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[graphic header] A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor
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Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor
Text-Only Version

Please note that this text-only version, provided for ease of printing and reading, includes approximately 50 pages and may take up to 15 minutes to print. By clicking on one of these links, you may go directly to a particular text-only section:

Introduction
Welcome Letter
Essay on Delaware & Lehigh Regions
Essay on Canal History
Essay on Scranton
Essay on Establishing the Heritage Corridor
List of Sites
Begin the Tour
Learn More
Credits


Introduction

The National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places, the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (an affiliated area of the National Park Service), the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Steamtown National Historic Site, the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO), and the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions (NAPC) extend their invitation to you to explore the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, featuring historic places in and near eastern Pennsylvania's canal and coal region. Stretching 150 miles from Bristol to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor follows the routes of the Delaware Canal, the Lehigh Navigation System, and the Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad. This travel itinerary explores 47 places listed in the National Register of Historic Places that illustrate the history of this extraordinary 19th-century transportation system--the backbone of the Corridor--mountain railroads, rivers, dams and canals, devised to move anthracite from mine to market.

The anthracite coal industry began here. Because of the industry's unprecedented scale, the Corridor became the scene of numerous technological and commercial innovations that transformed the landscape. The Corridor contains the only historic system of the Industrial Revolution that integrated anthracite mining and resource extraction, canals and railroads, commerce, agriculture, and industry. So efficient was this system that the Delaware and Lehigh Canals were the longest- and last-operated towpath canals in America; commercial navigation continued until 1942.

The Corridor contains scenic rivers, mines and company mining towns, canals and canal towns, railroads, the historic industries nourished by the availability of fuel and transportation, towns and cities that grew around them, and a distinctive social and religious heritage. More than 50 different ethnic groups settled here, including people of Czech, German, Italian, African American, Welsh, and Irish descent. The Corridor includes10 National Historic Landmarks, six National Recreation Trails, two National Natural Landmarks, and hundreds of sites listed in the National Register of Historic Places, as well as seven state parks, three state historical sites, 14 state scenic rivers, and 14 state game lands. Included in the itinerary are nearby historic places in Scranton, Pennsylvania, including one National Historic Landmark, and six National Register of Historic Places sites related to Scranton's history as a transportation hub of eastern Pennsylvania. While outside the Heritage Corridor, Scranton's proximity and rich historic offerings, including Steamtown, with its history of railroad transportation and steam engines and rail cars in use and on exhibit, enrich the visitor's understanding and enjoyment of eastern Pennsylvania's role in the nation's history.

This itinerary focuses on the variety of historic districts, buildings, and structures that comprise the coal and canal region of eastern Pennsylvania. The earliest European settlements are recognized in such places as the Old Waterworks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and the Central Bethlehem Historic District, which tells the story of the Moravians, early German settlers, who founded the town between 1741 and 1844. Washington Crossing State Park honors our first President's crossing of the Delaware River during the Revolutionary War and surprising the British German mercenaries in a desperate hour of the American Revolution. The history of the canal can be seen in such places as the Lehigh Canal, the Delaware Canal, and the Easton Historic District.

The region's 19th-century industrialization can be seen at the Coplay Cement Company Kilns in Coplay, Pennsylvania, where portland cement was produced. The Lehigh Valley Silk Mills in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the Lock Ridge Furnace Complex, in Alburtis, Pennsylvania, and the Grundy Mill Complex in Bristol also reflect the industrialization of the region. History of mining and labor can be found at the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company Furnace and Lackawanna County Courthouse and John Mitchell Monument, both in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Scranton also is home to Steamtown National Historic Site, where the region's rail and train history is told. Visitors can also tour the fascinating buildings of Dr. Henry C. Mercer, which include his tool museum, the Mercer Museum, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, the Moravian Pottery & Tile Works and Fonthill, monuments to the eclectic architectural vision of the man and his legacy. Twentieth-century history is reflected in the Honey Hollow Watershed, where land conservation efforts were put in place to halt the erosion of valuable farm soil, and the Pearl S. Buck or Green Hills Farm (Pearl S. Buck House), where the author of "The Good Earth" lived and wrote.

The Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor offers numerous ways to discover the historic places that played important roles in eastern Pennsylvania's past. Each property features a brief description of the place's significance, color and historic photographs, and public accessibility information. At the bottom of each page the visitor will find a navigation bar containing links to four essays that explain more about the Delaware and Lehigh Regions, Canal History, Scranton and the Railroad, and Establishing the Heritage Corridor. These essays provide historic background, or "contexts," for many of the places included in the itinerary. The itinerary can be viewed online, or printed out if you plan to visit eastern Pennsylvania in person.


Created through a partnership between the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places, the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Steamtown National Historic Site, NCSHPO, and NAPC, the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor is an example of a new and exciting cooperative project. As part of the Department of the Interior's strategy to revitalize communities by promoting public awareness of history and encouraging tourists to visit historic places throughout the nation, the National Register of Historic Places is cooperating with communities, regions and Heritage Areas throughout the United States to create online travel itineraries. Using places listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the itineraries help potential visitors plan their next trip by highlighting the amazing diversity of the country's historic places and supplying accessibility information for each featured site. In the Learn More section, the itineraries link to regional and local web sites that provide visitors with further information regarding cultural events, special activities, lodging and dining possibilities as well as histories of the region, should they want to explore further. Visitors may be interested in Historic Hotels of America, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, located in the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor.

The Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor is the eighth of more than 30 organizations working directly with the National Register of Historic Places to create travel itineraries. Additional itineraries will debut online in the future. The National Register of Historic Places, the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and the staff at the Steamtown National Historic Site hope you enjoy this virtual travel itinerary of eastern Pennsylvania's historic places. If you have comments or questions, please just click on the provided e-mail address, "comments or questions" located at the bottom of each page.

Welcome Letter

The Delaware & Lehigh National and State Heritage Corridor is a reservoir of natural, cultural, historic, recreational and economic resources that embrace our heritage. Scenic rivers, historic canals and towns, mountains, green valleys, natural and man-made recreation areas, the footprints of early industries, even a distinctive social and religious heritage - are the physical essence of the Corridor. We, the residents, are beginning to realize that our surroundings, both built and natural alike, have an immediate and continuing effect on the way we feel and act, our health and our intelligence. These places affect our sense of self, our sense of safety, the kind of work we do, the ways we interact with other people - even our ability to function as citizens within a democracy.

If our rivers and streams could speak, they would tell us that we, who were drawn here to their banks, are our own greatest resource. As stewards of our heritage, we must build our future by respecting our heritage. Improving our future is preserving our "Sense of Place" and our roots while building a sustainable yet respectful future.

We are proud of our homes, communities, waterways, parklands and heritage. Slow down your pace, sit a spell and let us tell you our stories, one by one, place by place. Welcome to our homeland.

Don Bernhard
Chair, Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Commission
2001

Delaware and Lehigh Regions

Pennsylvania was first inhabited as early as 12,000 years ago by bands of Native Americans who were cold-adapted, highly-mobile nomadic hunters from Trans-Siberia. By the time of European contact, Susquehannock Indians, an Iroquoian-speaking group who split from the main body of the Iroquis had migrated to this region of Pennsylvania, and established semi-permanent agricultural villages. The Susquehannock subsistence was a combination of seasonal farming, hunting, fishing, collecting wild forest products, and fresh water mollusks. European settlers first journeyed to the southern region of the Delaware River Valley and what is now Bucks County at the end of the 17th century. When William Penn arrived in the colony of Pennsylvania, he maintained a friendly and peaceful policy towards the Native Americans. The "Great Treaty" of Shackamaxon was Penn's most famous treaty with them, and according to Voltaire it was "the only treaty never sworn to and never broken." Penn's policy of dealing fairly with the region's native peoples protected European settlers from hostilities during his lifetime and after, until 1755. By then, the growing number of English colonists arriving on the eastern seaboard had alarmed the native peoples, many of whom allied with the French for survival of their ancestral lands. After Pontiac's War (1763) and the French and Indian War, Pennsylvania was largely secure for further European colonization.

Penn's 1690 promise of religious toleration brought thousands of people seeking both religious and economic freedom to the new province of Pennsylvania. English and Welsh members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, arrived at the port of Philadelphia and claimed allotments in lower and central Bucks County, clearing the forest and establishing farms on the rich soil. Their meeting houses are still found in many of the towns in the region. Their farm buildings, built of local stone, followed traditional English models. German immigrants, in search of lives free from war and servitude, were also attracted to Pennsylvania. They traveled up the Schuylkill and Perkiomen Valleys to settle in upper Bucks County, where they soon outnumbered the Quakers. The village names of Reigelsville, Kintnersville, and Uhlerstown testify to the origins of their founders.

The elements that influenced the Delaware Valley's development--the Delaware River, the canal, the steep hillsides of the river valley, the fertile soils, and its agricultural heritage--are still visible throughout the county. Above the fall line, development of towns was limited. Tributary streams of the Delaware River fell sharply from the highlands down into the valley. Gristmills and sawmills were built to exploit the water power, serving local farmers in the largely rural economy. Along the upper reaches of the Delaware Canal, between Easton and New Hope, the River Road connects a string of historic villages, separated by steep and sometimes sheer hemlock-covered hillsides, which force the road and canal to the river's edge.

Just south of New Hope, the River Road and the canal pass through the northern part of Washington Crossing State Park, where an early farm is preserved. Taylorsville is the location of the southern part of Washington Crossing State Park. Here George Washington and 2,400 troops crossed the ice-choked Delaware River to make a successful surprise raid on the Hessian soldiers at Trenton on Christmas Eve 1776. At Morrisville the canal leaves the last hill of the Piedmont behind and enters the level Coastal Plain, locale of the earliest settlements in the county. Historic Fallsington is a restoration of a Quaker village of three centuries ago. Nearby is Pennsbury, a reconstruction of William Penn's 1683 county seat, which includes the service buildings, orchards, and gardens that made the plantation self-sufficient.

The Quaker town of Bristol was established in 1697 as a market town for the county. A location was chosen just below the head of navigation on the Delaware River, and Bristol quickly grew into an important commercial and ship-building center. The county seat of Doylestown,10 miles inland, is a showcase of Federal and Victorian architecture. Henry C. Mercer recognized that industrialization was fast eliminating traditional crafts and ways of work and began assembling what is now the nation's most comprehensive collection of early American tools, housed in the Mercer Museum. This building and nearby Fonthill, a National Historic Landmark, which was Mercer's home, are early experiments in the use of poured concrete. Mercer was also fascinated by tile making, and built the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, which continues to produce his designs, based on themes from mythology, fable, and nature. Nearby, in the rehabilitated jailhouse, the James Michener Museum exhibits the works of important American artists.

As late as the 19th century, few of the Delaware River Valley villages had outgrown their agricultural roots. Unlike the neighboring Lehigh Valley, the area's resources never fostered industrial development. Even today it is primarily known for its scenic, natural and agricultural landscape and well-preserved historic towns. The Delaware Canal provided the first easy access to markets for the valley farmers and the people of the river villages. Locktenders' houses, stores, inns, and warehouses were established to serve the canal traffic. Camelback bridges traverse the canal. Today the canal and towpath, a National Historic Landmark, are preserved by the Delaware Canal State Park, and the River Road, which parallels the canal from Morrisville to Easton, provide the link to 300 years of history.

The lower Lehigh River Valley, between Blue Mountain and South Mountain, was first settled in the 1720s by German immigrants. They were soon followed by the Scotch-Irish, who built their houses near Catasauqua, and by the English, who settled near Easton. Missionaries of the Moravian Church, who had immigrated from what is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia, came here in 1740. They founded the towns of Nazareth, Emmaus, and Bethlehem, as well as a number of missions on the frontier. Also, in the mid-18th century, settlers from Connecticut migrated into northeastern Pennsylvania, intent on establishing a colony of their own. The town of Wilkes-Barre reflects their distinctive influence: it was laid out in a New England pattern with a town square and a river common along the Susquehanna.

The geological history of the Lehigh Valley formed the coal which fueled the region's economic boom starting in the 19th century. With the exception of small regions in Colorado and New Mexico, Pennsylvania contains the only anthracite coal regions found in the United States. Productive soils, vast mineral deposits, and the Lehigh Canal created this region's landscape of farms, early industries, and historic towns. Iron-making was one of Pennsylvania's earliest and most important industries, and talented iron masters became powerful and wealthy. The George Taylor House, a National Historic Landmark, overlooking the Lehigh River in Catasauqua, was the magnificent 18th-century summer residence of the Master of Durham Furnace and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. White and Hazard's Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company took an active role in the development of the valley by selling water power and providing incentives for the use of anthracite. A tremendous boom came after 1840 when the first commercially successful anthracite-fueled blast furnace for iron smelting went into production at Catasauqua. Canal-borne fuel and new technological developments freed entrepreneurs from rural furnace locations. Forges and factories began to be built in the growing towns along the canal, particularly in Easton. Ironmaking of the 19th century is interpreted at the Lock Ridge Furnace Complex in Alburtis. Until 1885 the Lehigh Valley was the most productive iron-making region in America.

Bethlehem is the oldest of the valley's three cities and strongly displays its origin as the settlement of Moravian missionaries. A communal way of living and working called the Economy was established, in which each member was assigned the craft or position for which he or she had the most talent. Men and women lived separately in large stone and square-timbered dormitories, which remain. Produce and high-quality manufactures supported the towns and the mission settlements. The experiment ended by 1762. The Gemeinhaus is the town's oldest building and is typical of the carefully built 18th-century stone buildings lining the streets of the historic district. The Moravian Sun Inn has been restored and is once again being used as a hotel. A 10-acre 18th-century industrial complex is now being restored along Monocacy Creek. The Bethlehem Steel plant extends for several miles along the Lehigh River. Although the plant is not open to the public, a drive along 3rd Street reveals the massive scale of this most powerful of industries.

Easton was founded at the Forks of the Delaware in 1752 by Thomas Penn, a son of William Penn. Following Penn's innovative concepts of town planning, as exemplified in Philadelphia, Thomas laid out the town in a grid around a "great square." From Revolutionary times, Easton was an important commercial center. Buildings and homes built by merchants near the great Square are part of the Easton Historic District. During the 19th century the city's strategic location at the junction of the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers, the canals, and five major railroads contributed to it becoming one of the nation's earliest industrial centers.

The tremendous industrial growth that followed the Civil War increased the demand for laborers. Coal and iron companies initially recruited German, Irish, and Welsh workers. As more and more labor was needed, Slavs, Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Czechs, and many others were bought over. Quarrying and stone dressing attracted Italian masons. Wives and children of the workers were employed in silk mills, situated to take advantage of inexpensive labor. Distinctive ethnic neighborhoods and mining company towns emerged. The poor working conditions of these immigrants eventually created a workforce sympathetic to representation by labor unions.

The experience of this labor force differed sharply from those able to profit greatly from this industrial growth. The town of Jim Thorpe reflects the lives of some of the regions more affluent residents. Tucked in the narrow valley of the Mauch Chunk Creek, exuberantly designed 19th-century buildings reflect the wealth and activity of the town. Jim Thorpe was the boom town of the canal era, the early headquarters of the powerful Lehigh and Navigation Company, and a transfer point between the mountain railroads and the canal. Hauled over the mountain on a gravity railroad, anthracite coal was loaded into canal boats to be transported downstream to markets in Philadelphia. First operated in 1827, the gravity railroad was a marvel and generated the first tourist boom for this tiny mountain town, by carrying thousands of tourists attracted to the prospects of mountain scenery and cool air.

