Before rail and steam encroached on the pastoral communities of Monroeville, Pennsylvania, generations of farmers and miners traversed its green earth and burbling creeks. The dawn of the automobile brought unprecedented development, and the sleepy hamlets soon stirred to become the hub of the suburbs. Zandy Dudiak chronicles this fascinating evolution through tales of hardscrabble frontier living, the coming of the railroad and post- World War II prosperity. Dudiak reintroduces characters such as the tenacious tavern keeper Widow Miers and Harold Brown, who trained a generation of aviators on the airfields of Monroeville. Stories of lost amusement parks, the faded stars of the Holiday House and the glory days of the Ice Palace recall a Monroeville from days gone by.