15 moments in the archive
History happens in moments. A furnace fires successfully and an industry is born. A mine floods and twelve men never come home. Workers walk off the job; strikebreakers arrive by rail. A president visits, a fire spreads, a company closes its doors.
These are the turning points, the before-and-after dates that Scrantonians carried in memory and passed to their children.
founding
1840
In 1840, George and Selden Scranton arrived in a five-house hamlet called Slocum’s Hollow to establish an iron …
construction
1841
In the autumn of 1841, a small group of New Jersey investors completed a blast furnace along Roaring Brook in a …
founding
1853-03-11
On March 11, 1853, the Lackawanna & Western Railroad and the Delaware & Cobb’s Gap Railroad merged to form …
founding
1856
In 1856, Thomas Dickson and his partners relocated their machine shop from Carbondale to Scranton at the urging of …
strike
1868
Between 1868 and 1876, roughly 20,000 miners across Pennsylvania’s anthracite region waged a series of strikes …
milestone
1868
By 1868, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad’s Coal Department had mined and shipped a cumulative two …
disaster
1869-09-06
On September 6, 1869, fire destroyed the sole shaft exit at Avondale Colliery in Plymouth Township, trapping and killing …
milestone
1880
Between 1880 and 1886, Scranton raced from its first electric light bulb at Dickson Locomotive Works to the …
milestone
1886-11-30
On November 30, 1886, Scranton Suburban Railway’s Car No. 4 carried its first paying passengers on a 2.5-mile …
disaster
1897-10-30
On October 30, 1897, fire broke out in the River Slope of the Delaware and Hudson Company’s Von Storch mine in …
strike
1902-05-12
The 163-day anthracite coal strike of 1902 shut down northeastern Pennsylvania’s mines and became the first labor …
milestone
1954-12-18
On December 18, 1954, motorman George Miller operated the last run of Scranton’s Green Ridge Suburban trolley …
milestone
1960-10-17
On October 17, 1960, the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad merged to form the …
founding
1971
In 1971, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission created the Anthracite Museum Complex, linking four sites …
founding
1985
In 1985, the former Continental No. 190 Slope in McDade Park reopened as the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour, sending visitors …