The preserved Asa Packer Mansion, a National Historic Landmark, illustrates the sudden wealth which could be attained here. Asa Packer came to Jim Thorpe as an apprentice boatbuilder. He died 57 years later as a millionaire, after founding boatyards, construction and mining companies, the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and Lehigh University. Asa Packer built a second mansion for his son, and the Harry Packer Mansion is now used as an inn. St. Mark's Church, of rural Gothic design, and the restored Mauch Chunk Opera House are remarkable period pieces. From the renovated train station, occasional steam railroad excursions take visitors up the scenic Lehigh Valley Gorge. The site of the Gravity Switchback Railroad is now an 18-mile trail linking Jim Thorpe with Summit Hill.

Canal History

Transportation routes built for commerce developed slowly in eastern Pennsylvania, and it was not until after the American Revolution that some thought was given to open the upper river regions to transportation canals. Routes to the interior promised opportunity but bad roads limited development. Areas easily accessible by water, such as lower Bucks County, were settled first, and had a strong relationship to Philadelphia. Remote farming settlements far from navigable waters in upper Bucks and the Lehigh Valley remained isolated and developed small self-sufficient economies. Many of the settlers struggled to take advantage of local natural resources such as lime, iron, timber and slate, but lack of transportation restricted their use. Settlers did not move into the remote and difficult terrain north of the Blue Mountain until after the better agriculture lands of the Coastal Plain and the Piedmont had been settled.

During this time the young city of Philadelphia was growing into a powerful political and economic center, and until 1825 was the largest city in North America. Transport of goods to markets there was critical to the development of the region's economy. Navigation was possible on the Delaware River as far north as Morrisville. Here, at the Falls of the Delaware, the Coastal Plain rises to the Piedmont, and rocks and river rapids form barriers to ships. Such barriers did not stop shipping completely: massive log rafts of felled timber and flat-bottomed Durham boats were floated down the Delaware and Lehigh rivers. The Durham boats were laboriously poled back upstream, although their limited size and the intensive labor required made this form of transportation expensive.

The economic impetus for the development of reliable inexpensive transportation on a large scale occurred early in the 19th century. With the exception of small regions in Colorado and New Mexico, Pennsylvania contains the only anthracite coal regions found in the United States. Two ambitious Philadelphia entrepreneurs, Josiah White and Erskine Hazard, secured rights to thousands of acres of these anthracite coal lands. After they demonstrated the marketability of anthracite as a efficient fuel, they began to modify the Lehigh River for navigation. To bring coal from the mountains of Carbon County and later, the Wyoming Valley, the Lehigh Navigation System and the Delaware Canal were constructed. Built in stages from 1817 to 1845, the canals opened the region to exploitation. The canals were largely hand-dug by local farmers and Irish immigrants using picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows. The navigation system of canal and slackwater consisted of dams and locks of unprecedented size. The Lehigh Canal extended from Easton north to White Haven. The final connection to Wilkes-Barre was made by rail, and it included the remarkable set of three inclined planes near Ashley. The Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal originally ran from the terminus of the Lehigh Navigation System in Easton south for 60 miles to Bristol. Today, the old boat basin and tidal locks are gone, but the canal is intact in Bristol and flows past the 19th-century Grundy Mill. Along the restored river front is the Colonial and Federal era core of the town, as well as Victorian mansions built during the industrial heyday, among them the Senator Joseph Grundy Mansion.

The canals were most active during the 1830s to the 1860s. Even at the Lehigh Navigation System's peak in the 1850s, adjacent railroads began eroding the canals' business. To connect the Lehigh Navigation System to the Susquehanna River and the surrounding Wyoming Valley coal fields, the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad was extended over the mountains from White Haven north to Wilkes-Barre. When much of the 22-mile upper grand section of the canal, from White Haven to Jim Thorpe, was destroyed by a flood in 1862, it was never rebuilt. Use of the 47-mile lower canal slowly declined, and portions were in operation until 1942. It was America's last and longest-operated towpath canal. The Delaware Canal ceased operation during the Great Depression and is today significant as the most intact, accessible, and watered towpath canal in the nation. One hundred and sixty years later, much of the stonework of the canal's retaining walls and locks is still visible and the canal is capable of being fully watered.

Written by Carol Lee of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

Scranton:Where the Great Roads Meet

The essay title was once a slogan of Scranton's Chamber of Commerce and the great roads were the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, the Delaware and Hudson, and the Erie railroads, as well as several others. But Scranton did not begin where commerce carrying roads met. It had an odd start in a deep valley without benefit of populace or industry.

In 1771 a pioneer named Isaac Tripp moved up from the Wyoming Valley to the Lackawanna Valley, becoming the first European settler in the region. Tripp, family members, and others established farms and businesses such as grist mills and forges that serviced farmers needs. The settlers spread out in the areas of Hyde Park, Providence, Slocum Hollow and other sections. In 1800 the census recorded 579 people spread around the area that would become Scranton. The 1840 census showed an increase to only 1,169 persons. Little was attracting new settlers. About this time, Judge Jesse Fell discovered that the local hard coal, anthracite, could be burned for domestic use. Anthracite produces high heat and burns relatively cleanly. Once ignited with a wood fire, a good draft through a grate, and fed from above, an anthracite fire burned continuously. Mines were opened and coal shipped over the mountains via the Delaware and Hudson gravity railroad and canal system.

William Henry convinced son-in-law Selden Scranton and Selden's brothers to relocate to Slocum Hollow from the iron foundry in Oxford, New Jersey, they were managing. They thought they could capitalize on the hard coal and the local iron ore. After two years and much effort they finally made pig iron, in January 1842. The pig iron then needed transporting out of the valley to be processed into nails, tools, horseshoes, and anything made of iron. Transportation costs priced the pig bars above market levels. The iron ore was also inferior and did not produce high quality products. At least the local coal was of acceptable quality. In a last effort, the Scrantons entered into a contract with the New York and Erie Railroad to manufacture rail. Both companies were desperate. The Erie needed to open lines across New York and the Scrantons needed economic survival. The Scrantons built a rolling mill, imported iron ore, experimented, and in the end they delivered the first mass-produced rail in North America. They fulfilled the Erie contract and set the valley on the path to progress.

The companies that would eventually become the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad began in 1851. Rails laid out of the valley carried the products of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company to the outside world. The railroads that carried iron and coal out brought in laborers and entrepreneurs. Soon, the backwoods agrarian character changed to an early industrial base. The Lackawanna Coal and Iron Company produced pig iron until 1902 when the company moved closer to iron fields and water transportation in Buffalo, New York. Coal mining and transportation of the coal surpassed iron production in economic importance. In the 19th century and well into the 20th, northeast Pennsylvania was known as "The Anthracite Capital of the World." In the early 1850s, the several small villages merged to form the town of Scranton. Scranton itself was built upon the twin pillars of iron and coal. Railroads, the third industry, were developed to move the iron and coal to market.

Scranton and the surrounding area benefited from immigration patterns. Businessmen moving in from Connecticut and New England established banks and retail stores, and became managers in the coal companies and other industries. The first bank opened in 1855. First generation European immigrants arrived from Wales, Ireland, and Germany. Many of these immigrants, especially the Welsh, were skilled miners and quickly occupied places within the mining industry. Even today, this area has the greatest number of Welsh descendants of any area in the United States. After the Civil War, Scranton emerged as the dominant town in northeast Pennsylvania, Lackawanna Avenue was the commercial center with railroad stations, mills, banks, markets, and retail shops lining both sides and more businesses along the cross streets. Civic leaders formed the Board of Trade, a precursor to the Chamber of Commerce, to encourage new businesses and city oriented projects. Undoubtedly the Board of Trade supported the formation of Lackawanna County from the older Luzerne County in 1878.

Owners of New England textiles mills developed in similar mills here. The prevailing industries hired men and boys while the silk and garment mills would hire women and girls. The Sauquoit Silk Mill hired 2,000 workers, mainly female. As the Welsh moved into supervisory positions, they were replaced by other immigrants recently arrived from southern and eastern Europe. Those in this second wave of immigration were escaping grinding poverty, usually did not speak English, were marginally educated, and had few employable skills. In 1900 more than one-third of the 100,000 people living in Scranton were foreign born. Technological progress within the mining industry required more general laborers and fewer skilled miners.

Coal has been called the blessing and the curse of the area. Mining was the main wage-producing industry and labor was the greatest cost incurred in operating a mine. Before World War II, anthracite coal was replaced by cheaper, more easily obtainable, and cleaner burning fuels. Before the collapse of the market, the employees of the two primary industries in Scranton, coal mines and railroads, participated in several nationwide strikes over a 25-year period and through a collective voice let the nation know of their plight regarding unsafe working conditions, long hours, and low pay. Terence V. Powderly, elected twice as mayor, was president of the Knights of Labor, an early union.

The miners' plight reached a national audience with the 1902 Anthracite Strike. Anyone with a bit of money could buy a mine and hire laborers, but most mines were owned by railroads in a vertical monopoly. At least half of the mine workers were immigrants whose loyalties were fragmented along ethnic and religious lines. John Mitchell, from Illinois, had the charisma and skill as president of the United Mine Workers of America to organize these diverse and quarreling groups as 80 percent of the 140,000 hard coal miners participated in the 1902 Anthracite Strike. Supporters reached President Theodore Roosevelt who then forced representatives of the mine operators to accept arbitration. Before his death in 1919 at the age of 49, Mitchell requested burial in Scranton because he had a good relationship with the people of the city. He is buried in Cathedral Cemetery and there is a statue in his honor on the county courthouse lawn.

Anthracite mining peaked in 1917. This was also about the time when the textile industry began its decline as natural fibers were replaced by synthetics. In 1920 about 30,000 men were employed in the regional coal industry and when this industry began to decline so did the economic base of the region. The year 1920 represents the city's economic apex. Even with the development of other businesses, the area remained dependent on the labor intensive industries demanding muscle and sweat. Likewise, the 1920 census recorded the height of Scranton's population with 137,900 people living within the city limits. Out-migration was documented in each subsequent census with the 2000 census showing about 70,000 residents.

The "Electric City" is a nickname recognizing Scranton's claim for the operation of the first electric streetcar in the United States. The first run was on the evening of November 30, 1886 when passengers boarded after a lecture by African explorer Henry M. Stanley at the Academy of Music (on Wyoming Avenue opposite St. Luke's Episcopal Church) and rode to the Green Ridge section. Recently reelectrified, the "Electric City" sign atop the Board of Trade building dominates the north side of Courthouse Square. The eight-story building was once the tallest structure in Scranton.

At one time, Scranton was well known for the International Correspondence School (ICS). The state legislature required a mine foreman to pass a knowledge test. Thomas Foster realized that all the required information was in his "The Colliery Engineer." He quickly created a correspondence school. By 1901 ICS was incorporated and soon branched out into many areas including the Women's Institute. ICS has reached millions who wished to improve marketable skills. The original buildings are on Wyoming Avenue, one of which is now a parochial high school. ICS itself is still involved in distance learning.

But not all was earnest business. Theaters brought in traveling entertainment companies ranging from opera to Buffalo Bill Cody. Historical societies and museums celebrate the area's history. Much of the architecture from 1880 to 1930 still exists. Some of the vernacular houses in West Side for the Welsh and later the Lithuanians are in use as homes. Well-built churches, former department stores, the Lackawanna Railroad passenger station, the Masonic Temple, and other grand buildings remain in place adaptively reused for a second life not planned when built.

Written by Ella S. Rayburn, Curator, Steamtown National Historic Site

Establishing the Heritage Corridor

The Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor was established by the United States Congress in 1988 for its important history and rich and distinctive historic and natural resources. The Corridor showcases the Delaware, Lehigh and Wyoming Valleys where anthracite coal was discovered, canals were built and iron was first poured. The Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, which is also a State Heritage Park, is a joint effort of private groups and interested citizens, county and municipal governments, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Federal government to conserve its historic and natural resources, and provide appropriate development opportunities for a sustainable future.

The National Heritage Corridor is recognized as an innovative and effective way to conserve our nation's heritage and fulfill the mission of bringing the benefits of national parks close to the largest population concentration in America. Many benefit from this effort, including nearly half a million students in schools and colleges who learn in the living museum surrounding them, a museum of history, sociology, geography, economy, geology, wildlife and botany. Local businesses benefit from the renewal of downtowns, and the restoration and adaptive use of the region's historic buildings. Residents are able to see their way of life protected and take renewed pride in their unique heritage as individuals and as communities.

To this end, Pennsylvania Heritage Park funding was recently awarded to projects within the Corridor that will stimulate regional economic development, preservation and heritage tourism. In historic downtown Bristol projects include the construction of a visitor's gateway entrance and courtyard at the Canal's End Reach and construction and improvements to the Delaware Canal area near Lock #4. Portions of the Lehigh Canal in Carbon County are slated for preservation, stabilization and new signs to identify historic structures. Various towns and cities will receive technical assistance to help conserve environmental, scenic, cultural, historic and recreational resources in the Corridor.

Today the Corridor's extraordinary natural, cultural and recreational resources give us a living "national park" where people reside, work and share the responsibility of its preservation. Multitudes of visitors, drawn by the "real places" and the amazing evolution of landscapes, may discover rivers, mines and company mining towns, canals and canal towns, railroads and other related resources encompassed by the Corridor. The region is a veritable microcosm of the nation's historical development.

Excerpted from "Along the Corridor," newsletter of the The Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, the Management Action Plan of the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, and information provided by Sue Pridemore, Chief of Visitor Services for the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Commission.

List of Sites

 

Terence V. Powderly House -- Scranton
Steamtown National Historic Site -- Scranton
Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company
Furnace -- Scranton
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western
Railroad Station -- Scranton
Lackawanna Avenue Commercial
Historic District -- Scranton
Lackawanna County Courthouse and
John Mitchell Monument -- Scranton
Masonic Temple and Scottish Rite
Cathedral -- Scranton
Forty Fort Meetinghouse -- Forty Fort
River Street Historic District -- Wilkes-Barre
Market Street Bridge -- Wilkes-Barre
Comerford Theater -- Wilkes-Barre
Stegmaier Brewery -- Wilkes-Barre
Ashley Planes -- Wilkes-Barre
Stoddartsville Historic District -- Stoddartsville
Eckley Historic District -- Eckley Miner's Village
Markle Banking & Trust Company
Building -- Hazelton
Old Mauch Chunk Historic District -- Jim Thorpe
Central Railroad of New Jersey
Station -- Jim Thorpe
Asa Packer Mansion -- Jim Thorpe
Carbon County Jail -- Mauch Chunk
Lehigh Canal -- Easton


Fireman's Drinking Fountain -- Slatington
Coplay Cement Company Kilns -- Coplay
George Taylor House -- Catasauqua
Central Bethlehem Historic District -- Bethlehem
Old Waterworks -- Bethlehem
Moravian Sun Inn -- Bethlehem
Gemeinhaus-Lewis David De Schweinitz
Residence -- Bethlehem
Lehigh Valley Silk Mills -- Fountain Hill Borough
Ehrhart's Mill Historic District -- near Hellertown
Lock Ridge Furnace Complex --Alburtis
Chain Bridge -- near Glendon
Easton Historic District -- Easton
Delaware Canal -- Easton to Bristol
Durham Mill and Furnace -- Durham Township
Ridge Valley Rural Historic District Ottsville
Green Hills Farm (Pearl S. Buck House) -- Hilltown Township
Fonthill -- Doylestown
Moravian Pottery & Tile Works -- Doylestown
Mercer Museum -- Doylestown
Honey Hollow Watershed -- New Hope
Washington Crossing State Park -- Washington Crossing
Slate Hill Cemetery -- Lower Makefield Township
Pennsbury Manor -- Morrisville
Grundy Mill Complex -- Bristol
Bristol Historic District -- Bristol
Dorrance Mansion -- Bristol

Terence V. Powderly House

Occupied by Terence V. Powderly for many years, this house gained historical significance during the years of the American Labor movement, and today is designated as a National Historic Landmark. The labor movement of the late 1880s was dominated by Powderly, a leader of Jeffersonian idealism. Born January 22, 1849, in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, Powderly became a union man early in his life. Powderly's quest was to promote an all-inclusive union and to promote arbitration as labor's principle bargaining tool. After leaving school at the age of 13, Powderly worked on a railroad and eventually became an apprentice machinist. Powderly was elected president of the Machinists' and Blacksmiths' union, which he joined in 1871. As a result of his union involvement, Powderly was among the first to lose their jobs during the depression of 1873.

