Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
of
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
and the
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...
of
Luzerne County
Luzerne County is a county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and is water. It is Northeastern Pennsylvania's second-largest county by total area. As of ...
. Located at the center of the
Wyoming Valley
The Wyoming Valley is a historic industrialized region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The region is historically notable for its influence in helping fuel the American Industrial Revolution with its many anthracite coal-mines. As a metropolitan are ...
in
Northeastern Pennsylvania
Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) is a geographic region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that includes the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains, and the industrial cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Hazleton, Nanticoke, and Carbon ...
, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the second-largest city, after
Scranton
Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U ...
, in the
, which had a population of 563,631 as of the
2010 census and is the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Pennsylvania after the
Delaware Valley
The Delaware Valley is a metropolitan region on the East Coast of the United States that comprises and surrounds Philadelphia, the sixth most populous city in the nation and 68th largest city in the world as of 2020. The toponym Delaware Val ...
,
Greater Pittsburgh
Greater Pittsburgh is a populous region centered around its largest city and economic hub, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The region encompasses Pittsburgh's urban core county, Allegheny, and six adjacent Pennsylvania counties: Armstrong, Beaver, ...
, and the
Lehigh Valley
The Lehigh Valley (), known colloquially as The Valley, is a geographic region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County and Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a component valley of the Great Appalachian Valley bound to the no ...
with an urban population of 401,884.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre is the cultural and economic center of a region called Northeastern Pennsylvania, which is home to over 1.3 million residents.
Wilkes-Barre and the surrounding Wyoming Valley are framed by the
Pocono Mountains
The Pocono Mountains, commonly referred to as the Poconos , are a geographical, geological, and cultural region in Northeastern Pennsylvania. They overlook the Delaware River and Delaware Water Gap to the east, Lake Wallenpaupack to the north, W ...
to the east, the
Endless Mountains
The Endless Mountains are a geographical, geological, and cultural region in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The Endless Mountains region includes Bradford, Sullivan, Susquehanna, and Wyoming counties. The highest peak in the region is the North K ...
to the north and west, and the
Lehigh Valley
The Lehigh Valley (), known colloquially as The Valley, is a geographic region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County and Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a component valley of the Great Appalachian Valley bound to the no ...
to the south. The
Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...
flows through the center of the valley and defines the northwestern border of the city.
Wilkes-Barre was founded in 1769 and formally incorporated as a borough in 1806, and as a city in 1869. The city grew rapidly in the 19th century after the discovery of nearby coal reserves and the arrival of hundreds of thousands of
immigrants
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
who provided a labor force for the local mines. The coal mining fueled industrialization in the city, which reached the height of its prosperity in the first half of the 20th century. Its population peaked at more than 86,000 in 1930. Following World War II, the city's economy declined due to the collapse of industry. The
Knox Mine disaster
Knox may refer to:
Places United States
* Fort Knox, a United States Army post in Kentucky
** United States Bullion Depository, a high security storage facility commonly called Fort Knox
* Fort Knox (Maine), a fort located on the Penobscot River i ...
accelerated this trend after large portions of the area's coal mines were flooded and could not be reopened. Today, the city has around half of its peak population of the 1930s, making it the largest city in Luzerne County and the 13th-largest city in Pennsylvania. The contiguous network of 5 cities and more than 40 boroughs all built in a straight line in Northeastern Pennsylvania's urban area act culturally and logistically as one continuous city, so while the city of Wilkes-Barre itself is a smaller town, the larger unofficial city of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre contains nearly half a million residents in roughly 200 square miles.
Wilkes-Barre is located approximately northwest of
Allentown Allentown may refer to several places in the United States and topics related to them:
* Allentown, California, now called Toadtown, California
* Allentown, Georgia, a town in Wilkinson County
* Allentown, Illinois, an unincorporated community in T ...
, and northwest of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
.
History
18th century
![A Map Of The State Of Pennsylvania by Reading Howell, 1792](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/A_Map_Of_The_State_Of_Pennsylvania_by_Reading_Howell%2C_1792.jpg)
By the 18th century, the
Wyoming Valley
The Wyoming Valley is a historic industrialized region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The region is historically notable for its influence in helping fuel the American Industrial Revolution with its many anthracite coal-mines. As a metropolitan are ...
was inhabited by the
Shawnee
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
and
Delaware Indian
The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...
