Help publishing local history book?

ok for a few yrs now i have been in the process of trying to get my first book published. i started writing in 2002, and the manuscript is complete. i looked into getting an agent but decided against it after having no luck...i queried over 10 agents and the ones who responded said that my project as outlined in my pitch did not fit their usual repertoir.

so i started submitting directly to publishing houses myself. i started with Wayne State Press, they sent a very encouraging rejection saying that while my manuscript was impressive and so on, they could not take on the project at this time. i submitted to a couple other smaller publishers, who similarly cited the "current book market" as the reason why they could not take the project on at this time, much the same way the agents i queried had.

indeed the book market these days is as crappy as the construction and auto-making businesses, but dang.

i was precluded from submitting to many other publishing houses by format restrictions such as length, etc. my manuscript is about 160,000 words, and will hopefully contain some photos. i am flexible and am willing to chop parts out of the manuscript, or redo parts within reason.

the subject matter...
this project started out as a paper for a folklore class in college, which my professor urged me to turn into a book. i had written it about the "old Northville Tunnels" at 5 Mile & Sheldon which was a big high school hangout when i was a teen. the institution was actually called the Wayne County Training School [[later known as the Wayne County Child Development Center). my manuscript tells the history of this place from the very beginning in about the year 1919, all the way to present day, and also contains interviews with former residents of the institution, and accounts from people who trespassed there while it was abandoned. it has taken me more than half a decade to bring this project to its present state, and i have visited more than 10 libraries and archives. i also gave two lectures on the topic at the behest of the Northville Historic District Commission.

in spring of 2009 i submitted to U of M Press, and was in contact with a lady there who was quite interested in the manuscript and requested a full-length copy. however i have not heard from her since i sent it last March...i suspect the usual reasons.



so my reason for this post--
is there anyone who knows of any smaller local presses that may be interested in this kind of a project--one that doesnt fit the conventional molds? anyone connected to the publishing industry willing to give advice? i have never been published before, but i have full submission necessities ready to go.

also, please do not suggest Lulu, or self publishing, haha...after much thought i've decided i don't want to go that route. i feel this subject matter is worthy of traditional publishing.:D
thanks