Powderly's natural leadership led to his position of Grand Master Workmen of the Knights of Labor. The Knights of Labor, originally a secret organization, was the leading labor organization of the 1880s. Under Powderly's leadership for 14 years, the Knights of Labor promoted the unity of labor and union organization. In an attempt to form a large union the Knights counted both African Americans and women as members. By 1886, with a membership between 700,000 and 1,000,000, the union had become the largest and most influential in the country. During his involvement with the Knights of Labor, Powderly was elected Mayor of Scranton in 1878. He served as Mayor for three two-year terms. As Mayor, Powderly laid the ground work for city hall and helped authorize the purchase of land for the city's municipal building. Powderly was the nation's outstanding labor leader from 1879 to 1893.

The Knights of Labor union collapsed following its peak in 1886, mostly due to its opposition of strikes. The Knights of Labor remained in existence for 13 years, following Powderly's resignation in 1893. Many of the Knights former members joined the American Federation of Labor, led by Powderly's aggressive personal rival, Samuel Gompers. Prior to his resignation from the Knights of Labor, Powderly studied law in his spare time and was admitted to the Lackawanna County State and Federal Courts in 1894. President William McKinley appointed him as the United States Commissioner General of Immigration in 1897. In 1907, Powderly assumed a new position as chief of the division of information of the Bureau of Immigration and held that office until 1921. Following his appointment as commissioner general he moved to Washington, DC, where he died June 24, 1924. Powderly's home in Scranton remains much as it was when he occupied it.

The Powderly House is located at 614 North Main Street, Scranton. It is not open to the public.

Steamtown National Historic Site

Today, Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, is the only unit in the National Park System where the story of steam railroading and the people who made it possible is told. From its inception in 1851, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western (DL&W) Railroad Yard in Scranton has been a dynamic site, changing to meet the railroad's needs. As the railroad acquired more track and equipment in the 19th century, the size of the yard expanded from approximately 25 to 40 acres to accommodate additional operation and repair facilities. Almost immediately after William Truesdale became president of the DL&W in 1899, major changes occurred. To keep the railroad competitive, Truesdale decided that economy dictated bigger steam locomotives and rolling stock. As a transportation system covering three states in the northeastern United States, the DL&W Railroad management acted in the 1899-1939 period to increase its efficiency in operation through larger equipment and to diversify from its reliance on the transportation of anthracite coal. The railroad provided a transportation connection to New York and New Jersey while promoting manufacturing and tourism along the route. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad served as one of the major anthracite lines.

The current steam era buildings that have been listed in the National Register as the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Yard-Dickson Manufacturing Yard, and are now part of the Steamtown National Historic Site, were erected primarily between 1899 and 1917 with a remnant of the 1937 roundhouse also present. These buildings include the five-story concrete frame Pattern Shop, the foundry, the steel frame Blacksmith Shop, the Machine and Erecting Shop, the Oil House, Gas House, the 1902 and 1937 roundhouse remnants, which housed steam locomotives, and the three-story Mattes Street Signal Tower, among others. The current track arrangement represents, for the most part, that which evolved by the late 1930s. In 1983 the city of Scranton purchased the yard from Conrail as part of an arrangement to house the Steamtown Foundation's collection of steam locomotives and rolling stock. Steamtown National Historic Site's collection of locomotives and other transportation and train related equipment came from wealthy seafood processor F. Nelson Blount's private collection. The inventory of Steamtown National Historic Site can fall into two broad categories; "motive power," which includes steam, diesel and electric locomotives, and "passenger cars, freight cars, and maintenance of way equipment." One locomotive and one electric power car in the collection are from the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. Steamtown includes a Visitor Center, a History Museum, Roundhouse, Turntable, 1902 Roundhouse Section and a Technology Museum. Steamtown National Historic Site was established on October 30, 1986, to further public understanding and appreciation of the role steam railroading played in the development of the United States.

Steamtown National Historic Site, administered by the National Park Service, is located at the intersection of Lackawanna and Cliff aves. in Scranton. Steamtown is open daily 9:00am to 5:00pm, closed New Year's Day, Christmas Day and Thanksgiving Day. There is a fee for admission. Steamtown offers seasonal train excursions from the park to various destinations. Please call 570-340-5200 for further information, or visit the park's website.

Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company Furnace

The Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company Furnaces represent the remnants of an industry with important statewide significance. As early as 1838, William Henry was investigating the feasibility of establishing an anthracite fueled blast furnace along Roaring Brook in the Lackawanna Valley. Well schooled in the process of making iron, Henry had been the first American to experiment successfully with applying a hot blast to the smelting of iron ore at the Oxford Furnace in Belvidere, New Jersey. In 1840 Henry bought 503 acres in alliance with his son-in-law Seldon Scranton, George Scranton, and Sanford Grant. The blast furnace was not completed until early autumn of 1841. By the summer of 1844 the furnace averaged five to seven tons of pig iron a day, but the company soon went into the more profitable business of producing T-rails for the railroad industry. In 1847, the company listed 800 employees, including many Welsh, Irish, and German immigrants. In 1853 the firm reorganized again and became the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company. The company's assets in 1854 included three furnaces, the rolling and puddling mills, foundry, two blacksmith shops, car shop, two carpenter's shops, saw mill, grist mill, office, company store, 200 dwellings, boarding house, manager's houses, ore and coal mines, tavern, and a recently completed hotel. Eventually, due to the cost of shipping iron ore into Scranton from the Midwest, as well as the changing markets, a decision was made to move the plant to Buffalo, New York. In 1903 the Scranton property was sold to the Wyoming Valley Railroad, which contracted with a Philadelphia company that scrapped all of the equipment, and tore down all the structures except the stone blast furnaces. In the late 1960s the furnaces were acquired by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and were administered under the State park system. The furnaces were transferred to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in 1971. Today the four connected stone blast furnace stacks are surrounded by 3.84 acres. The furnaces are set into the south side of a hillside with a10 foot wide bridge, supported by masonry arches connecting them to the rock cliff. The two easternmost furnaces, dated 1848-1849, are built of smooth dressed stone blocks and stand 40 feet high and are 40 feet wide at the base. No. 3 and No. 4 furnaces were constructed c.1852 and c.1857 respectively, and are constructed of rough dressed stone blocks and also stand 40 feet high. Furnace No. 3 is 46 feet wide at the base, and furnace No. 4 is 48 feet wide at the base. All of the furnace stacks still contain vestiges of their firebrick linings. The first, third and fourth stacks contain ruins of their 19th-century hearths.

The Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company Furnaces are located at 159 Cedar Ave. in Scranton. The Visitor Center building is open on seasonal schedule. Grounds are open daily, 9:00am to 5:00pm. For further information about the Iron Furnaces' hours and programs, call the Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum at 570-963-3208. Individuals with disabilities who need special assistance or accommodation to visit this site should call in advance to discuss their needs.

Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Station

The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Station, built during the years 1907-1908 at a cost of $ 601,780.96 in the Neo-Classical Revival style by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company, is one of the most impressive buildings in Scranton. The architects of the station were Kenneth Murchison of New York and Edward Langley of Scranton, while the designer was Lincoln Bush, chief engineer of the railroad company. The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad was one of the most important railroads in the northeast region of Pennsylvania. Its beginnings date back to 1832 and the Ligget's Gap Railroad, later the Lackawanna & Western, and the Delaware & Cobb's Gap Railroad. These two lines merged in 1853 to form the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, while the Erie-Lackawanna was not formed until 1960 from the merger of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western with the Erie. Anthracite coal was a major factor in the growth of the railroad, and by 1925 the company owned or controlled through lease nearly all coal underlying West Scranton and had also acquired large areas in other parts of the county as well as in Luzerne County. The profits from the mining and transportation of coal enabled the company to construct such an impressive station as the one at Scranton.

Originally five stories in height, a sixth story was added at a later date. Constructed primarily of sandstone, the station features a porch above the first floor which extends almost completely around the building. The most impressive features of the building are the six Doric columns extending three stories high which support the entablature above the main entrance. The rear entranceway also features six Doric columns, while engaged pilasters three-stories high extend around the remainder of the building. The fifth floor above the entablature features characteristics of Beaux Arts Classicism, including figure sculptures above the main entrance. Directly above the center of the entrance is a large clock with sculpted eagles on either side. The building, which once served as the central office for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, is perhaps the finest example of Neo-classical Revival railroad station architecture in Pennsylvania. Today the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Station is the Lackawanna Station Hotel.

The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Station, now the Lackawanna Station Hotel is located at 700 Lackawanna Ave., in Scranton. Take I-81 exit 53, near Steamtown National Historical Site to get to there. Please call 570-342-8300 or visit www.radisson.com/scrantonpa/ for further information.

Lackawanna Avenue Commercial Historic District

The Lackawanna Avenue Commercial Historic District, the historic commercial core of Scranton, is composed of a three-and-one-half block section of Lackawanna Avenue and one square block which adjoins the Avenue on the northeast. The buildings along Lackawanna Avenue are generally three or four stories in height, containing a variety of materials including brick, stone, tile, and stucco. The most substantial buildings in the district are located along Wyoming and North Washington Streets. Built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these buildings reflect a greater adherence to distinct architectural styles than their counterparts on Lackawanna. The most common styles are Renaissance Revival, Richardson Romanesque, Neo Classical and an early example of Art Deco.

In the late 19th century Scranton became the heart of the anthracite coal mining industry in Pennsylvania as well as a manufacturing center. With a population of almost 150,000 in 1930, Scranton's growth between 1860 and 1930 had been remarkable. During those years of growth Lackawanna Avenue served as the commercial center of Scranton. Featuring a number of fine examples of late 19th-century architecture, the Avenue characterized the prosperity and hopes of the city. By the 20th century the business district had expanded beyond Lackawanna Avenue to include a one block section of Wyoming and North Washington Streets. The extension of the district was enhanced by the recently constructed county government facilities situated two blocks east of Lackawanna. America's first all electric street car system, with numerous stops on Lackawanna, added to the ambiance. New retail establishments and a large hotel, the Casey Hotel, opened along the Avenue. The new buildings were commonly Richardson Romanesque, Neo-Classical and Renaissance Revival in style. Some Art Deco architecture was also introduced in the extension during the 1920s. While commercial activities in Scranton slowed in the 1920s, the city's "Golden Years" ended in 1929 with the onset of the Depression. Although the district fell on hard economic times, Lackawanna Avenue still reflects the prominence that was a part of Scranton in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Brooks Building, located at 436 Spruce Street, is an eight-story red sandstone and brick office building erected in 1891 as the Commonwealth Building. Designed by L. C. Holden, the building later became the Peoples National Bank from 1906 to 1917, and later housed the J. H. Brooks brokerage firm for many years, which gave the building its name.

The Lackawanna Avenue Commercial Historic District is located on the 200-500 blocks of Lackawanna Ave., the 100 block of Wyoming & Washington Aves., and the 400 block of Spruce. Many of the businesses within the district open to the public during normal business hours.

Lackawanna County Courthouse and John Mitchell Monument

The Lackawanna County Courthouse is historically significant as the site of the first session of the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission, appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt in the fall of 1902 to end the "Great Strike" of the anthracite coal workers. This strike was one of the largest and most important strikes in American history. The Strike Commission hearings represented the first non-violent, even-handed intervention by the Federal government in a labor dispute. The most celebrated witness to testify in the hearings was the legendary labor leader John Mitchell, organizer and leader of the anthracite coal workers and President of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW). Mitchell's role in the "Great Strike" and other endeavors gained him hero status in the anthracite region, and in 1924 the UMW erected a posthumous memorial to Mitchell in the courthouse square.

The Lackawanna County Courthouse occupies a 4.7-acre lot bounded by Washington Avenue, Linden Street, Adams Avenue, and Spruce Street in downtown Scranton. The Courthouse is a three-and-one-half-story, rectangular plan, masonry building measuring approximately 100 by 140 feet with a raised basement, hipped roof, and a five-story clock tower. The foundation and walls are finished with rough-cut, coursed, local stone and the roof is sheathed with tile shingles while the water table, stringcourses, window sills, lintels, and buttress caps are trimmed with Onondago limestone. The courthouse property includes the stone courthouse, originally built in 1884 in the Romanesque Revival style and enlarged in 1896 with the addition of a third story and the reconstruction of the roof, and the 1924 John Mitchell Monument, sculpted in bronze and granite. The 1924 John Mitchell Monument fronts Adams Avenue southeast of the courthouse. The monument consists of four sections: a heroic-sized bronze statue, a granite monolith containing a niche in the southeast facade, and two low, curved, granite benches flanking either side of the granite monolith. A bronze statue of John Mitchell stands atop a granite block that is inscribed with the words "John Mitchell (1870-1919)."

The Lackawanna County Courthouse and John Mitchell Monument are located in a square surrounded by Washington Avenue, Linden Street, Adams Avenue, and Spruce Street in Scranton. The Courthouse is open during normal business hours.

Masonic Temple and Scottish Rite Cathedral

The Masonic Temple and Scottish Rite Cathedral is significant as an example of the work of Raymond M. Hood (1881-1934), a prominent architect of the 1920s and early 1930s, and as a unique example of Neo-Gothic architecture in Scranton. Raymond Hood's productive career spanned from 1922, when he and a collaborator won the Chicago Tribune design competition, to his untimely death at 53 in 1934. Hood became a nationally prominent architect trained in the Beaux Arts tradition and proficient with historic styles. During those 12 years, Hood was the principle designer or primary collaborator in a number of high-profile progressive skyscraper designs, mainly in New York City, where he designed the Daily News Building and the McGraw-Hill Building in mid-town Manhattan, and was part of the team that designed Rockefeller Center. The Masonic Temple and Scottish Rite Cathedral is located on North Washington Avenue in downtown Scranton. The 1930 temple-cathedral is a highly stylized Neo-Gothic and Romanesque pastiche executed by Hood. The design of the building was to be a monument to Masonry. Masonic lodges in Scranton for years felt the need for a suitable home or temple, and prior to the construction of this building they used an old armory. Bids for construction were taken in January, 1927. The Masonic Temple and Scottish Rite Cathedral was inaugurated on January 2, 1930 when the first meeting was held in the building. The rectangular plan building is clad in coursed ashlar Indiana limestone supported by a structural steel framework. The front (west) facade is divided into three sections: the central and southern sections consist of five stories and the northern section consists of three stories. The temple-cathedral includes an auditorium and ballroom that are available to the Scranton community for various functions. The Center hosts a number of artists and programs, from local to international, as well as Arts in Education courses for all ages. Regular performances include The Broadway Theater of Northeast PA, Scranton Community Concerts, the Northeast Philharmonic and the resident theater company, TNT.

The Masonic Temple and Scottish Rite Cathedral is located on 416-420 North Washington Ave. in Scranton. People interested in touring the Masonic Temple can join "A Day at the Cultural Center" which includes various activities and the tour. There is a fee. Visit the Center's website or call 570-346-7369 ext. 102 for further information.