(Lenape) tribes. In 1753, the Susquehanna Company was founded in
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
for settling the Wyoming Valley (in modern-day Pennsylvania). Connecticut succeeded in purchasing the land from the
Native Americans; however, Pennsylvania already claimed the very same territory through a purchase they made in 1736. In 1762, roughly two hundred Connecticut settlers (
Yankee
The term ''Yankee'' and its contracted form ''Yank'' have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Its various senses depend on the context, and may refer to New Englanders, residents of the Northern United St ...
s) established a settlement near
Mill Creek. They planted wheat and constructed log cabins. The Yankees returned to
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
for the winter.
The Connecticut settlers returned in the spring of 1763 with their families and additional supplies. A party of
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
also visited the area with the dual purpose of turning the Delaware (Lenape) against the colonists and killing
Teedyuscung
Teedyuscung (c. 1700–1763) was known as "King of the Delawares". He worked to establish a permanent Lenape (Delaware) home in eastern Pennsylvania in the Lehigh, Susquehanna, and Delaware River valleys. Teedyuscung participated in the Treaty ...
, a local Delaware chief. On April 19, 1763, the residence of the chief, along with several others, was set ablaze. Chief Teedyuscung perished in the inferno. The Iroquois let the Delaware believe that this atrocity was committed by the settlers. As a result, the Delaware attacked the colonists on October 15, 1763. Thirty settlers were killed, and several others were taken prisoner. Those who managed to escape fled back to New England. The Delaware then burned what was left of the Yankee settlement.
In 1769, the Yankees returned to the Wyoming Valley. Five townships were established by Connecticut. Each one was five square miles and divided amongst forty settlers.
Wilkes-Barre Township was one of the original townships; it was named in honor of
John Wilkes
John Wilkes (17 October 1725 – 26 December 1797) was an English radical journalist and politician, as well as a magistrate, essayist and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fo ...
and
Isaac Barré
Isaac Barré (15 October 1726 – 20 July 1802) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and politician. He earned distinction serving with the British Army during the Seven Years' War and later became a prominent Member of Parliament, where he was a vocal s ...
—two British members of
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
who supported
colonial America
The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European colonization of North America from the early 17th century until the incorporation of the Thirteen Colonies into the United States after the Revolutionary War. In the ...
. Pennsylvanians (Pennamites) also arrived in the valley that same year.
The Connecticut settlers established Fort Durkee, which was named in honor of their leader (Colonel Durkee). This was immediately followed by
a series of skirmishes between the Pennsylvanians and Connecticut settlers. The land changed hands several times between the two groups. The
Congress of the Confederation
The Congress of the Confederation, or the Confederation Congress, formally referred to as the United States in Congress Assembled, was the governing body of the United States of America during the Confederation period, March 1, 1781 – Mar ...
was asked to resolve the matter. With the Decree of Trenton, on December 30, 1782, the confederation government officially decided that the region belonged to Pennsylvania; the Wyoming Valley became part of
Northumberland County.
Pennsylvania ruled that the Connecticut settlers (Yankees) were not citizens of the Commonwealth. Therefore, they could not vote and were ordered to give up their property claims. In May 1784, armed men from Pennsylvania force-marched the Connecticut settlers away from the valley. By November, the Yankees returned with a greater force. They captured and destroyed
Fort Dickinson in Wilkes-Barre. With that victory, a new state (which was separate from both Connecticut and Pennsylvania) was proposed. The new state was to be named
Westmoreland. To ensure that they didn't lose the land, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania worked out a compromise with the Connecticut (Yankee) settlers. The Yankee settlers would become citizens of Pennsylvania and their property claims would be restored (prior to the Decree of Trenton). As part of the compromise, Pennsylvania would establish a new county in
Northeastern Pennsylvania
Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) is a geographic region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that includes the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains, and the industrial cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Hazleton, Nanticoke, and Carbon ...
. The Yankees agreed to the terms.
On September 25, 1786, the
Pennsylvania General Assembly
The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times (1682–1776), the legislature was known as the Pennsylvania ...
passed a resolution which created Luzerne County. It was formed from a section of Northumberland County and named after
Chevalier de la Luzerne
Chevalier may refer to:
Honours Belgium
* a rank in the Belgian Order of the Crown
* a rank in the Belgian Order of Leopold
* a rank in the Belgian Order of Leopold II
* a title in the Belgian nobility
France
* a rank in the French Legion d'h ...
