Dictionary Definition
Scranton n : an industrial city of northeastern
Pennsylvania
Extensive Definition
The City of Scranton is the county seat
of
Lackawanna County in Northeastern
Pennsylvania,
USA. As of
the
2000 census, the city had a total population of 76,415 (2003
estimate: 74,320) (2006 estimate: 72,861). After Philadelphia,
Pittsburgh,
Allentown,
Erie,
and Reading,
Scranton is Pennsylvania's
sixth 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.
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.Industrial foundations 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 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 1847, brothers Seldon T. and George W. Scranton began producing iron T-rails 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 1957The 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. 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. The former DL&W train station is restored as the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel. The Electric City Trolley Museum was created next to the DL&W yards that "Steamtown" occupies. 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."
Geography
Scranton is located at (41.410629, -75.667411). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 25.4 square miles (65.9 km²). The city has 25.2 square miles (65.3 km²) of land and 0.2 square miles (0.5 km²) of water. The total area is 0.83% water.The elevation of "Center City" is approximately
750 feet (229 m) above sea level. Generally, the city is hilly,
with its inhabited portions ranging approximately from 650 feet
(220 m) to 1400 feet (425 m). The city is flanked by mountains to
the east and west whose elevations range from 1900 feet (580 m) to
2100 feet (640 m).
Neighborhoods
Scranton is broken up into four major sections: West Side, South Side, the Hill Section and North Scranton. Two major subsets are Green Ridge, an area two miles from downtown Scranton between the Hill Section and North Scranton, and Minooka, in the southwest part of South Scranton, bordering on neighboring boroughs Taylor and Moosic. The Hill Section is located in the eastern part of the city. Other sections include: East Mountain, an off shoot of South Scranton; West Mountain, an off shoot of West Side; Tripp Park, a small area located between West Scranton and North Scranton; the Plot, a flood prone neighborhood at the foot of the hills of Green Ridge; Bull’s Head, a largely Portuguese and Italian neighborhood between North and West Scranton; Pine Brook which is between downtown Scranton and Green Ridge, and Bellevue, a section bridging lower North Scranton, West Scranton, and South Scranton. Green Ridge is known to be the wealthiest of the neighborhoods. It is in Green Ridge and the Hill Section that the mansions built by former coal barons still stand. As with most cities and neighborhoods, boundaries can be ambiguous and are not always uniformly defined.Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 76,415 people, 31,303 households, and 18,124 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,029.2 per square mile (1,169.4/km²). There were 35,336 housing units at an average density of 1,400.8 per square mile (540.8/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 93.54% White, 3.02% African American, 0.11% Native American, 1.08% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.16% from other races, and 1.07% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race make up 2.62% of the population.There were 31,303 households out of which 24.4%
had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.8% were
married
couples living together, 13.8% had a female householder with no
husband present, and 42.1% were non-families. The city had 36.7% of
its households with single occupancy and 18.1% whose individual was
aged at least 65. The average household size was 2.29 and the
average family size was 3.01.
The population's age is distributed with 20.8%
under 18, 12.3% from 18 to 24, 25.5% from 25 to 44, 21.2% from 45
to 64, and 20.1% at least 65. The median age was 39. For every 100
females there were 87.0 males. For every 100 females aged at least
18, there were 83.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was
$28,805, and the median income for a family was $41,642. Males had
a median income of $30,829 versus $21,858 for females. The per
capita income for the city was $16,174. Found below the
poverty
line are 15.0% of the population, 10.7% of families, 18.9% of
those under age 18 and 12.0% of those at least age 65.
Ancestries: Irish
(30.3%), Italian
(19.4%), German (15.7%),
Polish
(14.8%), Welsh
(6.9%), English
(5.8%) (City-Data.com).
Scranton has a notably large Irish
American population. According to the census of 2000, over 30%
of the total population reported Irish ancestry, which is the
highest percentage of Irish ancestry for a city of this size.
The local dialect of American
English is "Northeast
Pennsylvania English", at least for the older generations of
Scranton residents.
As of the 2006 American Community Survey the
average family size is 2.95. Of the population that's 25 years old
and over 83.3% of them have graduated from High School. 18.7% of
them have a Bachelor's
degree or higher. In labor force (population 16 years and over)
57.6% of them work. The per
capita income (in 2006 inflation-adjusted dollars) is
17.187.
