Fort Lee in New Jersey

13 April 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Fort Lee Historic Park © Hudconja/cc-by-sa-3.0

Fort Lee Historic Park © Hudconja/cc-by-sa-3.0

Fort Lee is a borough at the eastern border of Bergen County in New Jersey in the New York City Metropolitan Area, situated atop the Hudson Palisades, with a population 37,000. The borough is the western terminus of the George Washington Bridge and is located across the Hudson River from the Manhattan borough of New York City. Named for the site of an early American Revolutionary War military encampment, it later became the birthplace of the American film industry.   read more…

Kennebunkport in Maine

11 April 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Bush Estate at Walker's Point © flickr.com - John Hoey/cc-by-2.0

Bush Estate at Walker’s Point © flickr.com – John Hoey/cc-by-2.0

Kennebunkport is a town in York County in New England. The population is at 3,500. The town center, the area in and around Dock Square, is located along the Kennebunk River, approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) from the mouth of the river on the Atlantic Ocean. Historically a shipbuilding and fishing village, for well over a century the town has been a popular summer colony and seaside tourist destination. The Dock Square area has a district of souvenir shops, art galleries, seafood restaurants, and bed and breakfasts.   read more…

Chelsea in Manhattan

9 April 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City, Shopping Reading Time:  8 minutes

High Line © flickr.com - Matias Garabedian/cc-by-sa-2.0

High Line © flickr.com – Matias Garabedian/cc-by-sa-2.0

Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The district’s boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south and the Hudson River and West Street to the west, with the northern boundary variously described as 30th Street or 34th Street, and the eastern boundary as either Sixth Avenue or Fifth Avenue. To the north of Chelsea is the neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen, as well as the Hudson Yards; to the northeast is the Garment District; to the east are NoMad and the Flatiron District; to the southwest is the Meatpacking District; and to the south and southeast are the West Village and the remainder of Greenwich Village. It contains the Chelsea Historic District and its extension, which were designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1970 and 1981 respectively. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, and expanded in 1982 to include contiguous blocks containing particularly significant examples of period architecture.   read more…

Portrait: Financier and banker J. P. Morgan

28 March 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  13 minutes

J. P. Morgan © Images of American Political History - Pach Bros.

J. P. Morgan © Images of American Political History – Pach Bros.

John Pierpont Morgan Sr. was an American financier and banker who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation in the United States of America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric. He also played important roles in the formation of the United States Steel Corporation, International Harvester and AT&T. At the height of Morgan’s career during the early twentieth century, he and his partners had financial investments in many large corporations and had significant influence over the nation’s high finance and United States Congress members. He directed the banking coalition that stopped the Panic of 1907. He was the leading financier of the Progressive Era, and his dedication to efficiency and modernization helped transform American business. Adrian Wooldridge characterized Morgan as America’s “greatest banker”. Morgan died in Rome, Italy, in his sleep in 1913 at the age of 75, leaving his fortune and business to his son, John Pierpont Morgan Jr. His fortune was estimated at “only” $80 million, prompting John D. Rockefeller to say: “and to think, he wasn’t even a rich man”.   read more…

Memphis in Tennessee

23 March 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  14 minutes

© Christopher Boyd Jr/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Christopher Boyd Jr/cc-by-sa-3.0

Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of Tennessee and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the fourth Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers. Memphis had a population of 653,000, making it the second largest city in the state of Tennessee. The greater Memphis metropolitan area, including adjacent counties in Mississippi and Arkansas, has a population of 1.4 million. This makes Memphis the second-largest metropolitan area in Tennessee, surpassed by metropolitan Nashville. Memphis is the youngest of Tennessee’s major cities, founded in 1819 as a planned city by a group of wealthy Americans including judge John Overton and future president Andrew Jackson. A resident of Memphis is referred to as a Memphian, and the Memphis region is known, particularly to media outlets, as Memphis and the Mid-South.   read more…