, a
French soldier and
diplomat
A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...
during the 18th century. Wilkes-Barre became the
seat of government
The seat of government is (as defined by ''Brewer's Politics'') "the building, complex of buildings or the city from which a government exercises its authority".
In most countries, the nation’s capital is also seat of its government, thus that ...
for the new territory. This resolution ended the idea of creating a new state.
In 1797, several decades after the community's founding,
Louis Philippe
Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France.
As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary War ...
, later the King of France from 1830 to 1840, stayed in Wilkes-Barre while traveling to the
French Asylum settlement.
19th century
![HotelSterlingWilkesBarre](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/HotelSterlingWilkesBarre.jpg)
Wilkes-Barre's population skyrocketed due to the discovery of
anthracite coal
Anthracite, also known as hard coal, and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic luster. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the high ...
in the 19th century. In 1808, Judge
Jesse Fell
Jesse Fell was an early political leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He was one of the first Pennsylvanians to successfully burn anthracite on an open air grate. Anthracite differs from wood in that it needs a draft from the bottom, and Judge ...
of Wilkes-Barre discovered a solution to ignite anthracite with the usage of an iron grate; it allowed for the coal to light and burn easier. This invention increased the popularity of anthracite as a fuel source. This led to the expansion of the coal industry in Northeastern Pennsylvania; Wilkes-Barre was nicknamed "The Diamond City" due to its high
productivity
Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...
of mining coal. The growing demand for coal as a domestic heat source resulted in changes to patterns of immigration to Wilkes-Barre in the 19th century. The
Pennsylvania guide, compiled by the Writers' Program of the
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
in 1940, noted that:
Throughout the 1800s,
canals
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or river engineering, engineered channel (geography), channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport watercraft, vehicles (e.g. ...
and
railroads
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...
were constructed to aid in the mining and transportation of coal. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants flocked to the city; they were seeking jobs in the numerous mines and collieries that sprang up throughout the
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
. In 1806, Wilkes-Barre Borough was formed from a segment of Wilkes-Barre Township; it was later incorporated as a city in 1871. This was the direct result of the population boom. At its peak, Wilkes-Barre had a population of over 86,000 in the 1930s and 40s.
New industries were established and the
Vulcan Iron Works
Vulcan Iron Works was the name of several iron foundries in both England and the United States during the Industrial Revolution and, in one case, lasting until the mid-20th century. Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and smithery, was a popular na ...
was a well-known manufacturer of railway locomotives from 1849 to 1954. During Wilkes-Barre's reign as an industrial and economic force in America, several major companies and franchises became based in the city, such as
Woolworth's, Sterling Hotels, Miner's Bank,
Bell Telephone
The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America for over one hundre ...
, Luzerne National Bank, and
Stegmaier.
Even though the overall economy was doing very well, the city was still prone to natural disasters. Besides frequent flooding from the Susquehanna River, Wilkes-Barre also endured a devastating
F3 tornado
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...
on
August 19, 1890. The twister killed 16 people, injured 50, damaged or destroyed 260 buildings, and cost at least $240,000 (in 1890 money).
20th century
![Child Labor in United States, coal mines Pennsylvania](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Child_Labor_in_United_States%2C_coal_mines_Pennsylvania.jpg)
Wilkes-Barre is located within Pennsylvania's
Coal Region
The Coal Region is a region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is known for being home to the largest known deposits of anthracite, anthracite coal in the world with an estimated reserve of seven billion short tons.
The region is typically define ...
. The anthracite coal mining industry, and its extensive use of
child labor
Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such e ...
in the early 20th century, was one of the industries targeted by the
National Child Labor Committee
The National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) was a private, non-profit organization in the United States that served as a leading proponent for the national child labor reform movement. Its mission was to promote "the rights, awareness, dignity, well ...
and its hired photographer,
Lewis Hine
Lewis Wickes Hine (September 26, 1874 – November 3, 1940) was an American sociologist and muckraker photographer. His photographs were instrumental in bringing about the passage of the first child labor laws in the United States.
Early life ...
. Many of Hine's subjects were photographed in the mines and coal fields near Wilkes-Barre. The impact of the Hine photographs led to the enactment of
child labor laws
Child labour laws are statutes placing restrictions and regulations on the work of minors.
Child labour increased during the Industrial Revolution due to the children's abilities to access smaller spaces and the ability to pay children less wage ...
across the country.