Forty Fort Meetinghouse

The Forty Fort Meeting House, built in 1806-8, and located in the Old Forty Fort Cemetery, is a wood-frame building with white clapboard siding in a style typical of New England meeting houses. The style was carried to the Wyoming Valley via the Connecticut settlers who migrated to northeastern Pennsylvania in the late 18th century. In 1768, the Susquehanna Company set aside certain public lands to be used for a "gospel ministrie" (Susquehanna Company Papers, Vol. III, p.44). Several factors intervened to delay actual building of a house of worship, including the first and second Yankee-Pennamite wars and the American Revolution, especially the Battle of Wyoming (July 3, 1778), when a house of worship that was begun was destroyed in the aftermath of the battle. Construction of the Meeting House began soon after the resolution of a 30-year long conflict between Pennsylvania and Connecticut claimants for title to the land. The commission to design and build the Meeting House was given to Joseph Hitchcock from New Haven, Connecticut. Hitchcock was also the designer of the Old Ship Zion Church in Wilkes-Barre-an entirely different style of architecture. The Meeting House was the first finished church in which religious services were held in this part of Pennsylvania, and was used for services by both Presbyterians and Methodists. The Forty Fort Meeting House is the only extant example of the New England influenced style of architecture in the immediate area that is not greatly altered from its original appearance. In March 1860, the state legislature approved a bill creating the Forty Fort Cemetery Association, which still retains control of the cemetery and the Meeting House.

The Forty Fort Meeting House is located in the Old Forty Fort Cemetery on the northern end of River St., across from the Forty Fort Borough Building, in Forty Fort. It is open to the public on Sundays 1 PM – 3 PM from Memorial Day to the last Sunday in September as well as Memorial Day and the 4th of July. It is also open on Labor Day from 1 PM – 3 PM. In September there is a Sunday lecture series focused on historical topics of the Wyoming Valley which are free and open to the public.  An ecumenical Vesper Service closes the season on the last Sunday of September. 

River Street Historic District

The River Street Historic District is made up of civic, commercial, ecclesiastical, and residential buildings dating from 1860 to 1920. Primarily a district of wealthy industrialists' mansions and upwardly mobile merchants' homes, it is organized around a central core of Wilkes-Barre's principal civic and financial institutions. Historically, the district displays the wealth and importance of Wilkes-Barre during the years of the anthracite coal industry. Most of the buildings in the River Street Historic District are architect-designed and represent the range of popular styles for their periods. The district possesses many noteworthy buildings, such as the Luzerne County Courthouse, a grand Beaux Arts style building, a Renaissance Palazzo YMCA, and the unusual Moorish Revival style Irem Temple, built for a local Masonic lodge. The River Street Historic District contains 258 buildings, and includes four church buildings erected between 1848 and 1900, all situated on Franklin Street. Their steeples (and the extraordinary campanile of St. Stephen's Church) provide the principal features of the District's skyline. These are high-quality designs, reflecting a cosmopolitan civic image based on the metropolitan architecture of New York and Philadelphia. In large part, it was architects from these cities who were brought to Wilkes-Barre to design churches as well as homes and commercial buildings. Among those whose work in the District survives are James Renwick (Osterhout Library, formerly the Presbyterian Church of 1843-1852); F. C. Withers, and J. C. Cady (the "new" Presbyterian Church of 1889), all from New York and architects of national renown. From Philadelphia came architects such as John Fraser, best known as Frank Furness' mentor; Wilson Eyre (the Phelps home, later the American Legion Post) and Charles Burns, a prominent designer of Episcopal churches and the architect of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. While the residential streets of the district are of a domestic scale and character, the institutional core at the corner of West Market and Franklin Streets is different stylistically, in its Beaux Arts buildings, and its scale, determined by tall office buildings. Chief among these are the United Penn Bank Building, built by the nationally acclaimed Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham in 1911, and the First Eastern Bank, built in 1907 by influential local architects McCormick and French.

The River Street Historic District is located in Wilkes-Barre and includes Franklin, River West River, West Jackson, West Union, West Market, West Northampton, West South, and West Ross Sts., Barnum Place, and the Susquehanna River. Many of the businesses within the district open to the public during normal business hours.

Market Street Bridge

The Market Street Bridge is one of the most important bridges crossing the Susquehanna River. Built from 1926 to 1929, it is an excellent example of a long-span 1920s urban bridge. At approximately 1,400 feet, it is one of the longest and most highly ornamented concrete bridges in Pennsylvania. This monumental 12 arch reinforced concrete and granite structure incorporated two pylons at approach; each pylon is topped with a giant carved limestone eagle. The original construction included a water gauging station and ornamental light standards. The water gauging station has been inoperable since 1943 and the light standards have all been replaced. Construction of the 12 arches was accomplished using adjustable steel trusses for centering. The six longer spans over the river comprise open spandrel arches of three wide ribs each. The end spans over the flood plain consist of shorter barrel arches with solid spandrel walls. A 1,500 foot long cable way hung from large towers on the riverbanks to convey concrete in hoppers to the middle spans. The Market Street Bridge, which replaced an earlier truss bridge, was designed by Carrere & Hastings, a renowned New York City architectural firm that also claims the New York Public Library among its many commissions.

The Market Street Bridge spans the Susquehanna River, meeting east Market St. in Wilkes-Barre.

Comerford Theater

The Comerford Theater opened in 1938 as Wilkes-Barre's largest, best-equipped, and most modern movie palace. Designed in a Deco-Moderne stylized ziggurat composition the theater is faced with terra cotta tile and green marble. Interior features include a foyer paneled in walnut, an auditorium and loge finished in walnut and translucent marble panels, and ornamental plasters and bronze throughout. The Comerford Theater is the only survivor of the city's three movie palaces. The modern American Movie Palace, as it evolved in the early 20th century, rapidly became a fixture in the medium to large city. Important as a means of affordable entertainment and a recognizable part of the urban cityscape, the Movie Palace was a major part of the Movie ideology, coming from Hollywood, California, which made the American cinema more than a pastime. The architecture of the Movie Palace was lavished with an abundance of eclectic ornament, making new reference to historic architectural styles as well as the latest Art Deco forms. The Deco-Moderne architecture of the Comerford is rare in the Wyoming Valley and its significance as the major architectural legacy of depression-era Wilkes-Barre is related to the city's unique history and reliance on anthracite for the economy. Opened on August 18, 1938, to considerable press coverage, the theater was founded by M. E. Comerford, a native of Larksville, a township less then two miles from Wilkes-Barre. Since he grew up locally, Comerford was regarded as one of the city's "own." It was fitting and proper, at least in the public's eye, that the Wilkes-Barre Theater should be the most luxurious of the area, outdoing those in Scranton, Hazleton or other northeastern Pennsylvania towns. In 1949, the Comerford Corporation was subject to an anti-trust suit and had to divest itself of a number of its theaters, and on September 2, 1949, the Comerford became the Paramount, which was the first in the region to use air-conditioners. Some local residents created S.T.O.P. (Save The Old Paramount) when it was faced with destruction, and their efforts were successful in having the old Comerford Theater added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The theater was rehabilitated after being damaged in Hurricane Agnes and is now a performing arts center.

The Comerford Theater, now the F. M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, is located at 71 Public Sq., in Wilkes-Barre. Please call 570-826-1100 of visit the Center's website for information on upcoming events, membership information box office hours and ticket purchases.

Stegmaier Brewery

Stegmaier Brewery was the largest brewery among numerous breweries in the Wyoming Valley. At one time the firm was one of the largest independent breweries in the United States. Between 1910 and 1913 when American breweries were sending their beers to be judged in European expositions, Stegmaier Beer swept the field by winning eight Gold Medal awards in every major exposition, including those in Brussels, Paris, and Rome. The brewery grew from a five-employee operation in 1857 to a high of 300 employees in 1971, then ceased operations in 1972. The architectural character of the brewery was established by the Romanesque style of the oldest extant building in the complex, the Brew House Building. Constructed in 1894 and designed by architect A. C. Wagner, its Romanesque influenced industrial style was recreated throughout the complex, influencing the late 19th-century industrial appearance of the other buildings constructed by the First World War. When listed in the National Register in 1979, six buildings remained of the original brewery complex. The complex has been recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey. In 1995, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, a local architecture firm, performed a prospective-use feasibility study, and found the building worthy of renovation. The building was redeveloped into 70,000 square feet of office space, along with a 60,000 square foot addition. By November 1997, Congressman Kanjorski and five Federal agencies had leasing agreements and moved into a beautiful, newly renovated Stegmaier Building.

The Stegmaier Building is located at 7 North Wilkes-Barre Blvd., Wilkes-Barre. The building is now used as government offices, and is not open to the public.

Ashley Planes

The remains of the Ashley Planes, an engineering work designed to move railroad cars over steep inclines, run through the mountain cut from Ashley to Solomon gap, south of US 81 and west of state route 309 along Solomon Creek. Construction of the Planes began in 1837 as part of the construction of the Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad linking the Lehigh Navigation Canal with the Wyoming Anthracite Fields. Renovated and altered in the 1860s and in 1909, they eventually consisted of four separate inclined plane railroads used to connect Ashley with Solomon Gap, rising to an elevation of about 1,600 feet. Both passenger and freight cars were raised and lowered along 5-15 degree inclines by cables powered by steam engines. The Ashley Planes were in use until 1948. They were a critical part of the passage from the third anthracite basin to Solomon Gap, and thence to all points south. Now in ruins, the remains of the Ashley Planes include the ruins of boiler, engine and drum houses; culverts, bridges, impoundments, and dams; and a village called Dogtown. Parts of the Ashley Planes are located on state game lands and are under rehabilitation as a hiking trail.

Ashley Planes is located in the mountain cut from Ashley to Solomon Gap, lying south of Rte. 81 and west of Rte. 309 along Solomon Creek, south of Wilkes-Barre.

Stoddartsville Historic District

One of the pivotal industrial resources of the Lehigh River region, Stoddartsville is the site of an early 19th-century milling village built by entrepreneur John Stoddart in partnership with Josiah White. Here White built the first bear trap locks that made possible the canalization of the upper Lehigh River. When the area's industrial business ventures proved unsuccessful, and the milling village demised, a small resort community developed among the remnants of Stoddart's company town. Within the village are the prehistoric and Revolutionary War routes across the river. Stoddartsville includes the ruins of the immense gristmill (one of the largest in the state) and sawmill built by Stoddart, the ruins of the bear trap lock, worker and manager housing, and rustic resort cottages of the early 20th century.

Today, Stoddartsville is a private residential community. The Stoddartsville Historic District consists of houses and cottages, outbuildings and wells, as well as the ruins of mills and mill races, walls and landscape features, and early roads that were once part of an early 19th-century milling and transportation center. Two principal visual features of the district, one natural, the other man-made, command attention. The natural feature, which determined the location of Stoddartsville, is the "Great Falls of the Lehigh River." Here a band of bedrock has been worn by the river into a multi-story cascade that descends to a deep pool of water carved by the force of the fall. Directly confronting the falls is the other remarkable element of the district, the two remaining walls of the giant gristmill that formed the economic focus of Stoddart's village. Built of roughly shaped, local stones that were carefully cut only at the corners, the mill remains a commanding presence despite the loss of a roof and of a substantial portion of the building. Looming higher than any agricultural building of its era, it has a footprint of 50 by 70 feet. Chimney or vent shafts at the corners provide clues to the evolution of the Oliver Evans-type gristmill that was pioneered in the Philadelphia region. The mill was damaged by flooding in 1862, and was largely destroyed in the 1875 forest fire that swept through the region.

The Stoddartsville Historic District is located on the south side of PA Rte. 115 at the Lehigh River. Most of the buildings are private residences, and not open to the public.

Eckley Historic District

The Eckley Historic District, also known as Eckley Miners' Village, was one of hundreds of company mining towns built in the anthracite region during the late 19th century. The patch town, or company built and operated mining town, provided all the basic needs for the individuals who owned, operated, and worked in the anthracite mines surrounding the town. Sharpe, Weiss & Company leased land from Tench Coxe, and built the town, between 1854 and 1874, to provide housing, medical care and shopping for their employees. In the 1870s, 350 men and boys worked in the mines, and the town reached a population of 1,500. During the 1860s, eight million tons of coal were mined in Pennsylvania's anthracite region, and mines remained active until homes began heating with oil and natural gas in the 1920s. The 58 remaining buildings include the mine owners' houses, the doctor's office, 47 worker's houses, the Catholic Church and its rectory. Listed in the National Register in 1971, the town remains a significant example of a mining community from the 1800s. Eckley Historic District is owned and administered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as Eckley Miners' Village.

Eckley Historic District is located nine miles east of Hazleton, off Rte. 940, and is accessible from I-80 and I-81. White on brown directional signs on either side of the town of Freeland will direct visitors to Eckley. The Eckley Miner's Village is open Monday-Saturday 9:00am to 5:00pm, Sunday 12:00pm to 5:00pm, and is closed on state holidays, except Memorial Day, July 4, and Labor Day. There is a fee. Please call 570-636-2070 or visit the Village's website for further information.

Markle Banking & Trust Company Building

The Markle Banking and Trust Company Building is a reinforced concrete eleven11-story detached commercial block building, faced with limestone and brick, and displaying Neoclassical Revival and Chicago style influences in its detailing. The building's large scale was designed to demonstrate the importance of banking and commercial activity. In 1910, at the time of the Markle Bank Building's construction, Hazleton was the established center of the Middle Anthracite Coal Field. Built at a cost of nearly half a million dollars, the Markle Bank Building was Hazleton's first high-rise office building and reflected the importance of the Markle family in anthracite region banking and the importance of Hazleton banking and financial activities in the development of the coal region. Anthracite is a high heat, low smoke, coal which differs from bituminous, or soft coal. The Markle Banking & Trust Company Building is of classic tall building tripartite form (base, shaft, and capital), with Neo-Classical Revival influences. Of reinforced concrete construction, the building is faced in limestone at the storefront level and in white brick at the upper levels. The original storefront had three bays, unified by four vertical pilasters that ran from the street level through the mezzanine, cut and beveled to resemble coursed stone. The Markle Bank operated until 1958, and in the same year the storefront was altered.

Markle Banking & Trust Company Building is located at 8 West Broad St., in Hazleton. It is not currently open to the public.

Old Mauch Chunk Historic District

The town known as Mauch Chunk changed its name in 1954 to honor the famous Native American athlete, Jim Thorpe. Thorpe (1887-1953) is buried here, in a 20-ton mausoleum, although he had no ties to the town during his lifetime. Located in Carbon County, along the Mauch Chunk Creek not far from the Lehigh River, much of the town remains as it did when the coal industry, railroad, and canal system came together to create a wealthy town beginning in the 1820s. Situated at the eastern end of the Southern Anthracite Coal Fields in the Blue Ridge Mountain, Mauch Chunk boomed in the mid-19th century, becoming a central transportation link in the anthracite industry and the site of important transportation innovations such as the bear trap lock designed by Josiah White and the Mauch Chunk & Summit Hill Gravity Switchback Railroad. The switchback railroad was the first railroad constructed for the movement of coal in this country. Mauch Chunk became a tourist town as the coal industry died out; and the switchback became a tourist attraction drawing people from urban areas along the east coast to the country for a ride along the line. Today a 16-mile trail exists along the former railroad bed. Other features of the Mauch Chunk Historic District include St. Mark's Episcopal Church, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977, and the Carbon County Jail, where10 members of the Molly Maguires were jailed, tried, convicted and executed. The Molly Maguires were a secret organization formed by Irish immigrant coal miners who fought for better working conditions in the coal fields of western Pennsylvania, beginning in 1862. Twenty-four Molly Maguires were convicted of murder in the fall of 1875, as a result of evidence gathered by a Pinkerton detective, hired by the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad. After the10 were executed in Mauch Chunk, and the others sentenced to jail terms of two to seven years, the organization was crushed.

