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Union Cypress Sawmill

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Florida, Brevard County, Melbourne
The Union Cypress Co. was Melbourne’s first big industry, bringing employment, growth and development to the region. Their big cypress/pine sawmill was a three-story, all-steel structure about 50 by 150 feet. Five, 150-horsepower boilers provided power. Its power plant supplied Melbourne’s first electricity. The company’s railway to Deer Park provided the first direct route across the St. Johns River for 80 miles south of Enterprise. Some 40,000 feet of lumber and 45,000 shingles could be produced daily from the cypress/pine holdings of George W. Hopkins, which had a market value over $2 million in 1911. Lumber not used locally was shipped out via the Florida East Coast Railway. The company-owned town of Hopkins had some 69 buildings within its industrial, residential and commercial areas. The big mill burned in August, 1919, and was replaced by a smaller pine mill. Construction of a new cypress mill began in late 1924, but halted after Hopkins died in January, 1925. Foshee Manufacturing Co. leased the now-idle mill and railway in March, 1928, but even with plenty of timber left, had to close in late 1932 due to a declining lumber market in the Great Depression. Less than a handful of original buildings exist today.

(Industry & Commerce • Railroads & Streetcars) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Union Battery Position

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Mississippi, Hinds County, Jackson
Following the surrender of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, Union forces under William T. Sherman pursued Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate army to Jackson and laid siege to the city. North of Jackson, Parke's IX Corps moved astride the Canton Road and placed artillery on this ridge, near the site of the state insane asylum. On July 11-14, the six guns of Batteries L and M, 3rd U.S. Artillery, fired 257 rounds into the city and its defenses. This gun emplacement is one of few intact Civil War site in Jackson.

(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Hostess House

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Texas, Lampasas County, Lampasas
Mineral springs such as nearby Hancock Springs flow into Sulphur Creek, providing Lampasas with waters for recreation and health. The Hancock Springs tract became a fashionable tourist attraction and convention and encampment site in the late 19th century; by the 1880s, Lampasas advertised as “The Saratoga of the South.” In 1911, Dan Culver excavated a large open-air swimming pool in Hancock Park, utilizing spring-fed waters. Charles Baker and L.N. Little bought the property in 1929. Materials from the Texas Baptist Encampment dining hall were used to build the Hostess House south of the pool.

The two-story frame building included a reception hall and changing room for the swimming pool, with an open-air dance platform on the second floor. Local bands and nationally known performers made the venue a popular destination. In 1936, the city of Lampasas bought the park, including the Hostess House. During World War II, the U.S. government leased Hancock Park as a recreation area, called Panther Park, for soldiers stationed at Camp Hood (later Fort Hood). In 1947, a golf course opened to the west and improvements to the Hostess House included a limestone veneer. After additional renovations to park facilities in 1948, Texas Governor Beauford Jester and U.S. Congressman Lyndon Johnson attended a rededication ceremony.

For many years following, the people of Lampasas continued to swim in the pool and attend dances and proms on the second floor. By the 1990s, the building had fallen into disrepair. The city leased the building to the Oran Milo Roberts chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, which coordinated fundraising to renovate and restore the Hostess House and continue its public use.

(Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Hancock Springs Bathhouse

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Texas, Lampasas County, Lampasas
Pioneer settlers began establishing homes near Lampasas Springs and Sulphur Creek in the 1850s. During the middle 19th century, stories of the mineral springs and their curative powers began attracting tourists to Lampasas, which was sometimes called the “Saratoga of the South,” in reference to the famed New York spa community.

The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad extended its line to Lampasas in 1882, making travel to the area easier, and with the rail came capital investors who quickly built hotels and tourist facilities. In 1882, land at this site was sold from the John and George Hancock family to George L. Porter of Harris County who transferred the property to the Lampasas Springs Company. The company built a bathhouse here, creating changing rooms, facilities for hot and cold baths, and bathing pools for men and women. The company also erected the Grand Park Hotel, which was located northwest of the bathhouse. A mule-drawn streetcar connected the bathhouse with the passenger depot on the other side of town.

Sulphur Creek, which is fed by the springs, has flooded several times since construction of the bathhouse, and the roof of the facility was gone by 1920, possibly carried away by floodwaters. However, the limestone walls remained. In 1936, the city purchased the land and used the springs to supply water to the community. The turquoise waters of the pool, now part of a city park, demonstrate Lampasas’ history as a tourist destination. The springs were once the foundation of the economy in Lampasas and are now historical treasures of the community. The city, in an effort to preserve this history, stabilized the remaining bathhouse walls in 2003.