The coal industry continued despite several disasters, including an explosion at Wilkes-Barre's
Baltimore Colliery in 1919, which killed 92 miners. The industry declined when the United States switched to other energy sources, and most coal operations had left Wilkes-Barre by the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The 1959
Knox Mine Disaster
Knox may refer to:
Places United States
* Fort Knox, a United States Army post in Kentucky
** United States Bullion Depository, a high security storage facility commonly called Fort Knox
* Fort Knox (Maine), a fort located on the Penobscot River i ...
, resulting in the flooding of numerous mines, marked the end of large-scale coal mining in the area. Industrial restructuring also caused the city to lose jobs and begin a decades-long decline.
In 1926,
Planters Peanuts Company was founded in Wilkes-Barre by two Italian immigrants. The company maintained its headquarters in the city until 1961. In 1929, baseball player
Babe Ruth
George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...
hit one of the longest home runs in history at
Artillery Park in Wilkes-Barre.
On November 8, 1972, Wilkes-Barre became the birthplace of modern
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...
programming, when
Home Box Office (HBO)
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is bas ...
launched over the city's Teleservice Cable system (now
Service Electric Cable). Around 365 Teleservice subscribers were the first to receive the premium cable service when it commenced broadcasts. (As local ordinances prohibiting direct-to-cable telecasts of theatrical feature films prevented
Time-Life from launching HBO over its New York City-based Sterling Manhattan cable franchise, the company initially sought an agreement with Teleservice to launch it on the provider's
Allentown Allentown may refer to several places in the United States and topics related to them:
* Allentown, California, now called Toadtown, California
* Allentown, Georgia, a town in Wilkinson County
* Allentown, Illinois, an unincorporated community in T ...
system; possible
television blackout conflicts for HBO-televised
NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
games, as Allentown was located within the
Philadelphia 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers, colloquially known as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eas ...
's blackout radius, resulted in Teleservice electing to offer it on its Wilkes-Barre system instead.)
Wilkes-Barre became the site of
a mass shooting on September 25, 1982. George Emil Banks killed 13 people and wounded one. Banks was deemed incompetent to be executed, yet currently resides on death row.
Flooding
![Wilkes Barre Flood](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Wilkes_Barre_Flood.jpg)
Manufacturing and retail remained Wilkes-Barre's strongest industries, but the city's economy took a major blow from
Tropical Storm Agnes The name Agnes has been used for a total of sixteen tropical cyclones worldwide: one in the Atlantic Ocean, thirteen in the Western North Pacific Ocean, one in the South-West Indian Ocean, and one in the South Pacific Ocean.
In the Atlantic:
* Hur ...
in 1972. The storm pushed the
Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...
to a height of nearly , four feet above the city's
levee
A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually soil, earthen and that often runs parallel (geometry), parallel to ...
s, flooding downtown with nine feet of water. A total of 128 deaths were attributed to the storm. Most drowning deaths were caused by people trapped in their cars. Almost 400,000 homes and businesses were destroyed and 220,000 Pennsylvanians were left homeless (as were hundreds of thousands in other states). Damage was estimated to be $2.1 billion in Pennsylvania alone. President
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
sent aid to the area, after flying over in his helicopter on his way to his
Camp David
Camp David is the country retreat for the president of the United States of America. It is located in the wooded hills of Catoctin Mountain Park, in Frederick County, Maryland, near the towns of Thurmont and Emmitsburg, about north-northwe ...
retreat (on June 24, 1972).
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Wilkes-Barre attempted to prevent the damage from storms as intense as Agnes by building a levee system that rises ; completed in January 2003, the network of levees cost roughly $250 million. It has successfully resisted other threatening floods in 1996, 2004, and 2006. The
Army Corps of Engineers has praised the quality of the levees. In 2006, the city made the front page of national newspapers when 200,000 residents were told to evacuate in the wake of flooding that was forecast to reach levels near that of 1972, though the flooding fell short of predictions.
In late August 2011,
Hurricane Irene
Hurricane Irene was a large and destructive tropical cyclone which affected much of the Caribbean and East Coast of the United States during late August 2011. The ninth named storm, first hurricane, and first major hurricane of the 2011 At ...
