Lenox Library Association

Lenox

9781467124058

$34.99

As he rode through mid-19th-century Lenox, Massachusetts, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, Perfect almost to a miracle. Founded in 1767, Lenox had sent Gen. John Paterson riding to the Revolutionary War 75 years earlier. Named the Shire Town because of its central Berkshires location, Lenox was home to the county courts. In the east, the center of a bustling glassworks and ironworks industry was situated by the Housatonic River. In the west, rolling hills and sparkling waters drew the literary lights to the New England Lake District. When the county seat moved to Pittsfield, fears of a local economic decline were unfounded with the arrival of the Gilded Age millionaires, who built stately seasonal estates with the charmingly ironic nickname of cottage. The exodus of the millionaires saw Lenox reinvent itself as a cultural and educational center, with private schools and performing arts organizations, Tanglewood chief among them, located on former estates. Change may come to Lenox again, but one constant remains throughout these past 250 years: its scenic beauty.

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John F. Steinle

Evergreen

9781467126113

$34.99

Early settlers were drawn to the Evergreen area for its unsurpassed beauty and natural resources. Ranching and lumber were the initial basis for Evergreen's economy in the 1800s, and wealthy summer residents built prestigious second homes there. By 1920, Evergreen became a tourist mecca through development of the Denver Mountain Parks system and famed hotels, resorts, and dude ranches. From 1920 to 1942, Evergreen was the epicenter of outdoor recreation in Colorado. After World War II, a unique array of volunteer arts, nature, and charity organizations was created by Evergreen's people. A bohemian era in the 1960s and 1970s brought artists, musicians, and hippies, including Willie Nelson, to Evergreen. Explosive growth after completion of Interstate 70 led to development of new festivals and attractions, including the magnificent parks of the Jefferson County Open Space system. Evergreen still retains an atmosphere of the legendary Old West, from its boardwalk along Main Street to its annual Evergreen Rodeo and Rodeo Parade to its surviving area ranches.

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David Johnston

Highlands Ranch

9781467116145

$34.99

Highlands Ranch, part of Douglas County, is known as one of the fastest growing communities in the nation. Highlands Ranch grew from the Colorado plains through a series of settlements starting in 1859, with most homesteaders arriving in the 1880s. The homesteads were eventually unified into one grand ranch and mansion. The 1980s began the transformation from a ranch to a community when Mission Viejo started building a master planned community. Today, Shea Homes has almost completed the build out of the area. The people, businesses, and organizations of Highlands Ranch have come together to create an enjoyable community and lifestyle that around 100,000 people call home.

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Laura Elizabeth Albritton

Marathon

9781467117395

$34.99

The Middle Keys have experienced a fascinating history, from the time when wreckers plied the Florida Reef to the days of Henry Flagler's audacious overseas railroad.

Once the Overseas Highway opened, travelers could reach Marathon by car and tourism boomed. As more people settled in Marathon, the community grew and flourished. The majesty of the Middle Keys' two Seven Mile Bridges has inspired postcards, paintings, and even movie scenes. Local institutions like the Dolphin Research Center and the Turtle Hospital have also garnered a host of fans. Images of America: Marathon: The Middle Keys captures the story of these unique islands and their rich photographic legacy.

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Jennifer S. Hersch

Daufuskie Island

9781467127684

$34.99

A paradise for pirates? A strategic military outpost? A holding area for enslaved Africans? A tourist attraction? Daufuskie Island is all of that and more.

Daufuskie, a Muscogee word meaning sharp feather or land with a point, is an island located between Hilton Head and Savannah, and with no bridge to the mainland, the island maintains a distinct allure. Once home to Native American tribes, then an island hideaway for pirates, and then a strategic military outpost, the darkest chapter in Daufuskie's history saw plantation owners hold enslaved Africans as chattel to build their wealth. After the Civil War and occupation by Union soldiers, freed slaves from the Sea Islands and surrounding states settled on Daufuskie as landowners and sharecroppers. Daufuskie's population fluctuated in keeping with local industries, and those who stayed often relied on farming, hunting, and fishing to survive. Electricity was only brought to the island in the early 1950s, and the first telephone rang in 1972. Today, historic sites, restaurants, outdoor recreation, and scenic beauty draw visitors and residents to this unique community. Daufuskie Island is part of the National Park Service's Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

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Alison Fortier

A History Lover's Guide to Washington, D.C.