(Man-Made Features • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Hancock Springs

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Texas, Lampasas County, Lampasas
First white settlers in 1850's found Indians using curative waters here. Town was quickly developed around the springs. Stage and freight routes and many cattle drives came this way. The springs took the name of landowner, John Hancock.

On a hill to the north about 1882, promoters of the Santa Fe Railway built a 200-room "Park Hotel," with boardwalk to the springs, bathhouses, many other luxuries. It gained wide fame as South's finest health resort.

Closed in a few years as a hotel, it later housed Centenary College, until it burned in 1895. Area is now a city park.

(Man-Made Features • Railroads & Streetcars • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Richmond Pearson

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North Carolina, Buncombe County, Asheville
Congressman, 1895-1901; U.S. Minister to Persia, 1902-1907, and to Greece and Montenegro, 1907-09. His home, “Richmond Hill,” was ½ mile N.W.

(Notable Persons) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Guildhall Square

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United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, County Londonderry, Derry-Londonderry


The roaring cannon
The city claims Europe's largest collection of cannon whose precise origins can be traced. These are the earliest surviving cannon. Some were shipped over for Sir Henry Docwra's campaign of 1600-3: others were sent to defend the Plantation city. Look for the marks stamped on the cannon - the rose and crown of the Tudor English kings, club and arrow marks, the date '1590' and the initials T.J. for Thomas Johnston, Queen Elizabeth I's gun founder.

'Wish you were here'
Over the centuries visitors have recorded their impressions of the city.

Stately buildings, strong walls and bulwarks. (1643)

The walls of the city, once its strength, are now its ornament and form a delightful mall. (1827)

The ramparts of the town form a pleasant promenade. The guns bear the names of the London Companies - venerable Cockney titles! (1843)

Look where you will and you will see the wall and a peeping cannon. (1930)

Walking the walls is like reliving four centuries of history. (2006)

Feis Doire Colmcille
Since 1924 the city has celebrated its Gaelic culture with a Feis, a festival of song, music, poetry and dance. During Easter week, Guildhall Square is packed with children in their white and saffron, and green and black dance costumes.

A city of horses
A century ago Guildhall Square echoed to the clip clop of hooves and the rumble of wooden and iron wheels. A line of horse-drawn cabs waited for fares alongside the wall. There were regular traffic jams of farmers' hay wagons, open-topped trams, donkey carts and horse-drawn lorries moving goods to and from the docks.

(Arts, Letters, Music • Forts, Castles • Man-Made Features • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Austins Department Store

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United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, County Londonderry, Derry-Londonderry


The World's Oldest
Independent Department Store
———————
Established in 1830
by its founder
Thomas Austin
(1815-1892)

(Industry & Commerce • Man-Made Features) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The News Around Town

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Connecticut, Fairfield County, Danbury

The first newspaper printed in Danbury was called The Farmer’s Journal and the year was 1790.
By 1837, The Danbury Times was churning out a weekly paper on a small wooden press that printed one side of a page at a time. During the Civil War, James Montgomery Bailey, a Danbury native and Union War soldier, was hired to send back dispatches for publication.
Upon his return to Danbury in 1865, Bailey and fellow soldier Timothy Donovan, a printer by trade, bought The Danbury Times. Five years later, the pair acquired the other weekly in town, The Jeffersonian, and merged the two under a new name . . . The Danbury News.
The pair erected a building at 288 Main Street solely for the printing of the paper where a water-powered press was used to print the news of the day.
Bailey devoted most of his energy to writing humorous stories about life in town that were published throughout New England and eventually the world.
The circulation of The Danbury Times grew from 1,900 in early 1873 to 33,000 by 1874. Bailey began writing books, almanacs and traveling the world for lecture tours. He became known as “The Danbury News Man.”
In 1878 Bailey bought out is partner and established a daily newspaper, The Danbury Evening News. James Montgomery Bailey died one year later at the age of 53.
His heirs continued to run the paper until 1927 when competition from the Danbury Times and the Great Depression resulted in another merger that created The Danbury News-Times, the forerunner of today’s News Times.