, centered off the
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
coast, caused the Susquehanna River to rise to flood level, but there was no cause for alarm. Then, from September 6 to 8, heavy rains from the inland remnants of
Tropical Storm Lee The name Lee has been used for seven tropical cyclones worldwide. In the Atlantic, it replaced the name '' Lenny''.
In the Atlantic:
* Tropical Storm Lee (2005), a short-lived, minimal tropical storm
* Tropical Storm Lee (2011), a strong tropical ...
and
Hurricane Katia
The name Katia has been used for four tropical cyclones worldwide.
In the Atlantic Ocean:
The name replaced '' Katrina'' after that name was retired in 2006.
* Hurricane Katia (2011) – powerful Category 4 hurricane that affected Europe as a po ...
offshore funneled heavy rain over the Wyoming Valley and into the Susquehanna River watershed. The Susquehanna swelled to record levels across the state. In Wilkes-Barre, it crested on September 9 at an all-time record of , nearly higher than water levels reached during Hurricane Agnes in 1972. The levees protected Wilkes-Barre, but nearby boroughs did not escape, as
West Pittston
West Pittston is a borough in the Greater Pittston area of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located on the Susquehanna River (opposite of Pittston City). In 2020, the population was 4,644.
The town once produced mine screens, g ...
,
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
, and parts of
Plains Township were affected by extreme flooding.
21st century
Revitalization and construction
![Wilkes-Barre Historic District](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Wilkes-Barre_Historic_District.jpg)
On June 9, 2005, Mayor
Thomas M. Leighton
Thomas M. "Tom" Leighton is an American politician. He served as the mayor of the city of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania from 2004 to 2016. Mayor Leighton was the first mayor under the city's Home Rule Charter to be popularly elected to three consecut ...
unveiled his ''"I believe..."'' campaign for Wilkes-Barre, which was intended to boost the city's spirits. Construction began on a planned downtown theatre complex, which had a grand opening on June 30, 2006. Renovation of the landmark
Hotel Sterling
Hotel Sterling was a hotel in downtown Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, at the intersection of River Street and Market Street. It was opened in 1898 by local businesspeople, who then owned a music hall located at the site, and was named after Emma E. ...
was being pursued by CityVest, a nonprofit developer. The expansion of
Wilkes University
Wilkes University is a private university in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. It has over 2,200 undergraduates and over 2,200 graduate students (both full and part-time). Wilkes was founded in 1933 as a satellite campus of Bucknell University, and bec ...
and
King's College took place. Also, the canopy and matching street lights in Public Square and across downtown were removed; they were replaced by new green lampposts.
The city of Wilkes-Barre celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2006. Several events, including a
Beach Boys
A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shell ...
concert, were planned but canceled due to extremely heavy rains. Most of the city's population was ordered to evacuate on June 28, 2006. The
Bicentennial __NOTOC__
A bicentennial or bicentenary is the two-hundredth anniversary of a part, or the celebrations thereof. It may refer to:
Europe
*French Revolution bicentennial, commemorating the 200th anniversary of 14 July 1789 uprising, celebrated ...
celebration was postponed to Labor Day weekend, September 3, 2006, and was attended by Pennsylvania Governor
Ed Rendell
Edward Gene Rendell (; born January 5, 1944) is an American lawyer, prosecutor, politician, and author. He served as the 45th Governor of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2011, as chair of the national Democratic Party, and as the 96th Mayor of Philade ...
and the
Beach Boys
A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shell ...
.
The Riverfront revitalization project (River Common), broke ground in 2007 and was completed in early 2010. It has made the riverfront accessible to the public. The area also has a new amphitheater for live performances and improved access through ramps and sidewalks. Fountains and color-changing lights have been added underneath two bridges which carry pedestrian traffic across the normally-open
levee
A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually soil, earthen and that often runs parallel (geometry), parallel to ...
. The project stretches approximately four blocks from the
Luzerne County Courthouse
The Luzerne County Courthouse is a historic county courthouse located in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (along the Susquehanna River). The building houses the government of Luzerne County.
In 2009, county officials celebrated the one ...
to the intersection of South River Street and West South Street. The River Common has since hosted concerts and charity events.
Since completion of the River Common, additional improvements to city infrastructure have been progressing. New crosswalks have been installed downtown, including signage emphasizing that pedestrians have the right-of-way. The completion of the James F. Conahan Intermodal Transportation Facility has added parking and relocated Luzerne County buses from their former Public Square staging sites. This has reduced traffic congestion around the square. Private carrier Martz offers coach bus service from the terminal as well.
