USA Vacations

Pennsylvania Vacations

Allegheny Portage Railroad

Allentown

Altoona

Bethlehem

Erie

Gettysburg

Harrisburg

Lancaster

Philadelphia

Pittsburgh

Scranton

Scranton, Pennslyvania Vacations, Scranton Luxury Hotels, Tours and Travel Packages

The City of Scranton is the county seat of Lackawanna County in Northeastern Pennsylvania. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 76,415 (2007 estimate: 72,485). After Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Reading, and Bethlehem, Scranton is Pennsylvania's seventh most populous city.

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.

Scranton History

Humble beginnings (1776–1865)
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 1700s, 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.

Though anthracite coal was being mined in Carbondale to the north and Wilkes-Barre to the south, the industry that precipitated the city's growth was iron and steel. Iron T-rails were first manufactured in America at the Montour Iron Works in Danville, Pennsylvania, on October 8, 1845. Prior, they were made in England and shipped overseas. In 1840, brothers Seldon T. and George 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 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 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, the Central Railroad of New Jersey and finally the New York, Ontario and Western Railroad (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 from Eastern 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. In 1903, an electric interurban railroad known as the Laurel Line was started, and two years later connected to nearby Wilkes-Barre, 20 miles southwest. Working conditions for miners were improved by the efforts of labor leaders like John Mitchell, whose is honored with a statue on the downtown Courthouse Square. 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, it became clear that coal was losing favor to other energy sources such as oil and natural gas. In contrast to other cities in the United States that 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 trolleys of the Scranton Transit Company that gave 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 in the area. The NYO&W Railroad, which depended heavily on its Scranton branch for freight traffic, was completely abandoned in 1957

The Knox Mine Disaster of January 1959 all but erased the mining industry in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The event terminated thousands of jobs as the waters of the Susquehanna River flooded the mines.[5][6] 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 also shrunk as jobs moved south or overseas. During the 1970s and 1980s, many of the 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.[7] The former DL&W train station is restored as the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel.[8] The Electric City Trolley Museum was created next to the DL&W yards that "Steamtown" occupies.[9] The two-story Mall at Steamtown was built in 1993 and has advanced the downtown business district's return as a regional shopping destination. Developers and brokers are beginning to descend on dilapidated buildings and vacant lots to further sculpt a new downtown to be characterized by modern and attractive office, residential and retail space. Nay Aug Park has been a particular target for current Mayor Chris Doherty, having seen numerous renovations after many years of disrepair.

In spite of this progress, a 2001 Washington Post Magazine column described Wilkes-Barre as "awful" and Scranton as "awfuler" and named it a contender for the "armpit of America." There has since been an attempt to renew pride among Scrantonians by elected officials. Other attractions responsible for recent popularity and favorable attention to Scranton include the Snö Mountain ski resort (formerly Montage Mountain), the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (formerly the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons), AAA affiliate of the New York Yankees, and their PNC Field, and the Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain concert venue.

In addition, the hit NBC sitcom The Office has brought attention to Scranton, culminating in the Office Convention, and a Washington Post article titled "Scranton, Making All the Dwight Moves.

www.wikipedia.com
www.scrantonpa.gov
www.visitnepa.org

Expert Scranton Vacation Planners

Book your Scranton Vacation or Tour Here