Country: USA
Distance: 6,715 km
Travel time: 10 days
On postcard: Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton is a city in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, United States. It is the county seat of Lackawanna County and the largest principal city in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area. Scranton had a total population of 76,089 in 2010, according to the United States Census Bureau, making it Pennsylvania's sixth-most-populous city after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, and Reading.
Scranton is the geographic and cultural center of the Lackawanna River valley. It is the largest city located in a contiguous quilt-work of former anthracite coal mining communities including the smaller cities of Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, and Carbondale. Scranton was incorporated as a borough on February 14, 1856, and as a city on April 23, 1866.
Humble beginnings (1776–1845)
Present-day Scranton and the surrounding area had been inhabited by the native Lenape tribe, from whose language "Lackawanna" (or "le-can-hanna", meaning "stream that forks") is derived. Gradually, settlers from New England came to the area in the late 18th century, establishing mills and other small businesses, and their village became known as Slocum Hollow. Isaac Tripp, known as the first settler, built his home here in 1778, which still stands in the Providence section of the city as a testament to this era.
Industrial foundation established: iron, coal and railroads (1846–1899)
Though anthracite coal was being mined in Carbondale to the north and Wilkes-Barre to the south, the industries that precipitated the city's growth were iron and steel. Iron T-rails were first manufactured in America at the Montour Iron Works in Danville, Pennsylvania, on October 8, 1845. Prior to that they were made in England and shipped overseas. In 1840, brothers Selden T. andGeorge W. Scranton founded what would become the Lackawanna Steel Company. The company began producing iron T-rails in 1847 for the Erie Railroad in New York state. Soon after, Scranton became a major producer of these rails. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W) was founded in 1851 by the Scrantons to transport iron and coal products from the Lackawanna valley. The Pennsylvania Coal Company built a gravity railroad here for this purpose as well. In 1856, the Borough of Scranton was officially incorporated and named after its industrious founders. The Delaware and Hudson (D&H) Canal Company, which had its own gravity railroad from Carbondale to Honesdale, built a steam railroad that entered Scranton in 1863.
Scranton was incorporated as a city of 35,000 in 1866 in Luzerne County when the surrounding boroughs of Hyde Park (now part of the city's West Side) and Providence (now part of North Scranton) were merged with Scranton. The city became the county seat of the newly formed Lackawanna County in 1878. The nation's first successful, continuously operating electrified streetcar (trolley) system was established in the city in 1886, giving it the nickname "The Electric City". In the late 1890s Scranton was home to a series of early International League baseball teams. By 1890, three other railroads had built lines to tap into the rich supply of coal in and around the city, including the Erie Railroad, theCentral Railroad of New Jersey and finally the New York, Ontario and Western Railway (NYO&W). Underneath the city, a network of coal veins was mined by workers who were given jobs by the wealthy coal barons with low pay, long hours and unsafe working conditions. Children as young as 8 or 9 worked 14-hour days separating slate from coal in the breakers.
Growth and prosperity (1900–1945)
By the United States Census of 1900, the population of Scranton was about 102,026, making it the 38th largest city in the United States.
The turn of the 20th century saw many beautiful homes of Victorian architecture built in the Hill and Green Ridge sections of the city. In 1901, the dwindling local iron ore supply took the Lackawanna Steel Company away to Lackawanna, New York, where iron ore from Minnesota was more readily available by ships on the Great Lakes. The city lost the industry on which it was founded.
Scranton forged ahead as the center of Pennsylvania's anthracite coal industry. During the first half of the 20th century, it became home to many groups of newly arrived immigrants fromEastern Europe. This patchwork still survives and is represented by the Catholic and Orthodox churches that primarily dot the North Scranton, West Side, and South Side neighborhoods of the city; a substantial Jewish community was established as well. In 1903, an electric interurban railroad known as the Laurel Line was started, and two years later connected to nearby Wilkes-Barre, 20 miles (32 km) to the southwest. Working conditions for miners were improved by the efforts of labor leaders like John Mitchell, who is honored with a statue on the downtown Courthouse Square.
Starting the early 1920s, the Scranton Button Company (founded in 1885 and a major maker of shellac buttons) became one of the primary makers of phonograph records. They pressed records for Emerson (whom they bought in 1924), as well as Regal, Cameo, Romeo, Banner, Domino, Conqueror, and after merging with Regal, Cameo, Banner, and the US branch ofPathe (makers of Pathe and Perfect) in July, 1929, became the American Record Corporation. From that point until 1938, Scranton also added Brunswick, Melotone, and Vocalion to their production schedule. In 1946, the company was acquired by Capitol (who continued to produce Capitol Records through the end of the vinyl era).
By the mid-1930s, the city population had swelled to over 140,000 due to the extensive growth of the mining and silk textile industries. World War II created a great demand for energy, which was satisfied by expanded strip mining operations throughout the area.
The end of an era (1946–1984)
After World War II, coal lost favor to oil and natural gas. While some U.S. cities prospered in the post-war boom, the fortunes and population of Scranton (and the rest of Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties) began to diminish. Coal production and rail traffic declined rapidly throughout the 1950s. In 1952, the Laurel Line ceased passenger service. The Scranton Transit Company, whose trolleys had given the city its nickname, transferred all operations to buses as the 1954 holiday season approached. In 1955, some eastern and southern parts of the city were destroyed by the floods of Hurricane Diane, and 80 lives were lost. The NYO&W Railroad, which depended heavily on its Scranton branch for freight traffic, was abandoned in 1957.