The widening and realignment of Coal Street, a major road connecting Wilkes-Barre City with Wilkes-Barre Township, was completed in 2012. The new Coal Street provides four lanes over the original two lanes, making travel between the highly commercial Wilkes-Barre Township and the city much easier. In 2013,
Hotel Sterling
Hotel Sterling was a hotel in downtown Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, at the intersection of River Street and Market Street. It was opened in 1898 by local businesspeople, who then owned a music hall located at the site, and was named after Emma E. ...
was demolished due to flood damage in the hotel's basement (which compromised the building's integrity). As of today, several buildings are in the process of being constructed on the site of the former hotel.
Geography
![McClintock Hall Wilkes B PA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/McClintock_Hall_Wilkes_B_PA.jpg)
According to the
U.S. Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 4.60%, is water. The city is bordered by the
Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...
to the west. Most of Downtown is located on a wide
floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
.
Floodwall
A flood wall (or floodwall) is a primarily vertical artificial barrier designed to temporarily contain the waters of a river or other waterway which may rise to unusual levels during seasonal or extreme weather events. Flood walls are mainly u ...
s were constructed to protect a large percentage of the city. The elevation of the downtown area is about above sea level. As you travel inland, away from the river, the elevation rises. Wilkes-Barre Mountain is a physical barrier southeast of the city.
Neighborhoods
Wilkes-Barre houses over one dozen neighborhoods:
* Central City: It is also referred to as "
Downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
." This section of the city is located between the Susquehanna River and Wilkes-Barre Boulevard, and between South and North Streets. It is the original foundation of Wilkes-Barre (the 16 blocks claimed by the Connecticut settlers who founded the city). The neighborhood is home to most of the city's
high-rises and its one
Public Square
A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true square, geometric square, used for community gathe ...
. Throughout the city's history, the area has remained a hub for all of Luzerne County. During the city's boom, this small area was home to the headquarters of more than 100 national corporations. Today, it still houses the NEPA Headquarters for Verizon, Citizen's Bank, Blue Cross, PNC Bank, Luzerne National Bank, Guard Insurance, and a number of other companies. Thousands of people live and/or work in Downtown Wilkes-Barre every day.
* North End: This is the area northeast of Downtown. It comprises a number of urban and suburban communities. North End is renowned for its architecture.
* Parsons: This neighborhood is also northeast of Downtown. This is a quiet part of the city (with a suburban atmosphere). It includes two city parks, a golf course, and a number of factories.
* Miners' Mills: This community was named after a prominent local family (who lived in the area). Miners' Mills is the last neighborhood on the northeastern border of the city.
* East End: This neighborhood is directly east of Downtown. East End, Heights, and Mayflower are fairly new areas compared to the rest of the city, having only been developed in the 20th Century. Old pictures of the
Stegmaier Building indicate that everything east of Downtown was undeveloped until the 1900s.
* Heights: This section of the city is located southeast of Downtown. It is centered between East End and Mayflower.
* Mayflower: This area is located south of Downtown. It was once home to numerous mansions owned by various "bigwigs." Today it houses the OKT, Lincoln Plaza, and Park Avenue residential housing communities. The best view of Downtown can be seen from the high streets of Mayflower.
* South Wilkes-Barre: This neighborhood is located directly southwest of Downtown. It was home to the national headquarters of Planter's Peanuts and the Bell Telephone Company (in the 20th Century). One of the tallest churches in Luzerne County, St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church, dominates the south end skyline (standing at nearly 200 feet).
* Goose Island: This area is located in the southwestern section of the city between South Wilkes-Barre and Rolling Mill Hill.
* Rolling Mill Hill: This neighborhood is also located in the southwestern part of the city.
* Iron Triangle: This is another community southwest of Downtown.
* Other neighborhoods and sub-neighborhoods: There are other smaller neighborhoods and sub-neighborhoods in Wilkes-Barre City (e.g., Brookside, Upper Miners' Mills, Lower Miners' Mills, and Barney Farms).
Adjacent municipalities
*
Wilkes-Barre Township (southeast)
*
Plains Township (east and northeast)
*
Kingston (north)
*
Edwardsville (northwest)
*
Larksville (west)
*
Hanover Township (southwest)
*
Bear Creek Township (southwest)
Climate
Under the
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
, Wilkes-Barre falls within either a
hot-summer humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...
