Texas

Name: Vanished Houston Landmarks
Brand: Mark Lardas
SKU: 9781467142816
Price: 23.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Salute the swagger of a Texas history timeline that features leading ladies, legendary lawmen, and the braintrust that put humanity into orbit. Celebrate the subtle pleasures of a day bracketed by an Austin breakfast taco and a sunset cruise through Galveston history. Our Texas history books don’t shy away from the state’s shameful excesses either—unconscionable tragedies like the 1910 Slocum Massacre demand an accounting. From a promenade down the San Antonio Riverwalk to a furtive exit from the Texas Chicken Ranch, step out with Texas history. [View all Texas books]

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Vanished Houston Landmarks

$23.99

Lighthouses of Texas

$24.99

Spanish Missions of Texas

$24.99

Dallas Landmarks

$24.99

Fort Worth's Historic Hotels

$24.99

San Antonio Cemeteries Historic District

$24.99

San Antonio's Historic Architecture

$24.99

Galveston's Broadway Cemeteries

$24.99

History Lover's Guide to Dallas, A

$21.99

Plano's Historic Cemeteries

$24.99

Historic Dallas Hotels

$24.99

San Antonio's Churches

$24.99

Vanished Houston Landmarks

9781467142816

$23.99

Although it is sometimes called a town without a history, Houston actually possesses the kind of sprawling past that includes a frontier port, a moon landing and a supermarket that contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union. In fact, there is so much history that much has been forgotten. Visit the landmarks of that neglected heritage, from the Cotton Exchange to Astroworld. Dropping in on legendary spots like Shamrock and Gilley's Club, Mark Lardas tells the stories of a Houston that has largely disappeared from the public eye.

Lighthouses of Texas

9781467130912

$24.99

Not long after winning their independence from Mexico in 1836, Texans began clamoring for lighthouses. Hundreds of miles of barrier islands, shifting sandbars, and shallow bays made the Texas coast treacherous at a time when few overland routes provided access to the new republic. Beginning in 1852, twenty-eight lighthouses were built along the Texas coastline, on land and over water. Lighthouse service was often a family affair, with husbands, wives, and children working together as keepers and assistants. For nearly 70 years, construction continued as coastal erosion, hurricanes, and wars regularly damaged or destroyed those lighthouses already built. These "sentinels of the sea" lessened but did not eliminate the chance of shipwreck, so lifesaving stations, manned by able seamen with unsinkable surfboats, were established as well. As Texas's lighthouses were gradually automated throughout the 20th century, many were sold to private owners or abandoned. Today, several have been restored, and two--at Aransas Pass and Port Isabel--still function as aids to navigation.

Spanish Missions of Texas

9781467136303

$24.99

After the conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortés in the sixteenth century, conquistadors and explorers poured into the territory of Nueva España. The Franciscans followed in their wake but carved a different path through a harsh and often violent landscape. That heritage can still be found across Texas, behind weathered stone ruins and in the pews of ornate, immaculately maintained naves. From early structures in El Paso to later woodland sanctuaries in East Texas, these missions anchored communities and, in many cases, still serve them today. Author Byron Browne reconnoiters these iconic landmarks and their lasting legacy.

Dallas Landmarks

9780738558523

$24.99

Dallas has a reputation as a progressive city—always ready to build something new and better to replace the old.

In the late 19th century, as Dallas became the transportation and commercial center for North Texas, brick and stone edifices supplanted the simple frame structures of the early days. By the 1920s, the city was the financial capital of the region and boasted the tallest building west of the Mississippi. In 1936, Dallas hosted the Texas Centennial Exposition in Fair Park, an ensemble of art deco buildings that is a National Historic Landmark. As business grew, so did the skyline. Today Dallas has a rich collection of historic buildings that chronicle the city's growth and progress.

Fort Worth's Historic Hotels

9780738599748

$24.99

Fort Worth, originally named Camp Worth, was founded as an Army outpost in 1849, and the old cavalry stables became Fort Worth's first hotel. The Texas & Pacific Railroad arrived in Fort Worth in July 1876, bringing the need for more lodging. Shortly after its arrival, boardinghouses and simple accommodations were quickly opened. At the turn of the century, Fort Worth became a center for cattle ranchers, and the first luxury hotels were built. By the next decade, wealthy oil barons replaced the cattle ranchers, and the demand for larger and more elaborate hotels was established. Many of these first hotels were replaced with motor lodges and smaller chain hotels after the growth of the automobile industry; however, a few are still in operation today.

