, and when the canals gave way to railroads, special sites along the river became popular destinations for entertainment. From the early 1800s, Ontario Beach Park was dubbed the ""Coney Island of the West,"" and in the late 1800s, trains brought scores of tourists to Letchworth for spectacular views of the canyon, falls, and wildlife. Today, a series of parks and hiking trails can be found up and down the river.

In the northwest corner of the Adirondack Park lie Cranberry Lake and the village of Wanakena.

This remote area was the last-settled part of New York State; from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, its name evoked the very essence of wilderness. Initially, sportsmen, naturalists, and artists flocked to the area. By 1900, summer tourism was booming. The logging industry followed, to harvest the virgin timber; after that, the state purchased the mostly cleared lands. Today, seventy-five percent of the lake's shoreline is state owned, and the Five Ponds Wilderness, south of Wanakena, is one of the largest and wildest areas in the Adirondacks.