Greg Kowalski: 8 books

The National Prohibition Act was no match for Hamtramck. Once a small farming village, Hamtramck grew to be a major industrial city in just a decade. With that came enormous social problems and a peculiar concept that the legality of alcohol wasn't a constraint but, rather, an opportunity. Flaunting...

Since the 1920s, Art Deco, or "The Modern Style," has delighted people with its innovative use of materials and designs that capture the spirit of optimism to create the style of the future. Although the Detroit metro area is primarily known as an industrial region, it boasts some of the finest examples...

Since its founding in 1798, the city of Hamtramck, Michigan has evolved from a dusty farming community on the edge of Detroit into a nationally recognized town of culture and character. The Dodge Main factory, founded in 1910, drew thousands of immigrants to the city of Hamtramck, and a vibrant, multi-cultural...

Hamtramck's population bulged to 56,000 from a mere 3,500 in the early twentieth century, a sixteen-fold increase that created the perfect environment for crime and corruption to flourish. Post-Prohibition, bars sprang up in quick order, until there were at least two hundred within this wide-open town's...

With a population made up overwhelmingly of Polish immigrants and descendents of Poles, Hamtramck was especially hardhit by the impact of World War II. Most of the city�s residents had family contacts with the old country. When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Hamtramckans reacted with...

Few towns in America have undergone a transformation like Hamtramck. From a farming community of 3,500 people in 1910, it became an industrial powerhouse of 48,000 by 1920. Much of that early history is gone, but much remains-some remnants of an age of iron and smoke and some transformed into buildings with a functional modern use.

Surrounded completely by the city of Detroit, Hamtramck is today home to 24,000 residents, but its small size-just 2.1 square miles-belies its expansive history and the influence this remarkable community has had far beyond its borders.Founded as a township in 1798, Hamtramck remained primarily a rural...

Fueled by a massive immigrant influx in the early 20th century, Hamtramck went from being a small farming village to a major industrial town in the space of 10 years. This phenomenal growth attracted national attention and set the city on a sometimes precarious path toward the future. Despite often...