(Communications) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Higher Education

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Connecticut, Fairfield County, Danbury

Continuing educational opportunities have long been available in Danbury. In the late 1800s, the Stillman’s Business College, at the corner on Main and White Streets, offered classes in penmanship, commercial law and bookkeeping.
The Danbury State Trade School opened in 1914 on Library Place. In 1955, an expansion and relocation to Hayestown Avenue renamed it the Henry Abbott Technical & Vocational School. A combination of academics and vocational training made it a unique addition to our city’s educational offerings. Evening classes are still offered for those looking to expand their knowledge and skill set for numerous trades.
Danbury Hospital’s Nurses Training School began in 1894 with a full class of seven students. For this two-year course applicants needed to be single and between the ages of 20 and 35. Applicants had to possess a good education, perfect health and were required to provide testimonials as to their character.
In 1903, Danbury Normal School was established by an act of the Legislature. It was the state’s fourth normal school for the training of teachers. Built on three acres of land on White Street donated by Alexander M. White, the first class had an enrollment of 41 students.
In 1937, the name was changed to Danbury State Teachers College. Dr. Ruth Haas became the first woman ever to serve as president of a four-year state college in 1946. In 1959, the name changed to Danbury State College to allow for other degrees and, in 1967, it was renamed Western Connecticut State College.
The expansion of programs and increased enrollment led to the construction of a building to house the Ancell School of Business on the 300+ acre Westside campus. Western became a university in 1983 when it was renamed Western Connecticut State University.

(Education) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Danbury Fire Department

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Connecticut, Fairfield County, Danbury

The first reference to a fire department in Danbury can be found in The Republican Journal newspaper printed on November 11, 1793 announcing, “A subscription has been set forward in this town for the purpose of procuring a Fire Engine.”
In 1824 the borough of Danbury appointed its first fire inspectors and five years later a tax was levied to buy two fire engines that led to the formation of the first two fire companies.
The building of the Kohanza reservoirs in 1860 and pipes laid for a city water system encouraged the city to reorganize the department into four companies that were made up of one hundred and ten men; all were volunteers.
Fire alerts depended on word of mouth and the ringing of church bells. Men transported all of the equipment themselves but in 1880 were given permission to use horses “when necessary.”
Pleas for an alarm system had been ignored for years but in 1881 the fire department was authorized to erect a fire tower. A bell connected nine different locations via 125 poles and 9 miles of wiring.
The constant threat of fire to homes and businesses reinforced the need for a steam engine.
Danbury became a city in 1889 and the first paid Fire Chief was hired at a salary of $200 per year. Within the year, a new company, the first hose wagon, two more horses and a ticker tape alarm were also in place.
On January 1, 1890, the city’s first paid fire department was organized. It was formed to operate in conjunction with volunteers – a system still used in Danbury today.

(Government) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Savings Bank of Danbury at Bankers’ Row

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Connecticut, Fairfield County, Danbury

An important aspect of Danbury’s growth as a regional center was the proliferation of banks.
The Savings Bank of Danbury began conducting business in 1849 when George W. Ives set up shop in the Ives homestead on Main Street. As noted by James M. Bailey in his book, The History of Danbury, “A desk in the dining room was the safe and in the absence of the Treasurer, Mrs. Ives received deposits and attended to the business of the bank.”
In 1852.Ives built a small structure on the corner of his property to serve the needs of the bank customers. The main branch of the Savings Bank of Danbury on Main Street was built in 1909, not far from its original location. When George W. Ives died in 1863, every business on Main Street closed down to attend his funeral.
The Union Savings Bank was incorporated by Danbury hat manufacturers and merchants in 1866 and has been located on Main Street since 1887. On the third floor a hall that could seat 500 people was once utilized by the YMCA and later by Danbury High School during the 1890s. It is the only one of the banks, in what was once known as ‘Bankers’ Row, ‘ whose interior had to be modernized after the offices were damaged in a 1970 robbery conducted by the Pardue Brothers.
These landmark institutions have ensured steady growth in the region through community outreach programs offering incentive, accessibility and support. By doing so, they continue to improve the quality of life for Danbury citizens.

(Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

World Wars Memorial

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United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, County Londonderry, Derry-Londonderry


To Our
Honoured Dead
and
Those Who Served
1914 - 1918
1939 - 1945

Names of the Fallen
[Panels not transcribed]

Sculptures by Vernon March, 1926

(Man-Made Features • Patriots & Patriotism • War, World I • War, World II) Includes location, directions, 12 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Shipquay Street

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United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, County Londonderry, Derry-Londonderry


Living above the 'shop'
Many banks and offices started life as 18th and 19th century family houses. The building at the corner of Shipquay Street and Bank Place was both home and place of business for the manager of the Belfast Bank. On 7th December 1888 there was much excitement when the manager's daughter gave birth to a son in one of the bedrooms. The son became the famous 20th century novelist Joyce Cary. Childhood holidays in Inishowen inspired his prize-winning 'House of Children' (1941).