Public Safety
Fire Service
Incorporated as a paid service in 1901, the Scranton Fire Department services the city 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The fire department is a full-time service consisting of approximately 140 firefighters. Scranton's Fire Headquarters is located on Mulberry Street in Central City. The fire department also has stations in the city's South Side, the Pinebrook section, West Side, North Scranton, Bull's Head, the Petersburg section and on East Mountain.Police
The Scranton Police Patrol Division is broken down into three shifts. Each shift has a minimum of 26 officers. Police headquarters is located on South Washington Avenue near the border between downtown Scranton and the city's South Side. Special Units include Arson Investigations, Auto Theft Task Force, Child Abuse Investigation, Crime Scene Investigation, Criminal Investigation, Juvenile Unit, Special Investigations Unit, Canine Unit, Community Development and Highway Unit.Emergency Medical Services
Emergency medical services are provided by two private companies, Community Life Support and Lackawanna Ambulance. The city requires that only Advanced Life Support units respond to emergencies, which include a crew of a Paramedic and an EMT. Ambulances are dispatched by an advanced GPS system which allows the 911 dispatcher to send the closest ambulance to the scene of the emergency.Culture
Media
The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area is the 54th largest television market in the United States. Local television stations include WNEP, an ABC affiliate, WBRE, an NBC affiliate, WYOU, a CBS affiliate, WVIA, a PBS affiliate, WOLF, a FOX affiliate and WSWB, a CW affiliate. Additionally, local government and public access programming is aired on Comcast cable channels 61 and 62.Scranton is headquarters of
Times-Shamrock Communications, which publishes the city's major
newspaper,
The Times-Tribune, a Pulitzer
Prize winning broadsheet daily founded in 1870. Times-Shamrock
also publishes Electric City, a weekly entertainment tabloid and
The
Citizens' Voice, a daily tabloid based in Wilkes-Barre.
The
Times Leader is a daily paper that primarily covers
Wilkes-Barre, but also publishes in Scranton and the Weekender is a
Wilkes-Barre based entertainment tabloid with distribution in
Scranton. There are also several other print publications with a
more narrow focus, including the Union News, La Voz Latina,
Melanian News and the Antenna, an arts and culture zine.
Scranton's radio market is ranked #70 by Arbitron's ranking
system. The following boxes contain all the radio stations in the
area:
Sports
Scranton has a long history of supporting professional sports, dating back to the late 19th century when minor league baseball first came to the area. The Scranton Indians were the cities first professional baseball team and began play in 1887. The city was host to minor league baseball teams in the Pennsylvania State League, Eastern League, Atlantic League, New York State League, New York-Pennsylvania League. Currently the city is home of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees. The Yankees play their home games at PNC Field.In other sports, the Empire
Football League's Scranton Eagles are the league's most
dominant team, having won 11 championships. The af2
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers, who play at
Wachovia Arena in Wilkes-Barre
have made the playoffs for 4 years straight and contended for the
Arena
Cup in 2007. The North East Pennsylvania Miners of the
North American Football League have recently started play in
the area. Syracuse
men's basketball coach, Jim Boeheim
played professional basketball in Scranton before his career as a
coach. The city's former basketball teams include the Scranton
Apollos and the Scranton Miners. Hockey came to the area in 1999
when the
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins began play at the Wachovia
Arena. The team has since won conference championships in 2001 and
2004.
Landmarks and attractions
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 Museum preserves 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 annual novena 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.
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. Over 8,000 people
participate on the Saturday before Saint
Patrick's Day including 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 Steamtown
Marathon has been held each October since 1996 and finishes in
downtown Scranton. Nay Aug park 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
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 from James 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.
Scranton in popular culture
The city has made numerous appearances in popular culture, notably as the setting of current NBC sitcom The Office. Video of the city filmed by cast member John Krasinski's friends is featured in the opening theme. The program makes frequent references to actual attributes of Scranton and the surrounding area, including the Mall at Steamtown, Farley's Pub, Poor Richard's Pub, Montage Mountain, The Scranton Anthracite Museum, and Lake Wallenpaupack. In a February 2006 episode, Steve Carell's character Michael Scott describes New York City as "Scranton on acid. No, on speed. No, on steroids." In a November 2006 episode called "The Merger", Scott creates an orientation video titled "Lazy Scranton" (a parody of "Lazy Sunday") in which he highlights many popular Scranton attractions. Also many local items are placed around the office like a quilt with the University of Scranton's logo on it, a Froggy 101 bumper sticker (local radio), and bobble head dolls from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons.The city also served as the setting of the 1973
Pulitzer
Prize- and Tony
Award-winning play
That Championship Season by Jason
Miller was based on the fictional lives of Scranton's 1957
state basketball champions. Miller wrote and directed the 1982
screenplay in which all exterior scenes were filmed in Scranton at
his insistence.
Scranton has also been referenced in a cartoon in
a May 2005 issue of The New
Yorker, on the Travel Channel's Magic Road Trip program
featured the city's Houdini
Museum as one of the world's top magic attractions, in Harry
Chapin's 1974 song "30,000
Pounds of Bananas," which dramatizes the wreck of a truck
carrying bananas on March 26,
1965 just
outside downtown Scranton, the city is also the subject of George
Inness's 1855 painting the
"Lackawanna Valley", which now hangs in the National
Gallery of Art in Washington,
DC.
