Arcadia Publishing: 7502 books

Since the 1850s, the soothing countryside hamlets of Sonoma County have beckoned settlers of every stripe-farmers, homesteaders, businesspeople, and commuters. Sebastopol has always been among the county's loveliest towns, retaining its small-town feel even as its population has steadily grown. This...

Isaac Cavin, of Ligonier, Pennsylvania, traveled to Indiana in 1830. He returned home and married Elizabeth Marker in 1834, and they traveled together to northern Indiana. In May 1835, he planned a new town and named it Ligonier. He built his home a few miles north of town and lived there for 52 years....

Below the surface of bustling National City lies the story of olive and citrus orchards, grand Victorian homes, great wealth, and the coming of the first railroad. Founded in 1868 by Frank Kimball, National City is credited with multiple distinguished firsts. On the county level, the San Diego County...

Picturesque Rio Vista was first named Los Brazos del Rio (The Arms of the River) for its proximity to the confluence of the Sacramento River, Steamboat Slough, and Cache Slough. The river was once its reason for being, and the town�s huge wharf welcomed steamers like the New World and Eclipse that...

The town of Cotati, once the Coast Miwok village of Kot'ati, was by 1850 a 17,000-acre diamond-shaped ranch set in the center of Sonoma County's golden fields. Dr. Thomas Stokes Page and his heirs ran that ranch until the 1890s, when they laid out a town and a distinctive hexagonal plaza with streets...

Morgan Hill lies at the foot of stately El Toro Mountain in southern Santa Clara Valley. Martin Murphy Sr. settled here in 1845, and only a generation later the Murphy family had managed to acquire 70,000 acres. Martin�s son Daniel owned over a million acres in the western United States when his only...

Rhode Island�s Mill Villages is a fascinating visualhistory of the development and evolution of over 150 years of life in Simmonsville, Pocasset, Olneyville, and Thornton. Some 200 rare and historic photographs are coupled with detailed and informative captions that immerse the reader in the daily...

Long Branch is one of the greatest nineteenth-century American cities. For decades it was the premier summer resort in the Northeast, and a list of visitors to the area reads like a Who�s Who of the nineteenth century: Presidents Arthur, Garfield, Grant, Hayes, Harrison, McKinley, and Wilson all...

Brooklyn, New York, is home to the Brooklyn Public Library, the fifth-largest library system in the United States, with 60 neighborhood branches serving the 2.5 million residents of the borough. The Central Library--the main hub of this far-reaching institution--has, for 75 years, occupied a prime...

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...

Birmingham�s surrounding hills comprise the only place in the world with a plentiful supply of all the ingredients for iron making. This spurred the city of Birmingham�s charter in 1871 around the crossing of two railroads. The city�s development into a leading industrial center is shown here in photographs and postcard views, some a century old.

Located in the scenic Laurel Highlands of western Pennsylvania, America's third oldest amusement park, Idlewild, was founded in 1878 as a picnic ground along the Ligonier Valley Rail Road. Its tranquil setting quickly established Idlewild as the premier place for church, school, and corporate picnics,...

Harper's Weekly reported in 1857 that no engineer had yet been able to present a feasible plan for Central Park and that "it may not ever happen." Their pessimism was misplaced, as Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux's Greensward Plan was approved in May 1858. By 1860, visitors were enjoying the magnificent...

The history of Washington Heights, Inwood, and Marble Hill is interesting not only because the communities played a major role in the American Revolution but because of their cultural and educational institutions and residents whose culture and ethnicity have contributed to the well-being of the area....