The tragic runaway
In 1759 Shipquay Street witnessed the start of one of Ireland's most romantic tragedies. Eighteen year old Mary Ann Knox of Prehen House had fallen in love with her father's friend, John McNaghten, a gambler twice her age. The couple secretly 'married' in a house on Shipquay Street. Realising that McNaghten was after her dowry rather than her hand, her father planned to remove Mary to Dublin in November, 1761. McNaghten ambushed the coach near Strabane and shot Mary. Whether an accident, a crime of passion or a cold-blooded killing, McNaghten swung for the crime. The hanging had to be carried out twice as the rope broke at the first attempt. He is still known as 'half-hanged McNaghten'.

Measuring up to marriage
In 1828 number 8 Shipquay Street was the scene of a romance with a happier ending when Elizabeth Hester Boyd married Lt Col Thomas Colby (1784-1852). Appointed in 1824 to map Ireland, Colby chose Lough Foyle to establish the 13 kilometer baseline for his survey. His innovative measuring system using three metre long compensation bars was extremely accurate. When the distance was re-calculated using electronic equipment in the 1960s the difference in the two measurements was only 2.5 centimetres. Colby became the first Director of the Ordnance Survey in Ireland.

A steep story
Some people boast that Shipquay Street may be the steepest shopping thoroughfare in Ireland or even in Europe. Its steep slope lies behind the tongue-twister: Shipquay Street is a slippery street to slide on.

(Arts, Letters, Music • Education • Exploration • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Old Stone Arch Bridge

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Illinois, Clark County, Marshall
This Bridge was completed by Army Engineers sometime between 1834 and 1837 as part of the Old National Road, between Cumberland, Maryland and Vandalia, Illinois, was authorized by the enabling act of 1803 and was the Nation's first federally financed highway. The Bridge is a prime example of the Stone-building art and early American Engineering. Stones were precisely cut and fitted together without bond or mortar. Many stone arch bridges were built along the Cumberland Road, but this was the only one is still in use at the time of the marker dedication.

Erected by Clark County Historical Society and the Illinois State Historical Society, 1976

(Bridges & Viaducts • Roads & Vehicles) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Stephen Tyng Mather

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Kentucky, Edmonson County, Mammoth Cave
He laid the foundation of the National Park Service, defining and establishing the policies under which its areas shall be developed and conserved unimpaired for future generations. There will never come an end to the good that he has done.

(Charity & Public Work • Environment) Includes location, directions, 1 photo, GPS coordinates, map.

Gramercy

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Louisiana, Saint James Parish, Gramercy
Incorporated November, 1947, located partly on Indian-French settlement & trading post site. In 1739 much of this area was sold to Joseph Delille Dupart, a Commissioner of Indian Nations under Bienville. Today area is location of various industries.
Sponsored by Stonewall Jackson Chapter No. 1135, United Daughters of the Confederacy

(Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 1 photo, GPS coordinates, map.

The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux

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Minnesota, Nicollet County, near St. Peter

Near this place on July 23, 1851, the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Dakota sold 21 million acres of land to the federal government for $1,665,000—about 7.5 cents per acre. The Dakota, hoping to ensure a future for their children, had little choice but to sign. Besides an annual payment, the treaty promised the Dakota a reservation extending 10 miles on either side of the Minnesota River above the Yellow Medicine River. The U.S. Senate eliminated this reservation before ratifying the treaty. But President Millard Fillmore decided to let the Dakota live on the proposed reservation, until it was needed for white settlement.

A boulder becomes The Boulder In 1914 the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) commemorated the treaty site with this bronze tablet, mounted onto a boulder found near where the document had been signed. Five days before the dedication, the St. Peter Herald enthusiastically reported that the DAR had "succeeded in locating a large boulder, which, at the time of the signing of the treaty, was used to display the presents that had been provided for the Indians." Other writers repeated and embellished the story, and it was soon accepted as accurate. Yet there is no evidence that this or any other boulder played a part in the treaty signing.

Minnesota Historical Society
Traverse des Sioux


(Native Americans) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Foreman Massacre

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West Virginia, Marshall County, McMechen
Near this spot occurred the massacre, by Indians, of Captain William Foreman and Twenty of his men on September 27th, 1777.--•-- This marker erected by Wheeling Chapter
Daughters of the American Revolution.

(Native Americans • War, US Revolutionary • Wars, US Indian) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Forman Massacre

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West Virginia, Marshall County, McMechen
In the "Narrows," September 27, 1777, Capt. Wm. Forman (Foreman) and his Hampshire County troops were ambushed by Indians; 21 were killed. They had joined Fort Henry garrison, located on the Ohio at Wheeling to protect western settlements.

(Man-Made Features • War, US Revolutionary • Wars, US Indian) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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