Transportation
The main highways that service Scranton are Interstate 81, which runs north to Binghamton, New York and Ontario and south to Harrisburg and Tennessee; Interstate 84, which runs east to Milford and New England; Interstate 380, which runs south to Mount Pocono and Interstate 80 east to New York City; Interstate 476/Pennsylvania Turnpike Northeast Extension, which runs south to Allentown and Philadelphia; U.S. Route 6, which runs east to Carbondale and parallel to I-84 to New England and west to Erie; and U.S. Route 11, which runs parallel to I-81.Scranton's provider of public transportation is
the County of Lackawanna Transit
System (COLTS). COLTS buses provide extensive service within
the city and more limited service that reaches in all directions to
Carbondale,
Daleville, Pittston, and
Fleetville.
The
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport is located in
nearby Avoca.
The airport is serviced
by Continental,
Delta,
Northwest,
United,
and US
Airways.
Martz Trailways and Greyhound
Lines provide coach bus transportation from its downtown
station to New York City, Philadelphia and other points in the
northeast.
Private operators such as Posten Taxi and
McCarthy Flowered Cabs service the Scranton area. They are hired by
telephone through central dispatch and cannot be hailed on the
street as in larger cities.
Railroads
Rail transportation plays an important part in the city's history and continues to have an impact today. The Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Rail Authority is a bi-county creation of both Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania and Monroe County, Pennsylvania to oversee the use of common rail freight lines in Northeastern Pennsylvania, including one formerly owned by Conrail running from Scranton, through the Pocono Mountains towards New Jersey and the New York City market. One of its primary objectives is to re-establish rail passenger service via New Jersey Transit between Scranton and Hoboken, New Jersey by way of the New Jersey Cut-Off, with connecting service into Manhattan, New York.The Canadian
Pacific Railway (Delaware and Hudson division) operates the
former
DL&W line between Scranton and Binghamton, with frequent
through trains often jointly operated with Norfolk
Southern Railway. The
Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad services the
former DL&W Keyser Valley branch in the city.
The Delaware-Lackawanna
Railroad, as designated operator of county-owned rail lines,
oversees the former Delaware and Hudson line from Scranton north to
Carbondale, the former
DL&W line east to the Delaware
Water Gap and the former
Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad third-rail interurban
streetcar line south to Montage Mountain, Moosic. These are
the lines hosting the seasonal passenger trains of both the
Steamtown National Historic Site and the
Electric City Trolley Museum and now under the jurisdiction of
the new Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Rail Authority.
Education
The city's public school's are operated by the Scranton School District. The school district operates the two public high schools in the city, Scranton High School and West Scranton High School. Almost 10,000 students are taught in the city's public schools. The city's other high schools are Holy Cross High School which is operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton and Scranton Preparatory School, a private Jesuit school. The Pennsylvania Depart of Education provides oversight for the Scranton State School for the Deaf.With regards to colleges and universities,
Lackawanna
College, Marywood
University, the University
of Scranton and Johnson
College all make the city their home. Penn State
operates a
satellite campus in the suburb of Dunmore.
The Lackawanna County Library System administers
the libraries in Scranton, including the Albright Memorial Library and the
Lackawanna County Children's Library. As of 2005, Scranton
libraries serve a population of more than 120,000 people and have a
circulation of over 624,000.
Notable natives and residents
Famous politicians from Scranton include Joseph Biden, Lisa Caputo, Frank Carlucci, Robert P. Casey, Robert P. Casey, Jr., Hermann Eilts, Terence V. Powderly, Robert Reich, William Scranton and William Scranton III.In the arts, Scranton has been home to Sonny Burke,
Bob
Degen, Dorothy
Dietrich, Cy Endfield,
Jane
Jacobs, Gloria Jean,
Jean
Kerr, Gershon
Legman, Judy
McGrath, W.S. Merwin,
Jason
Miller, Jay Parini,
Cynthia
Rothrock, Lizabeth
Scott, Ned
Washington and Lauren
Weisberger.
P.J.
Carlesimo, Joe Collins,
Jim
Crowley, Paul
Foytack, Charlie
Gelbert, Cosmo
Iacavazzi, Ralph Lomma,
Gerry
McNamara, Mike Munchak
and brothers Jim and
Steve
O'Neill are among the notable residents who are famous for
their contributions to athletics.
Other famous people who lived in Scranton are
Howard
Gardner, Jeffrey
Bruce Klein, Gino J.
Merli,
Bill O'Reilly, Karen Ann
Quinlan, Hugh
Ellsworth Rodham, Mel Ziegler,
Bishop Robert C.
Morlino, and B.F.
Skinner.
See also
References
External links
Scranton in German: Scranton
(Pennsylvania)
Scranton in French: Scranton
(Pennsylvanie)
Scranton in Interlingua (International Auxiliary
Language Association): Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton in Italian: Scranton
Scranton in Dutch: Scranton (Pennsylvania)
Scranton in Norwegian: Scranton
Scranton in Polish: Scranton (Pensylwania)
Scranton in Portuguese: Scranton
(Pensilvânia)
Scranton in Russian: Скрентон
(Пенсильвания)
Scranton in Swedish: Scranton
Scranton in Ukrainian: Скрентон
Scranton in Volapük: Scranton
(Pennsylvania)
Scranton in Chinese: 斯克蘭頓
(賓夕法尼亞州)