Early Americana

The Latin Casino was a Philadelphia-area nightclub that opened in 1948 at 1309 Walnut Street. Many top entertainers of the day performed there. In 1960, the club moved to Cherry Hill, NJ.

Florida's A1A highway runs from Fernandina Beach at the state's northern tip, all the way down the Atlantic Coast to Key West. The road was designated SR 1 in 1945 when many of Florida's state highways were renumbered. A year later, to avoid confusion...

The Coral Court Motel began welcoming travelers along U.S. Route 66 in Marlborough, MO in 1942. However, when I-44 was completed in the 1960s, the motels fortunes declined. In 1993, after years of neglect, it closed. OS2013

Just as every major city had at least one horror movie host, they also had a children's show host. In the 1960s, in Cleveland, it was Captain Penny, but for kids growing up in the '70s it was Barnaby portrayed by Linn Sheldon. The...

Burger Queen was a popular fast food chain in the Louisville area. It was founded in 1963 and its mascot was Queenie Bee,??? with it's roots going back to 1956 in Winter Haven, FL.??In 1981 it became Druther's Restaurant to reflect a broader menu...

Before the Cincinnati Swords, Stingers, Cyclones, and Mighty Ducks, Cincinnati had the Mohawks. They were a member of the American Hockey League (AHL) from 1949 to 1952, before moving to the International Hockey League (IHL), where they won 5 straight championships. Their home ice was the??Cincinnati...

The 1927 New York, batting lineup, dubbed Murder's Row, featured some of the most fearsome hitters of all time.??

The Frankford Yellow Jackets were a pro football team established in 1899. They played as an independent team until 1924, when they joined the NFL. Their homefield was Frankford Stadium, also known as Yellow Jacket Field, which was located in the Frankford neighborhood near...

The??Pittsburgh Keystones??was the name of two historic professional??Negro league baseball??teams that operated in 1887 and again in 1921 and 1922. The first team was a member of the first black baseball league in 1887, the??League of Colored Baseball Clubs. In 1921 and 1922, the...

Cypress Gardens was a botanical garden and theme park located in Winter Haven, Florida. It opened in 1936 and claimed to be the state's first commercial theme park. It closed in 2009 and was replaced by Legoland Florida. The old botanical gardens were saved...

Founded in 1912 as Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the larger Standard Oil corporation, Esso gas stations were found all over the Northeastern United States and parts of the South starting in the 1930s. In 1972, most were re-branded Exxon....

The??Newark Eagles??were a professional??Negro league baseball??team which played in the??Negro National League??from??1936??to??1948.?? *Product is official licensed by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum??

Montreal Royals?? was the name of two minor league baseball teams that played in Quebec. The first incarnation of the the team played from 1897 until 1917. In 1928, the team was??resurrected and joined the International League. They are best remembered as the team...

Roselyn Bakery??was a bakery chain founded in 1943 that distributed products from a central baking??Indianapolis.??The chain consisted of approximately 40 locations in and around central??Indiana and??was known for popular treats such as Sweetheart Coffee Cake, Zebra Square Brownies, and Blackout Cake.

The Providence Reds (also known as the Rhode Island Reds) started in the Canadian-American Hockey League in 1926. They continued with that circuit when it became the American Hockey League in 1936. In 1976, they became the Rhode Island Reds, before moving to Binghamton,...

The Black Cat Bar, also known as the Black Cat Cafe, was a popular counter-culture hangout in the 1950s and early 1960s in San Francisco. It first opened in 1903, closing in 1921. It re-opened in 1933 and operated until 1963.

The Big Dipper was the classic coaster at Geauga Lake amusement park. Built in 1925 as the Sky Rocket, it was designed by famous coaster designer John A. Miller. It became the Clipper in 1947 with the name changed to the Big Dipper in...

Jackie Robinson best known for breaking the color barrier in the modern era of baseball, but fans of the sport also recognize his extra ordinary talent. After playing for the Negro American League's Kansas City Monarchs in 1945, he was signed by Brooklyn and...

The Pittsburgh Crawfords, also known as the Craws, were a professional Negro league baseball team that played from 1931-1940. They were named after the Crawford Bath House, a recreation center in the Crawford neighborhood of Pittsburgh's Hill District. After playing in several different leagues,...

A fondly remembered supermarket chain in Cleveland, the origin of Pick-N-Pay can be traced to 1928 and the opening Edward Silverberg's Cleveland Heights dairy store. In 1938, he opened a supermarket on E. 185th Street which he called Pick-N-Pay. In 1940, he changed the...

The Los Angeles Bulldogs were formed in 1936 with hopes of joining the National Football League. When their efforts were rebuffed, they played as in independent team before joining the rival American Football League (II) for the 1937 season. They proceeded to run the...

Founded in 1959, A&B Sound??was a??home electronics retailer based in Vancouver.??Its flagship store was downtown. Over the years, it??expanded to other cities in B.C. and western Canada, but the company began struggling in the early 2000s and went out of business in 2008.

Sno-White Dounts was established in 1957 by Nelson Paul, a former executive at the Donut Corporation of America, who left his corporate position and moved to Cleveland to become an entrepreneur. Sno-White grew into a chain that had over 200 locations at its peak.

The Indianapolis Clowns a professional baseball team in the Negro American League. They came to Indianapolis in 1946 after stints in Cincinnati, Miami, and as a barnstorming team. They left the Negro American League in 1954 but continued to play exhibition games into the...

Before major league baseball arrived in Milwaukee in 1953, the city hosted a team in the American Association (AA) starting in 1902.?? A minor league, the AA became an A level circuit in 1903. In 1912, it was designated AA and in 1945, it??...

Chavez Ravine was chosen as the home of the relocated Dodgers in the late 1950s.

Electric Park was the name used for two amusement parks in Kansas City. The first opened in 1899 while the second, larger version began welcoming visitors in 1907 and lasted until 1925 when it was destroyed by a late night fire. Young Walt Disney...

"Baseball is played in a park. Football is played in a stadium. War Memorial Stadium." - George Carlin. Buffalo's iconic venue opened in opened in 1937 as??Roesch Memorial Stadium, the venue was later known as??Grover Cleveland Stadium??and??Civic Stadium.??Too most in Western New York, though,...

It took some convincing, but in 1935 the Cincinnati Reds convinced Major League Baseball to allow night baseball in order to draw more fans.??President??Franklin D. Roosevelt, sitting in the White House in Washington, D.C., threw the switch??that lit up Crosley Field on May 24,...

Richter's Wieners were a popular brand of hot dog in the 1930s and were available until after World War II.