The Old Mauch Chunk Historic District is located on Broadway and Race Sts., in Jim Thorpe. Many of the buildings in the district remain privately owned and are not open to the public. However, public buildings are open during business hours and several mansions offer tours and museums. The Mauch Chunk Museum and Cultural Center, located within the Mauch Chunk Historic District, on 41 West Broadway St., is open all year, 10:00am to 4:00pm, every day, except Monday. There is a fee. Groups by appointment. Please call 570-325-9190 for further information or visit the website.

Central Railroad of New Jersey Station

Constructed in 1868, the Central Railroad of New Jersey Station was designed by the firm of Wilson Brothers of Philadelphia. It is a brick one and one-half story building, five bays in length with a three and one-half story cylindrical tower. Once considered one of the finest passenger stations on the Jersey central line, the main mass of the station is covered by a gable roof and supported by brackets, with two gabled dormers on either side, double chimneys at either end, and a large wooden cupola which dominates the building. This terminal was a major rail junction in the anthracite region. Work began on what was then the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad as early as 1838. By 1843, the first passenger train came in over the Ashley Planes, but it was not until 1866 when the backtrack from Mountaintop to Wilkes-Barre was completed, eliminating the need for the Planes, that the first passenger train arrived in Wilkes-Barre on its own steam. With the discontinuance of passenger service in 1963, the station began to deteriorate, and on March 31, 1972, 106 years to the day the Jersey Central had begun its operation of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Division, the station was officially closed. Listed in the National Register in 1976 the station now houses the Tourist Welcoming Center.

The Central Railroad of New Jersey Station, now the Jim Thorpe Visitor's Center, is located at the Reading Terminal, 12th and Market Sts., on Lehigh Ave. It is open Monday-Saturday, 9:30am to 5:30pm and Sunday, 9:30am to 4:30 pm. Winter hours are 9:30am to 6:30pm. Please call 570-325-3673 for more information or write Jim Thorpe Chamber of Commerce P.O. Box 90 Jim Thorpe, PA, 18229.

Asa Packer Mansion

The Asa Packer Mansion, built in 1860, sits high above the town of Jim Thorpe. The mansion was the home of Asa Packer (1805-1879), a prominent Pennsylvania industrialist, philanthropist and public servant, who began his career making canal boats. Asa Packer came to town as an apprentice boatbuilder. He died 57 years later as a millionaire, after founding boatyards, construction and mining companies, the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and Lehigh University. His three-story Victorian Italianate building has a center hall plan, though at each end of the house is a one-room extension with a bowed end. Several stylistic details ornament mark the exterior, including an Italianate roof and elaborate wooden brackets, Gothic window arches, and Gothic gingerbread trefoil motifs trimming the verandah. Interior detailing and furnishings reflect the wealth and influence of the owners. The Main Hallway features fine woodcarvings by European artisans. The Gothic motif is used throughout, and is particularly dramatic in the woodcarvings in the Main Hall and stairs and the bracketed ceiling and stained-glass windows in the dining room. The Asa Packer Mansion has been preserved, complete with original furnishings, and is open to the public. Asa Packer built a second mansion for his son, Harry Packer, and the Harry Packer Mansion is now used as an inn. Following the death of his daughter, Mary Packer Cummings in 1912, the Asa Packer Mansion and furnishings were given to the borough of Mauch Chunk. The Packer family lived in the home from 1861-1912. In 1974 the Asa Packer Mansion was designated a National Historic Landmark. The Asa Packer Mansion is open to the public.

The Asa Packer Mansion Museum is located at 30 Elk St., in Jim Thorpe, and is open weekends during April, May, November and the first 3 weekends in December. The Mansion is open 7 days a week from Memorial Day to October 31, 11:00am to 4:15pm. For group reservations, please call 570-325-3229, or visit www.asapackermansionmuseum.homestead.com.

Carbon County Jail

The Carbon County Jail in historic Mauch Chunk is an excellent example of 19th-century prison construction, as well as a reminder of the 19th-century labor-management conflicts in the Pennsylvania anthracite coal region. Designed and built from 1869 to 1970, the jail is a two-story rusticated stone building with thick, massive walls and a tower. The jail could hold 29 prisoners. In 1875, the jail was crowded with miners, either Irish-born or the sons of Irish immigrants, who were accused of a series of murders on behalf of what the mine owners, railroad men, the prosecutors, anti-labor and anti-Catholic nativists, and the press described as an ominous terrorist conspiracy—the Molly Maguires.

Mauch Chunk (today Jim Thorpe) was a commercial and transport center for the coal region, and therefore became a center of efforts at organizing mine workers. The Irish immigrants who settled in the coal regions of Pennsylvania faced economic and social discrimination. To help fight discrimination and advocate for better working conditions, they turned to a fraternal, self-help organization, the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), and to an early trade union, the Workingmen’s Benevolent Association. But a distinct minority of miners also turned to an older, historic pattern of collective communal violence brought from their Irish homeland. In Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries, this violence was directed against rural landlords and their agents, policemen and judges. In Pennsylvania, this pattern was repeated, but in an area undergoing rapid, modern industrialization, and the violence was directed towards mine owners, superintendents, policemen, justices of the peace, and skilled British miners (who were paid more than the unskilled Irish laborers). In the 1860s and 1870s, 16 men were assassinated, most of them mine officials. The Irish miners who turned to violence were called Molly Maguires, taking their name from the legendary widow Molly Maguire, said to have led anti-landlord resistance in the 1840s.

The violence in the anthracite coal fields occurred during a period when the railroads and coal companies were consolidating their hold on the industry, depressing miners wages, and working to destroy the coal miners union. While union leaders remained opposed to violence, some miners (which included some union members) turned to intimidation, violence, riot and assassination. The coal interest responded by forming their own private police force and hiring the private Pinkerton Detective Agency to investigate the miners. James McParlan, a Pinkerton detective hired by the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, infiltrated the Molly Maguires and gathered evidence that led to the convictions and execution of 20 men for murder, and prison sentences for 19 others. The sensational trials were held in Pottsville, the county seat of Schuylkill, and in Mauch Chunk where the accused were held in the Carbon County Jail. Of the twenty convicted Molly Maguires, seven men were hung at the Carbon County Jail, including Alexander Campbell (an AOH treasurer), John “Yellow Jack” Donohue, Thomas Fisher, Michael Doyle and Edward Kelly, all members of the AOH, and James McDonnell and Charles Sharp(e), while the other men were hung in Pottsville.

The trials of the Molly Maguires, which received incendiary and biased press coverage, were patently unfair: prosecuting attorneys worked for the railroad or mining companies (not the state); Irish Catholics were not allowed to serve on the juries; some juries consisted primarily of German-speakers who knew little or no English; and in a number of trials, the sole prosecuting evidence came either from James McParlan, who admitted to attending meetings where assassinations were planned, but did not warn the intended victims, or from men who after being convicted of murder, became prosecution witnesses in order to lessen their sentences. The convictions and death sentences crushed the Molly Maguires and the cause of organized labor suffered as a result of the trials and the identification of the Molly Maguires with the mine union movement.

The Carbon County Jail is located at 128 Broadway St., in Jim Thorpe. Now the Old Jail Museum and Heritage Center, the museum is open ????????????. Call 570-325-5259 for further information.

Lehigh Canal

The engineering survey on the Lehigh Canal started in 1818 and construction began on the Lehigh Navigation Canal in 1819 on the Lehigh River at the mouth of the Nesquahoning Creek. The Canal was completed from Easton to Mauch Chunk in 1829. Economically, the canal owed its existence to the discovery of coal in the Mauch Chunk area in 1791 and to the efforts of Josiah White and other entrepreneurs to improve the Lehigh River for shipping anthracite coal. Owned and operated by the Leigh Coal and Navigation Company for more than 100 years, the Lehigh Canal shaped the development of industry and communities along its path. Anthracite coalfields were opened to national markets, and by 1846, shipped more than 2 million tons of anthracite annually; in 1923 it shipped a record 5 million tons of coal. The Lehigh Canal was not only important in the transportation of anthracite coal from the mines of Carbon County to Philadelphia but also had a significant impact on the Lehigh Valley especially in the Allentown-Bethlehem region. The economic impact of the canal can be seen in population growth, industrial and mining development, urbanization and agricultural change and growth. Population growth in the Lehigh Valley increased more rapidly than the rest of the United States from 1800 to 1820 because of the accessibility of the Lehigh River. Allentown had a 100 percent increase in population and by 1830 the population increased another 28 percent and, with the completion of the canal, Allentown was ready to become a mature industrial town. Industrially, Allentown benefitted greatly from the canal.

In 1830, 303 tons of anthracite moved down the canal and by 1839, the peak year of the canal, 6,638 tons were hauled. As the railroad provided even lower costs after 1870 the canal lost much of its earlier importance. The Great Depression effectively ended the operations of the canal and in 1931 shipping on the canal stopped. Along the length of the canal are the remains of its 76 locks, eight guard locks, 28 dams, six aqueducts, locktenders houses, and canal villages. The general Lehigh River Basin Watershed Area provided the water and the average speed was two to three miles per hour with a two-mule draft. The working day was generally 12 to 16 hours. The Lehigh Canal was divided into two sections. Section 1, the lower canal, ran from Easton to Mauch Chunk (Jim Thorpe) and was 46.5 miles long. Section 2, the upper canal, ran from Mauch Chunk north to White Haven and was 26 miles long. Above White Haven two dam chutes (bear trap locks) were operated from Stoddartsville. The canal was dug 60 feet wide at the top and 45 feet wide at the bottom and was five to six feet deep. Towpaths were eight to 12 feet wide.

A Visitor Center for the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor is located in Easton. It is open Tuesday-Sunday, from 10:00am to 5:00pm. Located on the Delaware River, I-78 and 22 pass Easton, and I-80 passes through Carbon and Luzerne Counties, an hour to the north of Easton. I-81 intersects I-78 an hour's drive to the west. Public Transportation - Amtrak has two stations within the Corridor, one in Bristol and one in Doylestown. There is bus service from Philadelphia and New York City to various communities within the Corridor. Please call the Visitor Center at 610-515-8000 at Two Rivers Landing. While visiting Two Rivers Landing in Easton, plan to visit the Crayola Factory and the National Canal Museum in the same building.

Fireman's Drinking Fountain

The Fireman's Drinking Fountain was dedicated in 1909 by Hose Company # 1, Slatington. The 12 foot high statue was purchased from J. W. Fiske Iron Works, New York City, for $700 and depicts a volunteer fireman carrying a child on his left arm and holding a lantern in his right hand. The lantern is illuminated with an electric light bulb at night. Erected in the center of the Borough of Slatington, to supply a public water source on Main Street, the fountain was designed to provide a drinking fountain for people and a drinking area for horses and dogs. The purchase price was raised through the donations of many local residents. The statue was intended to be symbol of volunteer service, vigilance, and humanity. It does not memorialize a deceased firefighter, but instead honors the living as well as the spirit of voluntary service in the Slatington region. The importance of this statue to Slatington was demonstrated when it was damaged in October, 1979 by an automobile. Through a tremendous community effort the Fireman's Drinking Fountain was restored to its original form, and rededicated on July 19, 1980.

The Fireman's Drinking Fountain is located on Main St., adjacent to the Slatington Public Library, in Slatington.

Coplay Cement Company Kilns

From 1893 to 1904 the nine vertical kilns of the Coplay Cement Company were used for the production of portland cement. Built as an improvement in kiln technology over the bottle or dome kiln then in use, the 90 foot high vertical kilns had the advantage of producing a higher quality product than dome kilns and produced it on a continuous basis as well. However, they were almost immediately superseded by rotary kiln technology that required very little labor to operate. In 1904 the company shut down its vertical kilns and in the 1920s demolished the surrounding buildings and removed the upper 30 feet of the kilns. Lehigh County acquired the kilns in 1976 and launched a rehabilitation campaign. The restored and stabilized kilns now house a cement industry museum. Not only do these structures represent the transition in kiln technology from the bottle or dome kiln to the rotary kiln, but they stand as a fitting monument to the pioneering role of David O. Saylor, the Coplay Cement Company, and the Lehigh Valley area in the development of the American portland cement industry. Several years before he constructed his first cement plant in 1866, Saylor purchased the land where it and the future mills of the Coplay Cement Company would be located. His first mill, often referred to as plant A, where he made his first portland cement in 1871, was utilized well into the 1890s but was demolished early in the 20th century. In 1892, eight years after Saylor's death, the Coplay management, faced with a growing demand for its product, decided to erect a new mill, and eventually 11 Schoefer kilns, which were a Danish modification of an upright kiln originally developed in Germany were built. Constructed of locally made red brick, these kilns were utilized for the production of portland cement. By 1900 this region provided the nation with 75 percent of its cement and had been the scene of a number of technological breakthroughs like the development of the rotary kiln. In the long run, this growth, which was made possible by Saylor and his company, enabled the United States to become the world's leading producer of cement, manufacturing by the 1920s four times as much as Great Britain, its nearest competitor.

The Coplay Cement Company Kilns are located on North Second St., in Coplay. The area is now a Saylor Park, owned by Lehigh County, and open Saturday and Sunday, from 1:00pm to 4:00pm, and by appointment. For further information call 610-435-4664 or visit Saylor Park's website.

George Taylor House

The George Taylor Mansion, a National Historic Landmark, was built by Philadelphia Carpenters in 1768, as the home of George Taylor, one of Pennsylvania's signers of the Declaration of Independence. George Taylor was born in 1716, probably in northern Ireland, and came to Pennsylvania as an indentured servant in 1736. He was put to work as a clerk at the Warwick Iron Furnace and Coventry in Chester County, and by 1739 had become manager of this 1796-acre plantation. In 1742 he married Anne Taylor Savage, widow of the ironmaster for whom Taylor had been working. From 1769 to 1770 Taylor was a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly. In July 1775 he was elected to the position of Colonel in the Bucks County Assembly. Sent to the Pennsylvania Assembly in October 1775, Taylor served with distinction on important committees and helped draft instructions to delegates to the Continental Congress in November. On July 20, 1776, Taylor was appointed to the Continental Congress with four other representatives to replace the Pennsylvania delegates who refused to sign the Declaration of Independence. Taylor signed the engrossed copy of that document on August 2, or thereafter, but took no other part in the activities of the Congress, except to represent it, with George Walton, at a conference with Native Americans held at Easton in January 1777. Taylor evidently quit Congress soon afterward. In March 1777 he was elected from Northampton County to the new Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, but because of illness he served only six weeks and then retired from active public affairs. From August 1775 to 1778 Taylor was also greatly involved in the production at the Durham Furnace of grape shot, cannon balls, bar shot, and cannon for the Revolutionary armies. In 1778 Taylor was dispossessed of his lease of the Durham Furnace (which had been owned by the Philadelphia Loyalist John Galloway) by the Commissioner of Fortified Estates. Taylor then leased the Greenwich Forge in Greenwich Township, New Jersey, which he operated until 1781. In April 1780 he moved from the Greenwich Forge to Easton, Pennsylvania, where he died on February 23, 1781.

The George Taylor Mansion is a two-story Georgian stone house with symmetrically paired brick end-chimneys and a gable roof with flattened ridge. The main house, rectangular in shape, is five bays wide and two bays deep with a central hall that extends throughout the house. The walls, 24 inches thick, are of stone masonry rubble and finished with a thick slaked-lime stucco that gives the house its white appearance. The two-story stone kitchen wing adjoining the main house at the south end was built on the main axis around 1800. The central hall divides the four first floor rooms into pairs: the living room and parlor are on the left, and the dining room and reception (or service) room on the right. The second floor contains four bedrooms and two small dressing rooms. A short distance to the east or rear of the house is a one and a half story brick summer kitchen which was built around 1850.

