Ride the trolley up the ridge of Beacon Hill and discover one of South Seattle's most interesting districts. Unique among Seattle neighborhoods, Beacon Hill is a community where immigrants from all over the globe have settled side by side for over 100 years. This new book tells the story of the people and businesses of Beacon Hill in vintage photographs, the majority of which date before World War II. Readers will learn about the immigrants who worked on farms, opened shops, and labored in shipyards, the building of Jefferson Park, as well as the activism and political struggles that shaped...

In the early 20th century, there was no better example of a classic American downtown than Los Angeles. Since World War II, Los Angeles's Historic Core has been "passively preserved," with most of its historic buildings left intact. Recent renovations of the area for residential use and the construction of Disney Hall and the Staples Center are shining a new spotlight on its many pre-1930s Beaux Arts, Art Deco, and Spanish Baroque buildings.

A special Bay light falls on beautiful Benicia, on the north shore of the Carquinez Strait. Two U.S. citizens, Robert Semple and Thomas Larkin, bought the land from Mexican Army General Mariano Vallejo for $100 and the promise to name it for Vallejo s wife in 1847. The next year a customer at Von Pfister s Benicia waterfront store let slip the secret of the gold discovery at Sutter s Mill. Benicia s deep water harbor attracted Pacific Mail and Steamship Company, the first major California industry, the famous Matthew Turner shipyards, tanneries, and the Central Pacific Railroad, which made...

California s Wine Country, its rolling hills studded with ancient oaks and laced with vines. Tourists flock to the charming, historic towns in the Valley of the Moon, from Kenwood in the north to Schellville in the south. The town of Sonoma may be the birthplace of the State of California. Its central plaza, designed as a parade ground by Mexican general Mariano Vallejo and still ringed by mid-19th century buildings, was the site of the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt. Since 1823, when Mission San Francisco Solano, the last link in the long chain of California missions, was established here, to the...

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 daughter, the beautiful Diana, secretly married Hiram Morgan Hill in 1882. Hiram and Diana inherited part of the original ranch, where they built their lovely Villa Mira Monte. Although the Southern Pacific Railroad tried to name the nearby depot Huntington, passengers always asked to stop at...

Jutting northward from the mouth of the Columbia River, the Long Beach Peninsula defines Washington s southwestern coastal geography. The picturesque blend of beach and forest along the river, Willapa Bay, and the Pacific Ocean was home to the Chinook Indians who first settled this region. European and American trade came to this area in the 18th century, opening the way for Lewis and Clark to explore and establish a land route to the Pacific. The region prospered because of its diverse natural resources and thriving fur trade. Today, a vibrant tourist industry fuels the Peninsula s...

It s hard to imagine cows walking up Third Street or sheep on Innes Avenue, yet a large portion of the area known today as Bayview Hunters Point was once extremely rural. Called Butchertown by locals, the neighborhood was a source of much of San Francisco s food. Over the years, it evolved into an interesting combination of residences, businesses, and industries. The area was home to slaughterhouses, tanneries, tallow works, a saddle shop, the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, numerous boat yards including the legendary Allemand Brothers Boat Repair, and the U.S. Naval operations at Hunters Point...

Columbia started life in 1850 when Dr. Thaddeus Hildreth and his brother set up the camp known as Hildreth s Diggins in the lovely Sierra foothills. More than 150 tumultuous years later, Columbia is an amazing example of a true gold rush community frozen in time. But this is no ghost town either the downtown area, with its plank sidewalks, ornate hotels, and saloons, is preserved as a California State Historic Park. The town today is a living, breathing, modern community at peace with both its past and its present. It s easy to imagine characters from the Old West swaggering through these...

A destination for beachgoers for a century, the Manhattan Beach Pier extends 928 feet out over the Pacific with the octagonal Roundhouse situated at the far end. Both the pier and Roundhouse have, through the years, come to symbolize this affluent seaside community. The concept for a pier at its present location can be traced to 1898, when the Potencia Townsite Company acquired the land. The first survey map, recorded in 1902, clearly labeled the object at the end of Center Street (now Manhattan Beach Boulevard) as the Old Iron Pier. The pier has been storm-ravaged, rebuilt, and restored...

At sunset, the San Gabriel Mountains form a rosy sculptural backdrop for Pasadena, a city of stately street trees and lush gardens. Attracted by a paradisiacal climate, health seekers and wealthy Easterners flocked to its resort hotels the Green, the Maryland, the Huntington, the Painter, the Raymond and built grand residences along Orange Grove and Grand Avenues. Scores of commercial and industrial buildings rose downtown, punctuated by public works, civic buildings, schools, and churches that doubled as works of art, like the Colorado Street Bridge, the Christian Science Church, and the...