The state of Florida has a rich history of African Americans who have contributed to the advancement and growth of today. From slaves to millionaires, African Americans from all walks of life resided in cabins, homes, and stately mansions. The lives of millionaires, educators, businessmen, community leaders, and innovators in Florida's history are explored in each residence. Mary McLeod Bethune, A.L. Lewis, and D.A. Dorsey are a few of the prominent...

The great American composer George Gershwin was a product of the energetic Jazz Age city of New York. Yet Pittsburgh may have been his adopted town, through road tours of his Broadway shows, his appearances as a concert pianist, and his myriad associates with ties to the Steel City. Meticulously researched, Gershwin in Pittsburgh chronicles these surprisingly consequential connections. Theatrical venues such as the Nixon and Alvin Theatres and colleagues...

The Florida Keys possess a staggering wealth of lighthouses-nine in all, from the remote iron light at Fowey Rocks to classic brick structures at Key West and Loggerhead Key. In the 1820s, the US government began constructing lighthouses to aid mariners navigating the dangerous Florida Reef. While some of the original lights were subsequently destroyed in dramatic circumstances, most that followed, including Carysfort Reef, Alligator Reef, Sombrero...

By the time the Great Depression was well underway, Mississippi was still dealing with the lingering effects of the flood of 1927 and the Mississippi Valley drought of 1930. As Pres. Franklin Roosevelt took office in 1933, Mississippi senator Pat Harrison, chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, oversaw the passage of major New Deal legislation, from which Mississippi reaped many benefits. Other Mississippi politicians like Gov. Mike Connor initiated...

Abe Lincoln did not split rails in Tampa, and George Washington's cherry tree might not have been cut in Miami-Dade, but in Key West, the famous Harry S. Truman sign-"The Buck Stops Here"-still resides on the former president's Florida White House desk. A few hours north is the Kennedy bunker, complete with the presidential seal painted on the concrete floor just in case the Soviets started a nuclear war while Kennedy was vacationing in Palm Beach....

'Sconset, the popularized version of its official name Siasconset, prides itself on preserving the charm and rich, historical character of the quaint, little village in the southeastern corner of Nantucket Island. Acclaimed as one of America's first summer vacation retreats, 'Sconset is cherished for its rose-covered cottages, lush hydrangeas, quiet paths and lanes, three miles of soft-sand beach, its iconic Sankaty Head Lighthouse, and a host of...

Established by Sandia Corporation in 1957, Tonopah Test Range (TTR) in Nevada provided an isolated place for the Atomic Energy Commission and successor agencies to test ballistic characteristics and non-nuclear components of atomic bombs. Also known as Area 52, the vast outdoor laboratory served this purpose throughout the Cold War arms race and continues to play a vital role in the stewardship and maintenance of the United States' nuclear arsenal....

Wilmington's East Side is the oldest residential community in the city. The first Swedish colony settled there in the 1600s, and over time, Jewish, Polish, and African American people followed. By the mid-1950s, the East Side emerged as a predominantly Black, achievement-oriented community-a place where working-class families, Black-owned businesses, and Black doctors, lawyers, teachers, musicians, and community leaders lived, worshipped, and worked...

Chicago's Motor Row earned a spot in the National Register of Historic Places by pioneering a new way to market an invention that was remaking America-the automobile. From approximately 1905 to 1936, well over 100 makes of car were offered by dealers in the 28-acre district. Motor Row started when Henry Ford, the best known name in automobile manufacturing, opened one of his first dealerships outside Detroit on South Michigan Avenue near the homes...

Los Angeles, California, shaped the nation's culture in the 20th century with the city's bungalow style of mass middle-class housing. The style made the novelty and easy climate of Los Angeles into a force for living according to new standards of health and well-being, freedom and openness, and simple artistry. The bungalow combined the cozy appeal of Arts and Crafts design with what became the basic principles of 20th-century house architecture:...