The George Taylor Mansion, owned and operated by the Lehigh County Historical Society, is located at 35 South Front St., in Catasauqua. The Mansion is open June-October, Saturdays and Sundays, 1:00pm to 4:00pm. There is a fee. Please call 610-435-4664 or visit the website for further information.

Central Bethlehem Historic District

The Central Bethlehem Historic District is historically important beyond its current emphasis on the Moravian period of 1741 to 1844 considering the impact of industrialization and religious pluralism. The Moravian community functioned as a Utopian experiment, which allowed for cultural expression and religious adherence to a pietistic belief from German theologians emigrating from Europe to this part of Pennsylvania to bring Christianity to the Native Americans. Their communal way of life established extraordinary 18th-century industry and hand crafts in shared cooperative efforts. The various Moravian communal buildings, with 18th-century Germanic architectural elements, such as herringbone pattern doors, gambrel roofs with flared eaves, brick jack-arched windows and doors, tiled roofs, Germanic sloping-roofed dormers, parged stone walls, and deep-set windows represent the largest collection of Germanic style architecture in the United States. After 1844 the divestiture of property by the Moravian Congregation enabled people of all religions to purchase land in Bethlehem. With the newly built Trinity Episcopal, Wesley Methodist, and Salem Lutheran churches, religious pluralism had arrived in Bethlehem. The growth of Bethlehem after 1845 was affected by the heavy industry when the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Bethlehem Iron Company (later Bethlehem Steel) established their headquarters in the community. Several examples of high style architecture as monuments to wealthy industrialists were built on Main Street. In 1892 George H. Myers, director of Bethlehem Iron Company, the First National Bank, and the Lehigh Valley Railroad, built the largest building in the Lehigh Valley at 525 Main Street. Five stories high and built of Milford pink granite from Maine, it was designed by Philadelphia architect Wills G. Hale. Not all architectural innovations originated with wealthy industrialists, homes in the Gothic, Second Empire and Queen Anne styles can be found within the historic district.

The Central Bethlehem Historic District is bordered roughly by Broad St., Linden St., Monocacy Creek and West St., Mitmat St., part of Schaffer St. and First Ave. facing Monocacy Creek or visit the website.

The Central Bethlehem Historic District is the subject of an online-lesson plan produced by Teaching with Historic Places, a National Register program that offers classroom-ready lesson plans on properties listed in the National Register. To learn more, visit the Teaching with Historic Places home page.

Old Waterworks

Begun in 1754 and enlarged in 1762, the Bethlehem Waterworks is thought to be the first municipal pumping system to provide drinking and washing water in the United States. Johann Christopher Christensen devised the system in 1754 to transfer spring water from the Monocray Creek flood plain to the Moravian settlement on the bluff above it. Six years later, Christensen enlarged the waterworks and installed it in a 24-foot-square limestone rubble structure with a red-tile covered hipped-bellcast-gable roof. The system's 18-foot undershot waterwheel powered three single acting cast-iron pumps which forced spring water through wood (later lead) pipes 320 feet (94 vertical feet) by a collecting tower, and from there water flowed by gravity to strategically placed cisterns throughout the community. Machines to raise water had been in use in Europe for centuries, but until the construction of the Bethlehem Waterworks, none had been erected in the American Colonies. In 1652 the Water-Works Company of Boston had constructed a gravity conduit system that used bored logs to convey water from wells and springs to a 12-foot-square reservoir, but the system had not fulfilled the expectations of its promoters and had fallen into disuse. Christensen, born in Schleswig-Holstein in 1716 and trained during his youth in a royal mill in Hadersleben, probably took his ideas for the Bethlehem system from his knowledge of the forcing pumps that had been in use in many German cities since the end of the 15th century. The system served the city until 1832.

By the 1960s the area had become an automobile junkyard. The stone pumphouse was restored in the 1970s, and the waterwheel and pumps were subsequently reconstructed based on the original plans that had been preserved in the Moravian Archives in Germany. The Old Waterworks is a National Historic Landmark.

The Old Waterworks is located at 459 Old York Rd., in Bethlehem, on the east bank of Monocacy Creek immediately north of Hill-to-Hill Bridge and immediately west of Main St. The Waterworks, administered by Historic Bethlehem, Inc., is open July 7-August 25 from 12:00pm to 4:00pm. There is a fee. Please call 610-691-0603 or visit the website.

Moravian Sun Inn

The 1758 Sun Inn was a successful 18th-century inn, constructed by the leaders of the Moravian community at Bethlehem. The inn provided accommodations for merchants who had business with the community while maintaining a proper separation between the Moravian brethren and outsiders. Because of Bethlehem's proximity to Philadelphia, the Inn housed numerous figures famous in colonial politics, including Generals Gates, Mifflin, and Sullivan, John Hancock, John Adams, Samuel Adams, the Marquis de Lafayette, and George Washington. Bethlehem served twice during the American Revolution, as medical headquarters for George Washington's forces. Following the Battle of Brandywine, over 900 wagons, containing heavy baggage and stores of George Washington's army, were parked in the lowlands to the rear of the Inn. At this time the Sun Inn was heavily burdened by the influx of those individuals fleeing the Philadelphia area in the aftermath of the battle. Another reason for the attraction of so many well-known figures was its high quality of accommodations. In 1782, a traveler expressed his happiness with the Inn by saying that it "is not inferior to the best large inns of England". In 1799 the Inn served as the prison for 17 local "Freis rebels" resisting the unpopular window tax. The original Sun Inn, built in 1758, was a two-story stone building with a mansard roof. In 1826, extensive repairs to the roof were required and a third story, containing 17 rooms, was added. In 1866 the building was enlarged for a hotel and commercial use and bears little resemblance to the original inn.

The Moravian Sun Inn is located at 564 Main St., Bethlehem, and is run as a museum by the Sun Inn Preservation Association, Inc. Guided tours are given Monday-Saturday from 11:30am to 4:00pm; Friday and Saturday from 5:00pm to 9:00pm. There is a fee. Call 610-866-1758 for further information.

Gemeinhaus-Lewis David De Schweinitz Residence

The Gemeinhaus (or communal house), an excellent example of German-Moravian architecture, has been owned by the Moravian Church since 1733. It is a two and one-half story log building with a double attic. Clapboards were added to the exterior in 1868. Since 1743 the building has measured 94 feet by 32 feet, and contained a chapel, 12 rooms, and two dormitories. As the second building in Bethlehem it provided a gathering place for all Moravian activities; later it was primarily used as a residence for Moravian Church officials and their families. Lewis David de Schweinitz was born in the Gemeinhaus in 1780. At the time, his father, Hans Christian, a Moravian clergyman, lived in the building with five other clergymen and their families. The house was his home until he left Bethlehem to attend school in Nazareth at the age of seven. In 1822 de Schweinitz returned to Bethlehem from Salem, North Carolina. As an official of the Moravian Church, he and his family were lodged in the Gemeinhaus. The house remained his home until his death in 1834. Lewis David de Schweinitz is significant in the history of science in America as one of the leading botanists and the leading mycologist at the turn of the 19th century. He wrote The Fungi of North Carolina (1818), containing descriptions of more than 1,000 species and followed this work with "A Synopsis of North American Fungi," published in Transactions, the journal of the American Philosophical Society, in 1834. Lewis David de Schweinitz's work in botany and mycology reflected the state of American science of the period, when men who wished to pursue natural history either possessed private means or supported themselves at other professions. He corresponded widely with European colleagues, but, as a clergyman, science was secondary to de Schweinitz. The Gemeinhaus was designated a National Historic Landmark and is now a museum open to the public.

The Gemeinhaus-Lewis David de Schweinitz Residence is located on West Church St. in Bethlehem. Take Rte. 309 North to Rte. 378 North, across Hill Bridge. Turn right at Main St. exit and right onto Market St. Turn right onto New St. and right again onto West Church St. and go to number 66. The Gemeinhaus is open February-December, Tuesday-Saturday 1:00pm to 4:00pm. Other times call for appointment. There is a fee. Please call 610-867-0713 or visit the website.

Lehigh Valley Silk Mills

The Lehigh Valley Silk Mills consisted of two firms, the Lipps & Sutton Silk Mill, which was one of the first silk mills built in the Lehigh Valley, constructed between 1886 and 1904, and the Warren Mill constructed in 1895. The complex is of red brick vernacular construction and represents the variety of local silk mill architecture. By 1920 the Lehigh Valley, which includes the three major cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton, had become the second most important silk producing region in the nation. The area was surpassed in silk production only by Paterson, New Jersey. The iron, steel, and cement industries were indirectly responsible for the development of the silk and textile industries in the Lehigh Valley. Workers coming from Southern and Central Europe who were willing to work for low wages in these basic heavy industries also brought with them knowledge of the skills in the textile arts (spinning, weaving, and sewing). The region's location near Eastern markets was also important in the growth of the textile industry. The Warren Mill is devoid of ornamentation, while the Lipps & Sutton Mill, designed by locally prominent architect A. W. Leh, has distinctive decorative features that include small corbeled corner turrets with pyramidal pinnacles of sheet metal. The Lehigh Valley Silk Mills operation was one of the major silk mill complexes in the Lehigh Valley region. In 1918 the Lehigh Valley Silk Mills included Warren Mill, Lloyd Mills, and Williamsburg Mills, had 50,000 spindles and six boilers, and employed 600 workers; although it is not clear if these figures are for Warren Mill alone or the three mentioned mills together. Lehigh Valley Silk Mills ended in bankruptcy in 1937. It was recently renovated and received a federal historic preservation tax credit. The Silk Mills are now private residences and the govenment offices for the Fountain Hill borough.

Lehigh Valley Silk Mills are located on Seneca and Clewell Sts., in Fountain Hill borough. The borough offices are open during normal business hours.

Ehrhart's Mill Historic District

Please Note: Unfortunately, portions of Ehrhart's Mill Historic District were destroyed by fire, including the mill itself. We have retained this page as a source of historical information.

Ehrhart's Mill Historic District lies along Old Mill Road beside the Saucon Creek in a shallow valley in Lower Saucon Township. A large gristmill and two houses dominate the center of the district. Ehrhart's Mill is a survivor of the numerous gristmills that once operated throughout the Lehigh Valley. Ehrhart's Mill Historic District contains nine buildings and four structures, which were built during the 19th century. The buildings include one small barn, the stone gristmill, and three stone or brick vernacular houses. The most prominent structure is the bridge, an iron Pratt Truss structure erected in 1867. The district possesses good integrity, with few major alterations made to the buildings or structures. The largest resource in the district, is the gristmill located between Old Mill Road and the Saucon Creek. The mill building is a five level, three-story stone edifice, measuring 40 by 55 feet. Milling activity began at this site on Saucon Creek in the 18th century. The Ehrhart family acquired the property in the 1850s and built it into one of the largest grist milling operations in the county by the late 19th century, shipping grain in from the Midwest and transporting flour to eastern cities. In addition to the gristmill, the mill complex includes a barn, scale house, and several houses associated with the Ehrhart family. The mill retains almost all its 19th-century power train and equipment.

Ehrhart's Mill Historic District is located along Old Mill Rd. along Saucon Creek less than a half-mile from Hellertown.

Lock Ridge Furnace Complex

Construction of the Lock Ridge Iron Furnace began in 1868 during the peak of the anthracite iron industry. Utilizing anthracite coal or coke rather than charcoal as fuel, a hot rather than cold blast to speed oxidation, and a steam engine rather than bellows to force the hot blast into the furnace, anthracite iron making flourished in the valleys of the Susquehanna, Schulkill, and Lehigh Rivers from about 1840 to 1890. Lehigh Valley was the most important center of the industry. The Lock Ridge Furnace continued to operate until after WW I, long after most other furnaces had succumbed to competition from major firms using modern equipment. The site was restored as a park and museum in the early 1970s. The furnace now consists of the furnace room, engine room and cast room of Furnace No. 7; the former weighmaster's house; the oil house; partial ruins of Furnace No. 8 and its associated buildings; the carpenter's shop; the blacksmith shop; and the piers for the trestles which received railroad cars carrying materials. The Lock Ridge complex is one of only two remaining furnaces of the many that were in operation in central and eastern Pennsylvania in 1876.

The Lock Ridge Furnace Museum is located at 525 Franklin St, in Alburtis. The hours are Saturday-Sunday, 1:00pm to 4:00pm, May-September. Call 610-435-4664 or visit www.voicenet.com/~lchs/museum/lchsmus.html for more information.

Chain Bridge

The Chain Bridge was built by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in 1857 to enable people and mules to cross the Lehigh River. The bridge was used to ferry the mules across the river, and allowed the animals to tow the boats and barges from one bank to the other. Although listed in the National Register as Chain Bridge, is is actually a change bridge--a special structure with an underpass that allowed mules towing canal boats to move, cloverleaf style, from one side of the canal to the other without unhitching. The bridge is composed of three stone piers and two spans. Each pier is approximately 30 feet high and the center pier is about 40 feet across at water level. At each of the end piers is a metal capping and cable anchorage for the three-inch cables which supported the bridge surface. When built, the bridge was one of the early uses of stranded cable for bridge construction. The stranded cable was made on the site, possibly by the Roebling Company, who built several suspension bridges, including the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge was intended to carry only pedestrians and animals, not vehicular traffic. In the 1950s the road surface was removed from the piers. The bridge remains significant because it was an integral part of the long defunct canal system. It is also a fine example of the early use of standard cable for bridge construction. The bridge represents a unique civil engineering solution to a canal era problem and played a vital role in the transportation system that opened up the Lehigh Valley to outside development and established coal as an invaluable heating and industrial fuel.

The Chain Bridge is located about a half mile southwest of Glendon on the Hugh Moore Prky. across the Lehigh River.

Easton Historic District

Located favorably at the junction of the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers and the mouth of the Great and Lehigh Valleys, Easton occupied a position astride both major east-west and north-south trade routes and became a commercial and transportation center of national importance. Because of its position Easton was also a center of frontier government and diplomacy. Transportation development began as early as 1740 and grew continuously. Easton developed a considerable river trade, by means of Durham boats, with Philadelphia and other parts of the American colonies. The years between 1820 and 1850 marked Easton's most pronounced growth as one of the country's most important canal junctions. During the last half of the 19th century it was connected to five railroads and the three massive rail bridges crossing the Delaware River here reflect the importance of the community. The commercial and residential buildings in the Easton Historic District represent the dynamic growth and wealth of the community in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Easton Historic District is a relatively intact Victorian commercial center. Within the district, examples of Colonial architecture include the Parsons-Taylor House at 58 South Fourth Street and the Easton House Tavern located at 1 North Second Street. Federal architecture is exemplified by the Mixsell House (Northampton County Historical Society) located at 104 South Fourth Street and the First Public Library located at 32 North Second Street. The Eclectic and Revival styles can be found at the Herman Simon House on 41 North Third Street, the Benjamin Reigel House at 214 Spring Garden Street and the Detwiler House located at 54 Centre Square. The old Northampton National Bank Building located at 400-402 Northampton Square and the Old State Theater at 415-453 represent the Beaux Arts style of 1890-1920. The Art Deco architectural style is represented by the Jacob Mayer Building located at 1,2,3, Centre Square and the Bell Telephone Building located at 47 North Fourth Street.

The Easton Historic district is generally bounded by Riverside Dr. before the Delaware River, Bushkill Dr., Ferry St., Lehigh St., Union St., Walnut St., South 7th St., Church St. and Hestor St. in Easton. Many of the businesses within the district open to the public during normal business hours.