The Knox Mine Disaster of January 1959 all but erased the mining industry in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The event eliminated thousands of jobs as the waters of the Susquehanna River flooded the mines. The DL&W Railroad, nearly bankrupt by the drop in coal traffic and the effects of Hurricane Diane, merged with the Erie Railroad in 1960. Scranton had been the hub of its operations until the Erie Lackawanna merger, when it was no longer needed in this capacity; it was another severe blow to the labor market. Mine subsidence was a spreading problem in the city as pillar supports in abandoned mines began to fail; cave-ins sometimes consumed entire blocks of homes. The area was then scarred by abandoned coal mining structures, strip mines, and massive culm dumps. During the 1960s and 1970s, the silk and other textile industries shrunk as jobs moved south or overseas.
There were some small bright spots during the era. In 1962, businessman Alex Grass opened his first "Thrif D Discount Center" drugstore on Lackawanna Avenue in downtown Scranton. The 17-by-75-foot (5 by 23 m) store, an immediate success, was the progenitor of the Rite Aid drugstore chain.
During the 1970s and 1980s, many downtown storefronts and theaters became vacant as suburban shopping malls became the dominant venues for shopping and entertainment.
Stabilization and restoration (1985–present)
There has been an emphasis on revitalization since the mid-1980s. Local government and much of the community at large have adopted a renewed interest in the city's buildings and history. Aged and empty properties are being redesigned and marketed as tourist attractions. The Steamtown National Historic Site captures the area's once-prominent position in the railroad industry. The former DL&W train station was restored as the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel. The Electric City Trolley Museum was created next to the DL&W yards that the Steamtown NHS occupies. Other attractions responsible for recent popularity and favorable attention to the Scranton area include the Snö Mountain ski resort (formerly Montage Mountain), the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, AHL affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (formerly the Red Barons), AAA affiliate of the New York Yankees, and their PNC Field, and the Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain concert venue.
Landmarks and attractions
The Steamtown National Historic Site showcases steam era railroading that gives visitors tours through Scranton and portions of the Pocono Mountains.
Many of Scranton's attractions celebrate its heritage as an industrial center in iron and coal production as well as its ethnic diversity. The Scranton Iron Furnaces are remnants of the city's founding industry and of the Scranton family's Lackawanna Steel Company. The Steamtown National Historic Site seeks to preserve the history of steam locomotives. The Electric City Trolley Museumpreserves and operates pieces of Pennsylvania streetcar history. The Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour at McDade Park is open for those who desire to learn about the history of mining and railroads in the Scranton area. The tours are conducted inside a part of a former working mine. The DL&W Passenger Station is now a Radisson hotel with dining and banquet and conference facilities called Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel.
Museums in Scranton include the Everhart Museum in Nay Aug Park, which houses a collection of "natural history, science and art" exhibits and the Houdini Museum features films, exhibits, and a stage show. It is housed in a unique, century-old building. Terence Powderly's house, still a private dwelling, is one of the city's many historic buildings and the city's other National Historic Landmark besides Steamtown. Tripp House was built by the Tripp family in 1771 and is the oldest building in the city.
The city's religious history is evident in the Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Ann which draws thousands of pilgrims to its annualnovena and St. Stanislaus Cathedral which is the national seat of the Polish National Catholic Church in North America. The history of the founding of this denomination is intricately tied with Polish immigration to Scranton in the late 19th century.
Since the 1970s, Scranton has been the home to La Festa Italiana, a three day Italian festival, which takes place every Labor Day weekend on the courthouse square. The festival originally took place around Columbus Day, but was moved to Labor Day because of the cold weather that Scranton receives in October.
Scranton's large Irish population is represented in the annual Saint Patrick's Day Parade, first held in 1862. It is organized by the St. Patrick's Day Parade Association of Lackawanna County and is now the nation's fourth largest in attendance and second largest in per capita attendance. Over 8,000 people participate on the Saturday before Saint Patrick's Dayincluding floats, bagpipe players, high school bands and Irish groups. In 2008, crowds estimated as high as 150,000 people congregated downtown for the event.
For recreational opportunities, there is Snö Mountain Ski Resort (formerly called "Montage Mountain"), which rivals the numerous resorts of the Poconos in popularity and offers a relatively comprehensive range of difficulty levels. The 26.2-mile (42.2 km) Steamtown Marathon has been held each October since 1996 and finishes in downtown Scranton. Nay Augpark is the largest of several parks in Scranton and was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Central Park in Manhattan, New York City. The city is the home of Electric Theatre Company, a professional Equity theatre with a nine month season.
The Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain, a partially covered amphitheater seating 17,500, is Scranton's primary concert venue. In the summer months, musical artists ranging fromJames Taylor to Dave Matthews Band perform. Scranton Cultural Center at the Masonic Temple is an impressive piece of architecture which houses several auditoriums and a large ballroom. It plays host to the Northeast Philharmonic, Broadway Theater and other touring performances.
Cooper's Seafood House, formerly the Erie Train Station, has been in business for over sixty years on North Washington Avenue.
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