​25 Facts About Scranton, Pennsylvania

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1. Scranton is a city in northeast Pennsylvania.

2. The geographic and cultural center of the Lackawanna River valley, Scranton is the largest of the former anthracite coal mining communities that also includes Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, and Carbondale. 
 
3. Scranton was incorporated on February 14, 1856, as a borough in Luzerne County and as a city on April 23, 1866.

4. The city was designated as the county seat when Lackawanna County was established in 1878. 

5. Present-day Scranton and its surrounding area had been long inhabited by the native Lenape tribe, from whose language "Lackawanna" (or lac-a-wa-na, meaning "stream that forks"), is derived. 

7. The Anthracite Museum details the history and artifacts about both mining and all around life during the late 1800's and through the early part of the 20th Century. (c) travelincousins.com

6. ​In the nineteenth century, the city became a major industrial city, a center of mining and railroads, and attracted thousands of new immigrants from various ethnic backgrounds including Irish, Italian and Polish.

7. The Anthracite Museum details the history and artifacts about both mining and all around life during the late 1800's and through the early part of the 20th Century.

8. Scranton is known as "Electric City" and began to earn that name when electric lights were introduced in 1880 at Dickson Locomotive Works.

9. Rev. David Spencer, a local Baptist minister, is credited with proclaiming Scranton as the "Electric City"

9. Scranton is known as "Electric City" and began to earn that name when electric lights were introduced in 1880 at Dickson Locomotive Works. (c) travelincousins.com

10In 1778, Isaac Tripp, the area's first known European-American settler, built his home in here and it still stands in North Scranton, formerly a separate town known as Providence. 

11. The Tripp House, 1011 North Main Avenue, Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This federal style home has been preserved as it was in 1812 with victorian embellishments. 

12.  In the 1840s, brothers Selden T. and George W. Scranton, who had worked at Oxford Furnace in Belvidere, New Jersey, founded what would become Lackawanna Iron & Coal, later developing as the Lackawanna Steel Company. ​

13. Today, The Scranton Furnaces, a Historical Landmark as well as being listed on the National Register of Historical Places, features the four massive stone blast furnaces - all that remains of the of a once extensive plant operated by the Lackawanna Iron & Steel Company. (c) travelincousins.com

13. Today, The Scranton Furnaces, a Historical Landmark as well as being listed on the National Register of Historical Places, features the four massive stone blast furnaces - all that remains of the of a once extensive plant operated by the Lackawanna Iron & Steel Company. 

14. Many of Scranton's attractions celebrate its heritage as an industrial center in iron and coal production and its ethnic diversity. 

15. ​Scranton known for Steamtown National Historic Site, with century-old locomotives at the site of the former Scranton yards of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad.

15. ​Scranton known for Steamtown National Historic Site, with century-old locomotives at the site of the former Scranton yards of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. (c) travelincousins.com

16. From 1890 till World War I, trolley cars took over in cities across America.  By the 1890's Scranton was a thriving metropolis, with over 90 miles of trolley car tracks, 170 trolley cars, transporting over 16 million people annually.

17.   The Electric City Trolley Museum is located in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, next to the Steamtown National Historic Site and is largely a regional collection, highly representative of the trolley history of eastern Pennsylvania and surrounding states. 

18. Since the 1970s, Scranton has hosted La Festa Italiana, a three-day Italian festival that takes place on Labor Day weekend on the courthouse square. 
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20. The Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on December 6, 1977. (c) travelincousins.com ​​

18. ​The Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Ann is a Minor Basilica and National Shrine of the Catholic Church located within the Diocese of Scranton, was built in 1902 and draws thousands of pilgrims to its annual novena.

19. The Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel was built as the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad train station and office building in 1908. It closed in 1970 and renovated and reopened as a hotel in 1983.

20. The Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on December 6, 1977. 

​21. The Lackawanna County Court House features numerous markers on the grounds including Piazza dell' Arte, Lackawanna County, First Electric Cars, Pearl Harbor Memorial, Medal of Honor, Vietnam War Memorial, John Mitchell and Tadeusz Kościuszko.

21. The Lackawanna County Court House features numerous markers on the grounds including Piazza dell' Arte, Lackawanna County, First Electric Cars, Pearl Harbor Memorial, Medal of Honor, Vietnam War Memorial, John Mitchell and Tadeusz Kościuszko. (c) travelincousins.com

22. The Houdini Museum is located at Scranton, Pennsylvania. Houdini appeared in Scranton and did several special challenges there. The museum features memorabilia, artifacts, mannequins and films of Houdini as well as The Houdini Tour, which  includes a magic show.

23. The city hosts five colleges and universities: The University of Scranton, The Commonwealth Medical College, Johnson College, Lackawanna College, Marywood University.

24. The city of Scranton is the subject of George Inness's 1855 painting, The Lackawanna Valley, which hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

25. ​There are 34 properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Lackawanna county.