"In this book, Joseph C. Bigott challenges many common assumptions about the origins of modern housing. For example, most studies of this period maintain that the prosperous middle-class housing market produced innovations in housing and community design that filtered down to the lower ranks much later.

The Treaty of Prairie du Chein, which relocated the Potawatomi Indians and other local tribes west of the Mississippi River, created opportunities for settlement along the Des Plaines River. Several families began to farm on land that they purchased from Claude La Framboise, Alexander Robinson, and the State of Illinois. The totality of this land extended from Irving Park Road to Grand Avenue and west to Mannheim Road. The confluence of the first two railroads constructed in this area after the Civil War attracted a developer named Lesser Franklin. The German immigrant purchased and subdivided four farms and subsequently began the configuration of a village. Franklin Park was incorporated in 1892. The succeeding 50 years, showcased by two world wars and the Great Depression, shaped this town into the fourth-largest industrial community in Illinois, a title it still holds today.

2011 Selection for the Amelia Bloomer Project. From the time she was a girl growing up in the shadow of Lexington Park in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Toni Stone knew she wanted to play professional baseball. There was only one problem--every card was stacked against her. Curveball tells the inspiring story of baseball's "female Jackie Robinson," a woman whose ambition, courage, and raw talent propelled her from ragtag teams barnstorming across the Dakotas to playing in front of large crowds at Yankee Stadium. Toni Stone was the first woman to play professional baseball on men's teams. After Robinson integrated the major leagues and other black players slowly began to follow, Stone seized an unprecedented opportunity to play professional baseball in the Negro League. She replaced Hank Aaron as the star infielder for the Indianapolis Clowns and later signed with the legendary Kansas City Monarchs. Playing alongside some of the premier athletes of all time including Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, Buck O'Neil, and Satchel Paige, Toni let her talent speak for itself. Curveball chronicles Toni Stone's remarkable career facing down not only fastballs, but jeers, sabotage, and Jim Crow America as well. Her story reveals how far passion, pride, and determination can take one person in pursuit of a dream.

Hyde Park, located on Westport's outskirts south of early Kansas City, was the first stop on the long trek down the Santa Fe Trail. Good pasture and a natural cave spring were early attributes. During the real estate boom of the 1880s, the area was platted, but the crash of 1888 intervened, and only a few houses were built. By 1900, with the recovery of the economy and the development of Janssen Place as a private street, the area became the preferred community for Kansas City's wealthy. The architectural style is Queen Anne, Prairie School, Neo-Georgian, Colonial Revival, Kansas City Shirtwaist, and Shingle. These homes glitter with original brass fixtures, lead and stained-glass windows, and oak, mahogany, and walnut interiors. Some of Kansas City's most famous and notorious have lived in Hyde Park, from wealthy businessmen and entertainment stars to serial killers.

The quaint and quirky corner of Kansas City known as Waldo has earned its reputation the hard way through good times and bad since 1841. From its early days as a way station on the Santa Fe Trail, through the dark times in the path of a civil war, from the railroad boom to the Great Depression and right on into the challenges of the modern community, the merchants of in Waldo have played a unique and fascinating role in rooting and nurturing this special, yet very familiar place. Their stories the people, the landmarks, and the special times together make the Waldo Story.