Roads & Routes

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.

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.

The historic Great Lakes Naval Training Station was authorized as a "training ship on land" in 1904.

The base opened on July 1, 1911, and the first class of 300 U.S. sailors graduated four months later in a grand ceremony attended by Pres. William H. Taft as guest of honor. It has since sent to the fleet over four million sailors, serving the nation through all the conflicts of the 20th century. Today Great Lakes is the sole remaining navy boot camp in the United States. Anchored by the stately Building One, the entire 43-building complex was designated as Great Lakes Naval Training Station on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. This book, with over 200 vintage images, explores its colorful and important history.

Throughout Chicago, historic mansions built by legendary architects were the homes to characters just as great and whose impact is still felt today.

Chicago is known throughout the world for its architecture. Although many people are familiar with the city's skyscrapers and public buildings, they often overlook or are unaware of Chicago's mansions that are located throughout the city. These mansions represent Chicago's past and its future, and it can even be said that they are the very embodiment of Chicago and its architecture. These fashionable residences were built to make a statement, and what better way to have done this than to employ the leading architects of the time to design them. These architects included men such as Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Henry Hobson Richardson, Daniel Burnham, and John Wellborn Root. While the city's mansions are significant because of who built them, they are just as important because of who lived in them. Many of these mansions were built for Chicago's elite businessmen and captains of industry-men who represented old money, new money and big money. Just as important were the families of these men and the other residents who came to live in these mansions-for they left a legacy of their own that contributed to the city's 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.

Detroit's auto heritage is known worldwide, but this fascinating city's history runs much deeper.

Step inside the tiny recording studio where Berry Gordy, a young entrepreneur who faced tremendous prejudice, created a music empire that broke down racial barriers. Tour Art Deco masterpieces so spectacular they're called "cathedrals" to commerce and finance. Walk in the footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Cobo Hall, where he first delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. Join Karin Risko for an intimate tour of the city that put the world on wheels and discover an amazing history of innovation, philanthropy, social justice and culture.

Opening night in October 1929 drew over 2,000 people to the beautiful ballroom with the famous maplewood dance floor. It continued to thrive with live music four nights a week and 12 months a year throughout the Big Band Era, despite the Great Depression and World War II, and into the rock 'n roll era, until it burned to the ground on Sunday morning, July 23, 1967. Almost everyone's marriage in the region began with a dance at Madura's Danceland. In the 38 years Danceland was open, it had only two owners and managers, Michael (Mike) Madura Sr. and Michael (Mick) J. Madura Jr., father and son. It remained a family business for all those years, with three generations of the Madura family having worked there in many capacities.

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.

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.

Join Mark D. Hanson as he chronicles the long-standing and cohesive relationship between the farming town of Rantoul and the Chanute Air Force base.

Rantoul and the former Chanute Air Force Base are inseparably intertwined as primary players in a single historical narrative. Rantoul was first founded as an agriculturally based community in 1848 near an area known as Mink Grove. The settlement boomed with the coming of the Illinois Central Railroad in 1854; a railroad championed by the town's namesake, Robert Rantoul Jr. Disaster followed in 1899 and again in 1901 with devastating fires. Then, in 1917, a U.S. Army flying field was built on the outskirts of Rantoul. Named after the aviation pioneer Octave Chanute, Chanute Field, later Chanute Air Force Base, became a premier technical training facility. A mutually beneficial relationship quickly developed between these civilian and military establishments that would last for over 75 years. Chanute Air Force Base closed in 1993, ushering in yet another new era for the village of Rantoul.

Join author Susan Roark Hoyt as she explores the history of these remarkable structures, the courageous people who maintained them, and the harbors they safeguarded.

After the first settlers reached northwestern Michigan, the region's immense pine forests were quickly cultivated into a thriving lumber industry. Coastal towns sprang up to support sawmills, and soon lumber schooners arrived to carry large loads of timber to ports across Lake Michigan. Their journeys were not without dangers, however. Rudimentary harbors made docking and loading hazardous while shoals and reefs, hidden beneath the water's surface, threatened to ravage the unsuspecting vessels. The need for lighthouses to mark these dangerous waters and harbor entrances was crucial to prevent the loss of lives and valuable cargo. Through a unique collection of archival images, Lighthouses of Northwest Michigan takes readers on a stirring journey through the development of 27 lighthouses that secured the waters from Little Point Sable to the Straits of Mackinac.

Kelly Pucci explores the dark history of this historic prison, located only three miles from the Chicago Loop, that was used as a POW facility during the Civil War.

Thousands of Confederate soldiers died in Chicago during the Civil War, not from battle wounds, but from disease, starvation, and torture as POWs in a military prison three miles from the Chicago Loop. Initially treated as a curiosity, attitudes changed when newspapers reported the deaths of Union soldiers on southern battlefields. As the prison population swelled, deadly diseases--smallpox, dysentery, and pneumonia--quickly spread through Camp Douglas. Starving prisoners caught stealing from garbage dumps were tortured or shot. Fearing a prisoner revolt, a military official declared martial law in Chicago, and civilians, including a Chicago mayor and his family, were arrested, tried, and sentenced by a military court. At the end of the Civil War, Camp Douglas closed, its buildings were demolished, and records were lost or destroyed. The exact number of dead is unknown; however, 6,000 Confederate soldiers incarcerated at Camp Douglas are buried among mayors and gangsters in a South Side cemetery. Camp Douglas: Chicago's Civil War Prison explores a long-forgotten chapter of American history, clouded in mystery and largely forgotten.

Discover the stories behind historic Columbus neighborhoods and their engaging landmarks.

The community centers that locals call home aren't just points of interest but places that have shaped history beyond their communities and even Ohio. This encyclopedia of Columbus neighborhoods gives voice to the rich heritage residing in the bell towers, parks and streetscapes of Franklinton, German Village, King-Lincoln, Olde Town East, Short North and the University District. Along with WOSU's award-winning Columbus Neighborhoods series, Tom Betti, Doreen Uhas Sauer and Ed Lentz curate the stories tracing the lines from your neighborhood to the Manhattan Project, the Underground Railroad, Abraham Lincoln and the Tuskegee Airmen.

Cleveland storyteller Dan Ruminski discovered that the 6 acres under his home were originally part of a 1,400-acre grand estate known as the Circle W Farm.

The impressive estate was created by Walter White, founding brother of the White Motor Company. Drawn in by the fascinating history, Ruminski's investigation soon embraced the full legacy of Cleveland's industrial history and the indomitable characters who created the city's Gilded Age. John D. Rockefeller, Samuel Mather and more giants of industry built Cleveland's Millionaires' Row. Come peek inside the once-grand mansions these millionaires called home and hear the delightful stories that bring the past to life. Join Ruminski and Alan Dutka on a return to this section of Euclid Avenue, which wasn't merely the most stunning show of wealth in Cleveland but also in the entire country.