San Antonio Cemeteries Historic District

9781467131865

$24.99

In his Spoon River Anthology, Edgar Lee Masters uses a series of poetic monologues to have his characters finally tell their true stories from their graves. The first section lets the reader know that all, all, are sleeping on the hill. San Antonio has its Powder House Hill about three miles from its central business district. Known as the Eastside Cemetery District, there are 31 cemeteries here, owned by different religious congregations, fraternal organizations, military groups, and the City of San Antonio. Like Masters's Spoon River, within the Eastside Cemetery District reside people of many occupations and nationalities, including soldiers and statesmen, rich and poor, as well as husbands, wives, and children. Through photographs and research, the authors hope to tell some small part of the stories and the history of this unique burial ground.

San Antonio's Historic Architecture

9781467134835

$24.99

Spanish colonial missionary settlements established San Antonio as a junction between Mexico and the developing United States in the early 1700s. Because of its remote location amid both countries and its great distance from other cities, San Antonio became a crossroads for commerce, industry, and strategic military position on the wild frontier. Texas independence and the admission of Texas into the United States in the 19th century established a diverse cultural population and distinctive architecture that remains historically significant across the nation as it continues to gain attention on the world stage. The appreciation of historic architecture among its citizens has enabled San Antonio to retain a remarkably large catalog of important historic structures, which are often saved from destruction through relocation. Three centuries of steady growth, from 1700 to 2000, has resulted in an abundance of buildings that has generated a local legacy of multigenerational artisans and skilled craftsmen.

Galveston's Broadway Cemeteries

9781467133432

$24.99

Beginning in 1839 with the donation of four square blocks of land, the grouping of cemeteries on the central boulevard of Galveston has grown to include seven separate cemeteries within their gates. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, it is the resting place of famous and infamous citizens from Galveston's colorful past, including veterans from every war between 1812 and the present, heroes, scoundrels, philanthropists, murderers, pioneers of the Republic of Texas, groundbreaking scientists, and working-class citizens from around the world. Due to several grade raisings, there are up to three layers of burials within the cemetery, with some of the markers being lost forever. The stories of some of the residents are gathered here for you to enjoy.

History Lover's Guide to Dallas, A

9781467142267

$21.99

Don’t let the drawl fool you—Dallas boasts a dynamic history full of explosive growth. The cityscape itself seems eager to measure up to the outsized personalities that forged the town’s identity. A sixty-seven-and-a-half-foot-tall giraffe statue greets visitors to the Dallas Zoo, while guests exiting the Joule Hotel encounter the gaze of a thirty-foot eyeball. A colossal Pegasus glows above it all from its perch on top of the Magnolia Petroleum building. Subtler storylines also thread their way through the forest of glass and steel, from the jazz of Deep Ellum alleyways to the peaceful paths of the Katy Trail. Author Georgette Driscoll looks beyond the inscriptions for the events that shaped Dallas into the city it is today.

Plano's Historic Cemeteries

9781467132350

$24.99

The Plano of today would not be recognizable to the pioneers who settled this section of the blackland prairie. Arriving in the early 1840s, these colonists from Tennessee and Kentucky were captivated by Sam Houston's stump speeches about the rich, fertile farmland of North Texas. All of their frontier cemeteries, large and small, are now surrounded by golf courses, subdivisions, and commercial development. The final resting places of Plano's pioneers still exist because of the hard work of cemetery associations, civic groups, concerned citizens, the City of Plano Parks Department, and the Plano Conservancy for Historic Preservation. These silent spaces hold a wealth of history that helps tell the story of Plano's beginnings as a rural farming community.

Historic Dallas Hotels

9780738578798

$24.99

In Dallas's infancy, accommodations for the traveler arriving by stage or horseback consisted of boardinghouses or unfurnished rooms, but within 10 years of the city's founding, Dallas could boast about what is considered to be its first hotel: Thomas Crutchfield's log cabin and livery stable. As the village evolved from town to city, these early facilities were replaced with elegantly appointed hotels that rivaled those in New York or Chicago and established Dallas as a modern city. As the 20th century progressed, many older hotels were replaced with up-to-date facilities, and the rise of the automobile following World War II saw the establishment of dozens of motels and motor courts. There were accommodations for every type of traveler, and Dallas had established itself as a hotel town.

San Antonio's Churches

9780738585369

$24.99

The towns that the Spaniards of colonial Mexico planted on their northern frontier were organized around the ideal of a close interaction between church, missionary outreach, and military. San Antonio was the most successful realization of this dream in Texas. The pattern of this tripartite approach has continued to shape the rich culture of the city down to the present. With this selection of photos, San Antonio's Churches takes a snapshot visit back through religious development throughout the three centuries of San Antonio's history.