Arcadia Publishing imprint: 4900 books

Founded in 1896 by pension attorney P. H. Fitzgerald as a colony for Union veterans escaping the drought-stricken Midwest, Fitzgerald has built on the spirit of unity exhibited by its early Union and Confederate founders. The town produced such notable citizens as Gen. Ray Davis, assistant commandant...

With Hicksville, local historians Richard and Anne Evers take us on a journey back in time from the area�s 1648 land purchase from Native Americans and associations with Elias Hicks, the Jericho antislavery leader, to its transformation into a thriving twentieth-century Long Island suburb of New York...

Situated on the Kaskaskia River is the community of Vandalia, Illinois, a town proud of its place in history and excited about its future. Vandalia has proved that as the place where Abraham Lincoln began his political career, and the location of the terminus of the Cumberland Road, it is a town of global...

In the late 19th century, West Brighton became known as �Factoryville� after several industries set up shop in the vicinity. One of the largest, Barrett, Nephews, and Company, a dyeing and cleaning establishment, employed hundreds of Staten Islanders. Several prominent historical figures have resided...

In 1835, William Harris sectioned off his land--the area now known as Main and Green Streets in Brownsburg--for the purpose of establishing a town. Harris used beech trees, elm trees, and hickory stumps to define the town's boundaries; he called it Harrisburg. The name Harrisburg was already in use...

Kittanning, a main street presence in rural Armstrong County, takes its name from the Delaware people who inhabited western Pennsylvania. Considered the site of a pivotal conflict during the French and Indian War, Kittanning later emerged as a center for local government and commerce. Families and businesses...

According to local history, General Robinson, a railroad official from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, named this Ohio town �Alliance� in 1850. Known for a short time as �The Crossing,� Robinson believed that Alliance was a better name since the nation�s two major railroads intersected here. The...

Tenafly has evolved from an Old Dutch farming community with unique estates owned by businessmen, mainly railroad executives, into a thriving New York suburb. The borough has long been known for its excellent school system. After the Second World War, development grew through technology that allowed...

Signal Mountain occupies a portion of Walden�s Ridge, a plateau on the lower end of the Appalachian Mountains just outside of Chattanooga. The Creek and Cherokee Indians who used this area for hunting sent smoke signals from the palisades overlooking Moccasin Bend, Williams Island, and the Tennessee...

Images of America: Springfield Volume I gave readers a photographic history of the city�s ethnic populations and religions. It also told the story of education and public service in the �City of Firsts.� In Springfield Volume II, author GingerZabecki Cruickshank takes readers on a second journeythrough...

Few Southern cities have stronger claims to fame than Fort Lauderdale. As one of the great vacation destinations in America, over the years it attracted such celebrities as Bob Hope, Jayne Mansfield, Johnny Carson, Cary Grant, and the worldchampion New York Yankees. This beach town’s history is starstudded and rich with interesting stories and photographs from that period.

The most significant building project of its time, Eastern State Penitentiary was designed to reshape the mind of an inmate, rather than punish the body of one. It was believed that by keeping prisoners isolated in the chapel-like cells the inner light of their souls would emerge, leading them to discover...

On July 1, 1895, under the direction of warden James French, the first federal prison was born. That same year, St. Louis architects Eames and Young went to work drawing up plans for an institution that would house the most notorious offenders in the nation�s history. At sunrise on March 1, 1897, 300...

A popular backdrop for numerous movies, Sing Sing, or "the Big House," has been a site of both controversy and reform. The history of Sing Sing dates back to 1825, when warden Elam Lynds brought one hundred inmates to begin construction of the prison "up the river" on the banks of the Hudson. The marble...