Delaware Canal

Approved by the Pennsylvania legislature in 1827 as part of the State's grand scheme to construct a statewide system of canals, the Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal was completed in 1832. The longest-lived canal in the country, operating for more than a century, the canal opened the anthracite coalfields to the markets of Philadelphia and New York City. Anthracite made up more than 90 percent of the canal's cargo. Through its connections with the Lehigh Canal, the Delaware Canal served a primary function in the development of the anthracite coal industry in the upper Lehigh Valley. By providing a convenient and economical means of transplanting the coal to Philadelphia, New York, and the eastern seaboard, the advantages of this heating medium were made available to thousands of individuals and industries, thus conserving the rapidly dwindling wood resources being consumed for domestic heating purposes.

The introduction of anthracite in place of charcoal in the operation of the iron furnaces stimulated the expansion of iron industries along the Lehigh and Delaware rivers. During the Delaware Canal's active existence, approximately 33 million tons of anthracite coal and about 6 million tons of miscellaneous cargoes, including foodstuffs for communities were transported along the canal. The Delaware Canal also stimulated local economies along its route, and all the communities along its length enjoyed prosperity. Now maintained as a State park, the Delaware Canal still contains water throughout most of its original length. Almost all of the locks, aqueducts, and overflows are still extant, as well as numerous associated historic properties such as lockkeeper houses and camelback bridges. Designated a National Historic Landmark, the Delaware Canal retains a great deal of integrity throughout its length and provides a nostalgic reminder of a once vital transportation link.

The Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal, or Roosevelt State Park, parallels the west bank of the Delaware River from Easton to Bristol (Bucks and Northampton Counties). The Visitor Center, at Two Rivers Landing, in Easton is open Tuesday-Sunday, from 10:00am to 5:00pm. Please call the Visitor Center at 610-515-8000 or visit the website.

Durham Mill and Furnace

The Durham Mill is typical of early 19th-century gristmills in the eastern part of Pennsylvania. The 3-story stone building was built in 1820 on the foundation walls of the historic Durham Furnace. The furnace, dating from 1727, had produced pig and bar iron as well as cast iron pans, utensils and stove plates for nearly 70 years. Pig iron was crude iron; the direct product of the blast furnace. When refined, it produces steel or wrought iron. The mill, always operated with an overshot wheel, drew its water from Cook's Creek by way of a 3/4 mile long raceway. One of the first managers of the furnace was Colonel George Taylor, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. During his time there the furnace produced cannons, cannon balls and shot, and other military equipment for the American troops. Ironically, a loyalist named Joseph Galloway actually owned the furnace then. Also associated with the war were the Durham boats designed for river commerce by Robert Durham. George Washington used 40 of these boats in his historic crossing of the Delaware River. Another Revolutionary War figure associated with the area was general Daniel Morgan, a native of Durham and an employee at the furnace at age 16. Rubin Knecht Bachman, a US Representative during the Hayes administration, owned the mill in the late 19th century and early 1900s. The outstanding addition over these years was the brick warehouse with gamble roof built in 1812. The mill was in continuous operation until 1967, producing primarily livestock feed in its later years.

Durham Mill and Furnace is located on Durham Rd. in Durham Township, Bucks County. The building is not open to the public.

Ridge Valley Rural Historic District

Ridge Valley Rural Historic District contains more than 575 acres of land in Tinicum Township. The terrain is characterized by exposed shale, steep slopes, creeks, winding roads, open fields, and woods. The name for this historic district comes from the 1891 Atlas, in which this area was labeled Ridge Valley School District. The architecture consists mostly of 19th-century farmsteads, typically with 3-bay farmhouses built of red shale, bank barns, and other outbuildings creating a distinctive type of traditional Bucks County vernacular farm architecture. Settlement of the Ridge Valley began in the late 18th century and farming flourished on the hilly terrain through the 19th century. Ridge Valley farming did not modernize in the 20th century and few farms weathered the Great Depression. The unique survival of the 19th-century characteristics of Ridge Valley farmsteads results from the efforts of an influx of New York city artists, who began moving to Bucks County in the 1920s and 30s. Personalities who moved to Tinicum Township included artist Charles Rudy, screenwriter John Wexley, actress Miriam Hopkins, songwriter Jerome Kern, playwright S.J. Perelman, and satirist Dorothy Parker.

The Ridge Valley Rural Historic District encompasses all of Sheep Hole Rd. and parts of Headquarters, Geigel Hill, Red Hill, Tabor and Bunker Hill Rds. in Ottsville (Tinicum Township). Take a right off Durham Rd. in Ottsville-the core of the Ridge Valley Historic District is the valley cut by the Tinicum Creek through which Sheep Hole Rd. travels. The properties located in the district are privately owned, but the main roads are public.

Green Hills Farm (Pearl S. Buck House)

Green Hills farm consists of a complex of buildings constructed over the past 200 years on approximately 58 acres. The property has been designated a National Historic Landmark for its association with noted author Pearl S. Buck, Buck purchased the farm in 1933 and made it her home until her death in 1973. The house's solid stone and 1835 age, she later said, symbolized for her strength and durability. The oldest building on the property is a one-story stone summer kitchen that was purportedly constructed before the American Revolution. Constructed of coursed fieldstone, the house is four bays wide and two deep with the main entrance located in the second bay. Two gable dormers are located on the front and rear slope of the roof. Chimneys are located on each gable end. When Mrs. Buck purchased the farmstead, she made extensive alternations and additions to the 19th-century farmhouse, including a two-story fieldstone wing added to the east gable. The author of more than 85 books and winner of the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes in literature, Buck gained fame for her books on China, notably The Good Earth, which chronicled the fictional life of the farmer Wang Lung against the backdrop of 20th-century turmoil and revolution in China. At the time of her death the American literary establishment had consigned her work to a middle brow rank in the history of American literature, and while she was popularly acclaimed she received critical rejection from college textbooks and anthologies until sometime after her death. The stone farmhouse and outbuildings are currently used as the center for the Pearl S. Buck Foundation. The house is maintained as a museum and is open to the public.

The Pearl S. Buck House is located southwest of Dublin at 520 Dublin Rd., in Hilltown Township, Bucks County. Tours are offered of the home Tuesday-Saturday at 11:00am, 1:00pm and 2:00pm, and on Sundays at 1:00pm and 2:00pm. Closed on Mondays and major holidays. There is a fee. Please call 1-800-220-2825 ext. 170 or visit the website (www.pearlsbuck.org)for further information. Today, Green Hills Farm is the headquarters of the Pearl S. Buck International (PSBI), a non-sectarian development and humanitarian assistance organization dedicated to improving the quality of life and expanding opportunities for children, who, as a result of the circumstances of their birth, have been denied access to educational, social, economic and civil rights.

Fonthill

Now recognized as a National Historic Landmark, the estate of Fonthill was once the home of the noted anthropologist, antiquarian, artist, writer, and tile-maker Henry C. Mercer, a leader in the turn-of-the-century Arts and Crafts movement. Mercer was known for his collection of pre-industrial Pennsylvania crafts and household utensils and for his work with tiles. Fonthill defies any classification or categorization. It is a pioneering example of using reinforced concrete as a building medium. Each room is unique, neither are any two columns alike, for Mercer felt that just as no trees were alike, neither would be any two rooms or items constructed in his mansion. Mercer drew his inspiration for the building from various sources, including Byzantine churches in Greece, Mont St. Michel in France, a Turkish house in Salonica, and the paintings of Gerard Dow. A woodcut entitled "The Haunted" in the short story "A Stable for Nightmares" also contributed to the design. Mercer's anthropological experience and travels contributed to his unique and extensive collections of ceramic tiles, prints, tapestries, and books. The buildings of this estate are made of reinforced concrete with red tiles covering the roofs of some of the buildings. The Mercer mansion resembles a medieval castle in some respects and the main building, with its four-story tower with mansard roof and balcony, is referred to as "The Castle." The garage or 'pavilion terrace' is separate from the main building and has numerous chimneys and dormers fashioned into dovecotes or birdhouses. The estate's present appearance remains unchanged since the death of Dr. Mercer in 1930.

From I-95 take New Town/Yardley Ext. 30, and follow the 413/332 bypass around New Town to Rte. 413 North. Take 413 north to Buckingham, and make left on 202 south, follow signs to Doylestown. Take 313 left, also known as Swamp Rd. At the next stoplight, make a left on Court St. Fonthill is on the right and is open by guided tour only, 10:00am to 5:00pm, Monday-Friday, 12:00pm to5:00pm Sunday, closed on Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year's. There is a fee. Call 215-348-9461 or visit the website for further information.

Moravian Pottery & Tile Works

The Moravian Pottery and Tile Works was established by noted anthropologist, antiquarian, artist, writer, and tile-maker Henry C. Mercer, a leader in the turn-of-the-century Arts and Crafts movement, in an effort to recreate early Pennsylvania pottery manufacturing techniques. In style, the Tile Works is an adaptation of the California Mission Church, partly chosen because Mercer believed good art came from religious faith; in construction it reflects the early use of reinforced concrete for industrial purposes. The Moravian Tile Works is his second building, constructed after the first was destroyed by fire. The name Moravian is derived from his collection of old Moravian stove plates. Mercer's factory produced tiles depicting Pennsylvania flora and fauna. Mercer was awarded a gold medal at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition and a 1921 gold medal from the American Institute of Architects. The Tile Works is owned by the Bucks County Department of Parks and Recreation and is open to the public as a museum illustrating Mercer's tile making techniques. The Moravian Pottery and Tile Works building is a short distance away from the Mercer Museum, and is a "U" shaped building constructed around an open courtyard. Built of reinforced concrete with concrete buttresses, measuring approximately 120 feet by 100 feet with arcaded court, it resembles a medieval cloister. The factory is 2 ½ stories built in tiers with towers. The gable roofs have rounded ridges of brushed concrete with steep parapets at the gable ends. Irregular chimneys and windows with a variety of decorative tiles are set in both exterior and interior walls. The present building, built between 1911 and 1912, still functions as a manufactory of mostly architectural tiles, and was designated as a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of Interior in 1985.

Located alongside Fonthill, the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works is located on Fonthill and Moravian Pottery Court St. and 130 Swamp Rd., off of Rte. 313, which runs north/south of Doylestown. The Moravian Pottery and Tile Works Museum is open daily from 10:00am to 4:45pm, and closed on major holidays. There is a fee. Please call 215-345-6722 or visit the website for further information.

Mercer Museum

The Mercer Museum is built entirely of reinforced concrete and is one of the earliest and most impressive examples of this method of construction. Designed by Dr. Henry C. Mercer, anthropologist, antiquarian, artist, writer, tile-maker, and leader in the turn-of-the-century Arts and Crafts movement, this large concrete building was constructed to house his collection of tools and Americana. The museum contains his vast collection of tools, machines, and implements--everything from grist mills to whaling ships are present in the museum. The Museum resembles a medieval castle, with dovecotes, towers, and turrets. All floors, walls, and window frames are concrete; even more remarkable, the roof is constructed of reinforced concrete. The building is 115 feet high and contains 297 windows. The interior rises around a well, or court, by way of a ramp that winds upward from the ground floor. As the visitor moves along the ramp, 70 alcoves or rooms, which exhibit the tools of 40 crafts, many associated with the nation's history, are presented in an informative manner. In Progressive Architecture, October, 1960, Ilse Reese stated, "Though the effect is often weird and theatrical, this building, with its unique spatial plan and its frank and bold construction techniques should establish Henry Mercer as one of the most important forerunners of the Modern Movement." The log cabin built c.1799 is noteworthy as an example of a building technique seldom seen so well preserved and furnished in the state. The process of moving the cabin to its present location in 1911 was a pioneering method of restoration for the time. The library, which was the first building constructed in 1904, is a fine example of Georgian Revival architecture. The Mercer Museum was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985. The museum is owned by the Bucks County Historical Society, as are the other buildings on this site, and is open to the public.

The Mercer Museum is located at 84 South Pine St., Doylestown. From I-95 take exit 30, follow Rte. 332 to Rte. 413 around New Town to Buckingham, take 202 South to Doylestown and do not take the bypass. Once in Doylestown, take a left on Ashland St., and then a left on Pine St. The Mercer Museum is open Monday-Friday, 10:00am to5:00pm, Sunday 12:00pm to5:00pm, Tuesday evenings 5:00pm to 9:00pm. The Mercer Museum is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day . There is a fee, please call 215-345-0210 or visit the website for more information.

Honey Hollow Watershed

Created in 1939, the Honey Hollow Watershed Conservation Area was the first small upland watershed in agricultural use to demonstrate that soil, water, and wildlife conservation and flood prevention could be achieved through cooperative local action. The Honey Hollow Watershed consists of five farms totaling about 650 acres located along the Delaware River north of New Hope, Pennsylvania. It was established when local farmers, dismayed about the erosion of their fields, applied to the Soil Conservation Service for assistance in developing a comprehensive soil conservation plan. The project attracted national attention and became a model of cooperative farmers' action to conserve natural resources. The history of the watershed in regard to conservation began in the 1930s, when the owners of the farms along Honey Creek observed how their fields were washing away. Cultivation by machinery had caused serious sheet and gully erosion on the upland farms, while siltation struck those on the downslope. It was obvious that the erosion must be checked, or else the land would be ruined for agricultural use. The five owners of the farmland in the Honey Hollow watershed combined efforts and took their tale to the regional office of the Soil Conservation Service in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. The Regional Director, Dr. J. P. Jones, agreed to provide the technical assistance needed and the landowners agreed to band together and carry out the soil and water conservation practices prescribed for each tract. Within the next two years terraces and diversion ditches had been constructed to control runoff on steep slopes, long dense hedges had been planted to check erosion and provide waterlife habitat, and several ponds were built and stocked with fish. Almost overnight the "Honey Hollow Project" attracted attention from high levels in the Department of Agriculture, as well as farmers seeking ways to improve their land. Vice President Henry Wallace visited in 1944, and came back other times. Louis Bromfiled, novelist and conservationist, was also a good friend of the project. The Watershed still retains all the conservation measures adopted in the late 1930s, terraces, contour-plowed fields, diversion ditches, wildlife hedges, ponds, and treelands. It is now a National Historic Landmark.

The Honey Hollow Watershed Conservation Project is located in Solebury Township in Bucks County. All the sites are along R.D. #1 in New Hope. They can be seen following Upper York Rd. where it makes a right onto Creamery Rd. There are tours offered of the Honey Hollow Watershed every other Sunday at 1:00pm by the Bucks County Audubon Society, more information is available on their website. Please call 215-297-5880 for further information or visit the Audubon Visitors Center, 2877 Cremery Rd, Solebury Township,New Hope.

Washington Crossing State Park

On December 25, 1776, General George Washington and a small army of 2400 men crossed the Delaware River at McConkey's Ferry, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on their way to successfully attack a Hessian garrison of 1500 at Trenton, New Jersey. This march, at one of the lowest points of the American Revolution, gave the Patriots new hope after their failed effort to keep the British from occupying New York City. The close of 1776 found the cause of American independence from Great Britain staggering under a succession of defeats. In October, the Continental Congress had made provision for a long-term military force, but at the end of the year this establishment was on paper, not in the field where it was desperately needed. Washington, in his camp on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware, realized that he must strike a military blow to the enemy before his army melted away and he was determined to hit the Hessian garrison at Trenton. On the night of December 25, the American main force was ferried across the Delaware River by Colonel John Glover's Marblehead fishermen and in the bleak early morning hours assembled on the New Jersey shore for the march on Trenton, about 10 miles downstream. Surprise was complete, and within an hour and a half after the action opened the Hessians surrendered. The site of the crossing is a National Historic Landmark; the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River is now a state historic site and museum. The crossing vicinity site features the assembly area, embankment point, landing area, the road used by the Continental Army for its attack, the historic McConkey Feryy Inn, the Thompson-Neely House and the 19th-century Village of Taylorsville. Today, the 500-acre recreational area includes 13 historic buildings, replica Durham boats like those used during the 1776 crossing, the noted 100-acre Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve and observation tower, and many picnic areas.

