Franciscan monk Fr. Junipero Serra, founder of the Spanish mission system in California, raised a cross on the beach on March 31, 1782, at a spot that became a general wayfarer's midpoint between Los Angeles and Point Conception. This was the dedication of Mission San Buenaventura. Bordered by rivers out of the foothills, this coastal area had originally been home to many Chumash Indian villages, dating back to 1000 A.D. The small mission outpost...

The streets of Boston's North End, some laid out in the seventeenth century, exude a rich history built by every generation of Boston immigrants since 1630. Home to the Paul Revere House and the famous Old North Church, the North End appeals to locals as well as visitors with its bustling Haymarket and restaurant row.

When the United States entered the 1960s, the nation was swept up in the Space Race as the United States and the Soviet Union competed for supremacy in rocket and satellite technologies. Cities across the country hoped to attract new aerospace companies, but the city leaders of Seattle launched the most ambitious campaign of all. They invited the whole world to visit for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, and more than nine million people took them up...

Join the author in reliving Sylvania's over 180 years of history from footpaths to expressways, and beyond, in volume four of an eight-volume set. With 30 years of research, she has included every subject imaginable that helped bring Sylvania to where they are today, with excellent schools, over-the-top parks, and recreation, rich beautiful homes, commercial, and industrial businesses, and a quaint historical downtown that looks like it was planned...

The black experience in America--starting from its origins in western Africa up to 1961--is examined in this seminal study from a prominent African American figure. The entire historical timeline of African Americans is addressed, from the Colonial period through the civil rights upheavals of the late 1950s to 1961, the time of publication. "Before the Mayflower" grew out of a series of articles Bennett published in Ebony magazine regarding "the...

Images of America: Bristol celebrates the history of the town known as "A Good Place to Live." Joseph A. Anderson bought land on the Virginia-Tennessee border from his father-in-law, Rev. James King, and founded Bristol in 1852. Just four years later, the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad came to Bristol, and the town became a major trading center of the Appalachian region. During the Civil War, Bristol was a vital railway link between the North and...

Through its many incarnations, Alameda has never lost its charm and ability to draw people from all walks of life. Originally a peninsula inhabited by Native Americans, it was purchased by Don Luis Peralta in 1818 and developed into a bedroom community of San Francisco. Alameda became an island in 1902, and a short time later, it was a new home to many refugees from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. The Neptune Beach amusement park attracted...

Dorchester County's special blend of past and present, treasured by locals, appeals also to visitors from all walks of life. Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Jimmy Carter, performers Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Ella Fitzgerald, and Pulitzer Prize-winning authors James Michener and Richard Ben Cramer all enjoyed sojourning here. Dorchester County is surrounded almost entirely by scenic waters: the Choptank and Nanticoke Rivers,...

Several times in the late 20th century, Corona was cited as the fastest-growing city in California, doubling and tripling its former sleepy-town size of around 25,000 in the 1970s to 150,000 in a matter of just decades. Corona has come a long way from its former offshoot identity as South Riverside in the late 19th century. Incorporated as Corona in 1896, it survived as a dry-farming community until the arrival of citrus crops. Its status as a way...

The history of North Adams is a portrait of survival and a celebration of diversity, which is not only expressed in its citizens and their ancestry but also in the many faces that the city and its environment have taken on through the years. From the isolated military outpost that fought a dramatic battle in the mid-1700s, through the roller-coaster ride of prosperity and economic depression endured by its citizens, North Adams exemplifies the strength...