The San Francisco Bay Area

19 March 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  10 minutes

San Francisco Cable Car on California Street © Fred Hsu/cc-by-sa-3.0

San Francisco Cable Car on California Street © Fred Hsu/cc-by-sa-3.0

The San Francisco Bay Area (referred to locally as the Bay Area) is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun estuaries in California. Although the exact boundaries of the region vary depending on the source, the Bay Area is generally accepted to include the nine counties that border the aforementioned estuaries: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma. Other sources may exclude parts of or even entire counties, or include neighboring counties such as San Benito, San Joaquin, and Santa Cruz. Among locals, the nine-county Bay Area can be divided into five sub-regions: the East Bay, North Bay, South Bay, Peninsula, and the city of San Francisco. Although geographically located on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, the city of San Francisco is not considered part of the “Peninsula” subregion, but as a separate entity. San Jose is the largest city in the Bay Area, while San Francisco is clearly the culturally dominant one.   read more…

Holmby Hills in Los Angeles

5 March 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Greater Los Angeles Area Reading Time:  8 minutes

View of Holmby Park © Zigzig20s/cc-by-sa-3.0

View of Holmby Park © Zigzig20s/cc-by-sa-3.0

Holmby Hills is a neighborhood in the district of Westwood in western Los Angeles. The neighborhood was developed in the early twentieth century by the Janss Investment Company, which developed the rest of Westwood as well as other Los Angeles neighborhoods. With the expansion of Sunset Boulevard, Holmby Hills was split into two northern and southern sections, each lying within a different community plan area designated by the City of Los Angeles: The portion south of Sunset Boulevard is the area north of Wilshire Boulevard and east of both Beverly Glen Boulevard and Comstock Avenue, and west of the Los Angeles Country Club; it is located within the Westwood Community Plan Area. The portion north of Sunset is the area east of Beverly Glen Boulevard and west of the city limits of Beverly Hills, with Greendale Drive and Brooklawn Drive as its northernmost streets; it is located within the Bel AirBeverly Crest Community Plan Area, though it is historically distinct from the neighborhoods of both Bel Air and Beverly Crest.   read more…

The Mayflower

1 March 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Tall ships, Museums, Exhibitions, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  16 minutes

Mayflower replica in Plymouth © flickr.com - Paul Keleher/cc-by-2.0

Mayflower replica in Plymouth © flickr.com – Paul Keleher/cc-by-2.0

The Mayflower was an English ship that famously transported the first English Puritans, known today as the Pilgrims, from Plymouth, England to the New World in 1620. There were 102 passengers, and the crew is estimated to have been about 30, but the exact number is unknown. This voyage has become an iconic story in some of the earliest annals of American history, with its story of death and of survival in the harsh New England winter environment. The culmination of the voyage in the signing of the Mayflower Compact was an event which established a rudimentary form of democracy, with each member contributing to the welfare of the community. There was a second ship named Mayflower that made the London to Plymouth, Massachusetts voyage several times.   read more…

Frankenmuth in Michigan

28 February 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Zehnder's © AndrewHorne/cc-by-sa-3.0

Zehnder’s © AndrewHorne/cc-by-sa-3.0

Frankenmuth is a city in Saginaw County in Michigan. The population is at 5,000. The city is located within Frankenmuth Township survey area. Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, which bills itself as “the World’s Largest Christmas Store”, is located in Frankenmuth. The city’s name is a combination of two words. “Franken” represents the Province of Franconia in the Kingdom of Bavaria, home of the Franks, where the original settlers were from. The German word “Mut” means courage; thus, the name Frankenmuth means “courage of the Franconians.” The most popular nickname is “Little Bavaria”, but the city is also nicknamed “Muth”. The strong influence of Franconian-style architecture can be found in most areas of the city. Most buildings in the commercial district, as well as many homes, feature stylistic interpretations of the timber-framed buildings found in the Franconia region of Germany. This style is marked by the use of timbers in “square” and “X” patterns on the outside of buildings, as well as the use of “X” patterns on windows, doors, and other building features.   read more…

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