From the PA Trnpk. take 532 towards New Jersey and turn left on 32. Washington Crossing Historic Park is located at 1112 River Rd., in Washington Crossing. Open Tuesday-Saturday, 9:00am to 5:00pm, Sunday, 12:00pm to 5:00pm. Closed major holidays, except Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, and Christmas Day. Visiting hours may change on a seasonal basis. There is a fee for guided walking tours. Please call 215-493-4076, or visit the park's website for further information.

Slate Hill Cemetery

The Slate Hill Cemetery is possibly the oldest burying grounds in Bucks County. It was established in 1690 and the earliest gravestone is dated 1698. There are a number of unmarked graves, for which dates are unknown. These unmarked graves are believed to be the final resting-places of a number of the early settlers in Lower Makefield. The cemetery was created in three sections: a plot granted by Thomas Janney in 1690; a section granted by Abel Janney in 1721 immediately to the northwest along the Yardley-Morrisville Road; and the last part granted by Joshua Anderson in 1788 further to the northwest along the Yardley-Morrisville Road. Most of the graves are 18th century and represent the early Quaker settlers in the area; the Friends section contains 487 graves, of which 185 are marked. Most of these burials pre-date 1800, according to a Federal Works Project Administration survey sponsored by the Pennsylvania Historical Commission in 1941. The early gravestones in this cemetery are significant examples of early Bucks County gravestones. Three types of markers are found in the Friends section. Over 80 percent are brownstones. Another approximately two dozen markers are wood painted white or wire wickets. The Friends section has the only 17th-century gravestone (dated 1698) in Bucks County. The cemetery also contains the graves of six free African Americans who served in the Northern Army during the Civil War. The dates of burials in the cemetery date from 1698 to 1918, the last of whom is Martha E. White.

The Slate Hill Cemetery is located at Yardley-Morrisville Rd. at Mahlon Dr. in Lower Makefield Township. It is open to the public, there are several entrances. Parking is available along the road.

Pennsbury Manor

Pennsbury Manor was the home of William Penn (1644-1718), proprietor of three colonies, founder of colonial Pennsylvania, and planner of the city of Philadelphia. The original manor house, constructed between 1682 and 84, fell into ruin after the Penns returned to England in 1707. Reconstruction efforts were begun in 1932 when the the Charles Warner Company gave10 acres, including the area of the house, to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a memorial to William Penn. Between 1933 and 1942 the Pennsylvania Historical Commission reconstructed the plantation, including the Manor House, the outbuildings, and the landscape. Pennsbury Manor reopened as a formal estate in 1939. The present Pennsbury Manor is a brick, two and one-half story house built in the William and Mary Style. No drawings or paintings of the original Manor exist and only speculation, a few archaeological remains, and details from letters to James Harrison from Penn provide information about the original home. Some of the buildings at the site are conjectural, but are intended to represent the home of an English gentleman of the 17th century. Gardens with native and foreign plants have been planted in a 17th-century period manner. The site is administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and is open to the public.

Pennsbury Manor is located at 400 Pennsbury Memorial Rd., Morrisville. Pennsbury is open 9:00am to 5:00pm Tuesday-Saturday and 12:00pm to 5:00pm on Sunday. There is a fee. Call 215-946-0400 or visit the website for further information or group reservations. Pennsbury Manor is administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission with assistance from the Pennsbury Society, a non-profit organization.

Grundy Mill Complex

The Grundy Mills complex consists of a number of buildings constructed over a 55 year period, which operated as one unit for the milling, storage, and power for the worsted mills of the William H. Grundy Co. William Hulme Grundy, who had family ties in the Bristol area stretching back several generations, began in the woolen industry in Philadelphia in 1870. In 1876 he moved his operation to the newly constructed Bristol Worsted Mills. Historian Doron Green described Grundy as a "public spirited and broad minded business man [who] did much to advance the interests of the town." First built as the Bristol Worsted Mills, the buildings range in height from one to seven stories, and the most distinctive feature of the complex is the clock tower, dating from 1911. Located in the mill district of Bristol, the buildings date from Bristol's key period of industrial and population growth, from 1876 to 1930, and reflect Bristol's role as a premier industrial center of Bucks County. The mill was the first of five large manufacturing facilities built by the Bristol Improvement Company beginning in 1876. This facility was the most successful of all the textile operations launched in Bristol in the 19th century and by 1920 it was the largest employer in Bucks County. Grundy Mills remained in operation until 1946, when the facility was sold; it has since been converted to other industrial operations. According to the Third Industrial Directory of Pennsylvania 1919, the Grundy Mill Complex employed more than 850 workers, making it, by far, the county's largest single employer. Its importance in Bristol was drastic: the Grundy Mills employed approximately 30 percent of the town's industrial work force.

The Grundy Mills Complex is located at the west corner of Jefferson Ave. & Canal St. The Grundy Mills Complex is not open to the public.

Bristol Historic District

Bristol dates from 1681 when Samuel Clift began operating a ferry across the Delaware River. The settlement composed primarily of Quakers grew around the ferry, and in 1697 residents petitioned the Provincial Council to establish the community as a market town. During the last half of the 18th century Bristol gained prominence as a ferry landing and a way station for the New York to Philadelphia stagecoach. Between the 1780s and the 1820s it became famous for its spa, as people flocked to Bath Springs to take the waters. A number of wealthy residents soon settled in the area and built large grand residences. Shipbuilding and completion of the Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal in 1832 transformed Bristol into a transportation hub. Property along the riverfront soon filled with wharves, docks and warehouses to accommodate shipments arriving on the canal; and mills and factories were built along the canal where water provided power and transportation for goods. There are more than 300 residential and commercial buildings within the historic district, some dating back to the early 18th century. Bristol, as the third oldest city in Pennsylvania, was known for its premier spa, its activity related to the Pennsylvania Canal, and as the most important industrial town in Bucks County.

The Bristol Historic District is bounded by New Brook St. , the north-west property of 301-305 Lincoln St., including 328 to 310 Lincoln St., and follows Radcliffe and Mill Sts., with sections of Market, Mulberry, Walnut, Franklin, Dorrance, Lafayette, Washington and Jefferson near the river. The Friends Cemetery on Wood St. and Pond St. where it intersects with Mulbery and Market Sts. are in the boundaries. Opposite the District is Burlington Island, in the Delaware River, which is in New Jersey. Many of the businesses within the district open to the public during normal business hours.

Dorrance Mansion

The Dorrance Mansion, in the Bristol Historic District, is one of the grandest homes along Radcliffe Street in Bristol Borough, Bucks County. Finished in 1863, it is a distinctive example of residential Italianate architecture and the only example in the borough. Its elegant style represents the lavish life of the early Victorian industrialists making Bristol their home. The brick mansion is erected on a random coursed fieldstone foundation at river level. The five-story center tower on the rear facade adds a distinctive feature to the house. The home remains nearly unchanged since its construction, with a symmetrical front facade and proportionally decreasing windows on the upper floors, creating the illusion of greater height.

John Dorrance, Sr., owner of Bristol Mills, built the mansion while living across the street. Dorrance was active in local commerce, improvement projects, and borough government from 1835 to 1860. Dorrance came to Bristol in the 1820s and purchased an interest in the Bristol Mills which dated back to 1701. He eventually bought out his partners to become sole owner. Prior to the Civil War, the mill supplied large amounts of corn meal to the South and the West Indies. When Dorrance's sons sold the mill, following his death, the property was comprised of grist and saw mills, a lumber yard, canal stables, coal sheds, a blacksmith shop, a store, two dwellings and a mill race and pond. Although Dorrance built the mansion toward the end of his illustrious career and only lived there for six years before his death, it is the one extant building with the closest association with him and his business career. After his death in 1869, the home remained in the family until 1921 when it was acquired by the Bristol Knights of Columbus. In 1982, it became a private residence again.

The Dorrance Mansion is located at 300 Radcliffe St., in Bristol. The Dorrance Mansion is not open to the public.

Learn More

By clicking on one of these links, you can go directly to a particular section:
Bibliography of the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor
Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Children's Literature
Links to Pennsylvania Tourism and Preservation
Links to Historic Places Featured in this Itinerary

Bibliography of the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor

Barber, David G. A Guide to the Lehigh Canal, Lower and Upper Divisions: with the Ashley Planes and the Penn Haven Planes and the Swutchback Railroad. North Wales, PA: Appalachian Mountain Club, Delaware Lehigh Chapter, 1992.

________. A Towpath Guide to the Lehigh Canal, Lower Division. Delaware Valley Chapter, Appalachian Mountain Club. 1981.

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. Growing up in Coal Country. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1996.

Bush, S. George., ed. With an introduction by James A. Mitchener. The Genius Belt: The Story of the Arts in Buck County, Pennsylvania. Doylestown, PA: James A. Mitchener Art Museum in association with the Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996.

Bartholomew, Ann (compiled) and Lance E. Metz (researcher). Delaware and Lehigh Canals. Easton, PA: Center for Canal History and Technology, 1989.

Chappell, Gordon S. Steam Over Scranton: the Locomotives of Steamtown, Steamtown National Historic Site. Denver, CO. National Park Service, 1991

David, Edward J.,II. The Anthracite Aristocracy: Leadership and Social Change in the Hard Coal Regions of Northeastern Pennsylvania, 1800-1930. Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1985.

Dublin, Thomas, photographs by George Harvan. When the Mines Closed: Stories of Struggle in Hard Times. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998.

Duemler, Ginger; ed. illustrated by Linda Brown. The Tiled Pavement in the Capitol of Pennsylvania. State College, PA: Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsman, 1975.

Gudelunas, William A. Jr. and William G. Shade. Before the Molly Maguires: the Emergence of the Ethno-Religious Factor in the Politics of the Lower Anthracite Region, 1844-1872. New York: Arno Press, 1976.

Kenny, Kevin. Making Sense of the Molly Maguires. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Percival, Gwendoline E. and Chester J. Kulesa. Illustrating an Anthracite Era: The Photographic Legacy of John Horgan, Jr. PA: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission: Anthracite Heritage Museum and Iron Furnaces Associates, 1995.

Perry, Daniel K. A Fine Piece of Masonry: Scranton's Historic Furnaces. Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and Anthracite Heritage Museum and Iron Furnace Associates, 1994.

Poos, Thomas G. Fonthill, the Home of Henry Chapman Mercer: an American Treasure. American Distributing, 1985.

Reed, Cleota. Henry Chapman Mercer and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987.

Rivinus, William M. The Complete Guide to the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor: Where to go--What to see and do. Lehigh River Foundation, 1994.

Roberts, Ellis W. The Breaker Whistle Blows: Mining Disasters and Labor Leaders in the Anthracite Region. Scranton, PA: Anthracite Press, 1984.

Salay, David L, ed. Hard Coal, Hard Times: Ethnicity and Labor in the Anthracite Region. Scranton, PA: Anthracite Museum Press, 1984.

Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Children's Literature

Dolan, Edward F. The Winter at Valley Forge. New York: Benchmark Books/Marshall Cavendish, 2001.

National Register's Teaching with Historic Places: Bethlehem PA, Moravian Lesson Plan

Links to Pennsylvania Tourism and Preservation

Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor
Link to the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor non-profit organization's website, which offers historical information, a guide of things to do, a photo gallery, and other resources that will enhance your experience in this unique and vibrant region of Pennsylvania.

Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor
Link to the National Park Service's Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor website and enjoy ethnic and musical celebrations, walking tours through communities with rich and colorful histories, and museums describing the industries, people and wildlife that share this special region in eastern Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Learn more about Pennsylvania's history, historic places and museums and the organization responsible for protecting Pennsylvania's Historical Resources, from Archeology to Historic Buildings.

Pennsylvania Travel and Tourism
Learn more about Pennsylvania's attractions, including arts and entertainment, nature and the outdoors, historic places and food and lodging possibilities.

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Founded in 1824, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania contains an independent research center dealing with preserving Pennsylvania's history and heritage, and includes the largest genealogy center in the mid-Atlantic region.

Bucks County Historical Society
The Bucks County Historic Society was founded in 1880 by General William Watts Hart Davis, Henry Chapman Mercer and some friends, and is today a private non-profit organization that operates The Mercer Museum, Spruance Library and Fonthill Museum.

Lackawanna Heritage Valley Authority
The Lackawanna Heritage Valley Authority is an alliance of civic, government,and business organizations, along with individuals interested in the promotion of the region's historic, cultural, economic and natural resources.

Lehigh County Historical Society
Serving its communities for more than 90 years, the Lehigh County Historical Society interprets the history and culture of an area that might indeed be thought of as the United States in miniature, where visitors can explore nine different sites, discovering the Revolutionary War, 18th-century farms, and 19th-century industries.

Pennsylvania Labor and Industry Related Markers
Established in 1946, is one of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission's oldest and most popular programs. The blue and gold markers located throughout the state highlight people, places, and events significant in state and national history.

National Canal Museum

This museum in Easton interprets life on the canal through interactive, hands-on exhibits. Visitors can ride a mule powered boat, operate a lock model, hear traditional canal songs, and see the living quarters of a canal boat.

National Trust for Historic Preservation
Learn about the programs of and membership in the oldest national non-profit preservation organization.

Historic Hotels of America
A feature of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Heritage Traveler program that provides information on historic hotels and package tours in the vicinity of this itinerary.

National Park Service Office of Tourism
National parks have been interwoven with tourism from their earliest days. This website highlights the ways in which the NPS promotes and supports sustainable, responsible, informed, and managed visitor use through cooperation and coordination with the tourism industry.

National Scenic Byways Program
This website, maintained by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, includes information on state and nationally designated byway routes throughout America based on their archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational, and scenic qualities. Visit the America’s Byways Brandywine Valley Scenic Byway website for more ideas.

Links to Historic Places Featured in This Travel Itinerary

Credits

Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor was produced by the National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Department of the Interior, in cooperation with the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (a unit of the National Park System), the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Steamtown National Historic Site, the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO), and the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions (NAPC). It was created under the direction of Carol D. Shull, Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service, Patrick Andrus, Heritage Tourism Director, and Beth L. Savage, Publications Director. Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor is based on information in the files of the National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmarks collections. These materials are kept at 800 North Capitol St., Washington, D.C., and are open to the public from 9:00am to 4:00pm, Monday through Friday.

Sue Pridemore of the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor and Carol Lee of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, conceptualized and compiled photographic and written materials for the itinerary. Contextual essays were written by Carol Lee, Sue Pridemore, and Ella S. Rayburn, Curator, Steamtown National Historic Site. Edson Beall (NPS) coordinated intial project production for the the travel itinerary. The team of Shannon Bell, Jeff Joeckel, and Rustin Quaide (all of NCSHPO) produced the final product. The itinerary was designed by Jeff Joeckel, descriptions were edited by Rustin Quaide. Kristen Carsto (Catholic University intern) wrote property descriptions and took photographs for sites in Scranton. Kevin Moriarty (NPS) assisted with preparation of maps. The central homepage photograph is used courtesy of the photographer, Ronald Gombach of Living Places. Special thanks goes to the following who provided additional information and photographs: Jo Ann Fremiotti, Executive Director of the Scottish Masonic Lodge and Temple in Scranton, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Doug Miller of Pennsbury Manor, Green Hills Farm, Lehigh County Historical Society, the F. M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, Historic Bethlehem Inc., Pam Colbert, and Robert Janosov.


 [graphic] Link to Canal History Essay
 [graphic] Link to Delaware and Lehigh Region Essay
 [graphic] Link to Scranton and the Railroad Essay
 [graphic] Link to Establishing the Heritage Corridor Essay

 

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