9781540299819

$34.99

Join author Alison Fortier for a walk through our United States Capital and its iconic locations.

This tour of the nation’s capital goes beyond the traditional guidebook to offer a historical journey through the federal district. Visit the White House, the only executive home in the world regularly open to the public. Travel to President Lincoln’s Cottage and see where he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. Look around lesser-known sites, such as the grave of Pierre L’Enfant, the city’s Botanical Gardens, the Old Post Office and a host of historical homes throughout the capital. From George Washington’s Mount Vernon to the Kennedy Center, trek through each era of Washington, D.C., for a tour of America’s most beloved sites. Join author and Washington insider Alison Fortier as she curates a revised and updated expedition to our shining city on a hill.

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James A. Craig

Fitz H. Lane

9781596290907

$32.99

Fitz H. Lane's maritime masterpieces are known throughout the world, but the man himself has eluded both historians and art critics for over a century. The Luminist painter's successful career began in his early childhood in picturesque Gloucester, Massachusetts and his talents developed and matured over time, making him one of the nation's premier nineteenth-century artists. Throughout his career, Lane painted with a vitality and attention to detail that was purely American at heart, and it is in pursuit of this ideal that James Craig embarks on a detective's investigation to reconstruct with accuracy and honesty the details of a man about whom much has been written but little revealed. Few clues remain today about the artist who so thoroughly embodied the American spirit during one of humanity's most dramatic and confusing historical epochs. Lane's era was one of great change for America, and both he and his art were there to capture that spirit. This dazzling and exhaustive effort provides the first glimpse behind the canvas, beyond the career and into the soul of Fitz H. Lane. Passionate, stunning and thrilling, this is a narrative that returns life and color to a man intent or preserving and presenting the life of the culture he loved. James Craig has given Gloucester back one of her favorite sons.

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Joseph R. Sonderman

St. Louis

9781467124591

$34.99

Every street has a story. From the humblest cul-de-sac to the roaring interstates, the roads tell the stories and reveal the character that make each neighborhood unique. St. Louis was born of the great rivers, so its bridges played a crucial role. Together, the names of the roads tell the history of the child of the rivers that became the Gateway to the West. There are the stories behind the French street names pronounced in a uniquely St. Louis manner, the names purged from the map during World War I, and the histories behind the pioneers, politicians, developers, and everyday people who built St. Louis. Here are also the tragic tales of the epic struggle to bridge the great rivers. These photographs, many never published before, will show it all.

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Cimberly B. Castellon

Calabasas

9781467134156

$34.99

Calabasas is located in the hills west of the San Fernando Valley in the northwest Santa Monica Mountains. The Chumash Indians were the first to settle in this picturesque region, abundant with wildlife, water, and shady oak trees. The early years of Calabasas offer a colorful history full of buried treasure, cattle and sheep ranches, stagecoaching, ghost sightings, and some of Southern California's roughest and toughest residents. Between the 1920s and 1970s, countless films and television episodes were filmed in the west San Fernando Valley area alone. It was a time when Westerns ruled the scene, and the studios bought up huge tracts of underdeveloped acreage in the hills around Calabasas to serve as movie ranches. Today, Calabasas is primarily a city of master-planned communities that are home to over 23,000 residents, including many of Hollywood's rich and famous. In banning secondhand smoke, plastic bags, and Styrofoam, Calabasas has been on the forefront of enacting environmental stewardship to preserve its historical roots and protect its open spaces.

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Bill Alexander

Around Biltmore Village

9781540299086

$34.99

Over 100 years ago, George W. Vanderbilt, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Richard Morris joined forces to turn an unsuspecting mountain town into a model village of elegance and prosperity.

More than a century ago, George W. Vanderbilt transformed the sleepy crossroads settlement known as Best, or Asheville Junction, on the Swannanoa River into an idyllic model village near the entrance to his vast Biltmore Estate near Asheville. The initial concepts and design for Biltmore Village were the collaborative efforts of Vanderbilt, architect Richard Morris Hunt, and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The finished village included more than 40 residences, a business district, a church, a school, and a hospital. It was centrally located among the developing towns of Victoria, Kenilworth, South Biltmore, and later Biltmore Forest. It characterized the elegance and prosperity of the building booms that flourished in the south Asheville area before and after both world wars.