(''Dfa'') if the isotherm is used or a
humid subtropical climate
A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...
(''Cfa'') if the isotherm is used. Summers are hot and winters are moderately cold with wide variations in temperature. Winters are cold with a January average of .
The surrounding mountains have an influence on the climate (including both precipitation and temperatures), leading to wide variations within a short distance.
On average, temperatures below are infrequent, occurring 2.5 days per year, and there are 34.9 days where the maximum temperature remains below .
The average annual snowfall is during the winter (in which severe snowstorms are rare).
However, when snowstorms do occur, they can disrupt normal routines for several days.
Summers are warm with a July average of .
In an average summer, temperatures exceeding occur on 11.7 days and but rarely exceed .
Spring and fall are unpredictable with temperatures ranging from cold to warm (although they are usually mild). On average, Wilkes-Barre receives of precipitation each year, which is relatively evenly distributed throughout the year (though the summer months receive more precipitation).
Extreme temperatures range from on January 21, 1994, to on July 9, 1936.
Wilkes-Barre averages 2,303 hours of sunshine per year, ranging from a low of 96 hours in December (or 33% of possible sunshine) to 286 hours in July (or 62% of possible sunshine).
Parks and recreation
![Wilkes-Barre Commons](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Wilkes-Barre_Commons.jpg)
Wilkes-Barre has a Downtown Riverfront Park system that contains 91 acres of open space.
Kirby Park is a public park located along the western bank of the Susquehanna River. Kirby Park is one of the region's most valued recreational resources. Given to the city of Wilkes-Barre by the Kirby Family, the park welcomes hundreds of thousands each year. The park is the setting for the city's annual Cherry Blossom Festival (held during the last weekend of April) and the city's July 4 Celebration. Its amenities include tennis courts, a fitness trail, pond, walking paths, running track, softball fields, parking area, volleyball courts, pavilions, and more.
Nesbitt Park is also located on the west side of the Susquehanna River. It is located across from Kirby Park. Nesbitt is open to the public. It has walking paths and areas for picnicking.
The River Common is located along the eastern bank of the Susquehanna River. The Market Street Bridge bisects the park. The River Common joins with the Luzerne County Courthouse grounds. Its features include a 750-person amphitheater, paved walk-ways, gardens, ornamental trees, seating areas, a fishing pier, and two grand gateways connecting the city to the river.
Demographics
![St](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/St._Stephen%27s_Pro-Cathedral_-_Wilkes-Barre%2C_Pennsylvania_01.jpg)
The city's population has been in constant decline since the 1930s, but the decline has been slowing in recent decades, and saw growth as of 2020. As of the
2020 census, there were 44,328 people and 15,581 households residing in the city. The popeulation density was 5,945 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 69.80%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
, 14.90%
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, 0.40%
Native American, 2.4%
Asian
Asian may refer to:
* Items from or related to the continent of Asia:
** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia
** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia
** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
, 0.20%
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe the original p ...
, and 4.60% from two or more races.
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...
or
Latino
Latino or Latinos most often refers to:
* Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America
* Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States
* The people or cultures of Latin America;
** Latin A ...
of any race were 21.0% of the population.
As of the
2010 census, the city was 79.2% White, 10.9% Black or African American, 0.3% Native American, 1.4% Asian, and 2.9% were two or more races. Of the population, 11.3% were of Hispanic or Latino ancestry. The Hispanic population was just 1.58% of the population as of the
2000 census.
As of the
2000 census, there were 43,123 people, 17,961 households, and 9,878 families residing in the city. The population density was 6,296.3 people per square mile (2,430.6/km
2). There were 20,294 housing units at an average density of 2,963.1 per square mile (1,143.9/km
2). The racial makeup of the city was 92.30%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
, 5.09%
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, 0.11%
Native American, 0.79%
Asian
Asian may refer to:
* Items from or related to the continent of Asia:
** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia
** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia
** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
, 0.03%
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe the original p ...
, 0.53% from
other races
Other often refers to:
* Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy
Other or The Other may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack
* ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
, and 1.15% from two or more races.
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...
or
Latino
Latino or Latinos most often refers to:
* Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America
* Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States
* The people or cultures of Latin America;
** Latin A ...
of any race were 1.58% of the population.
The average household size was 2.42. With population spread of 22.9% under the age of 18, 61.3% between the ages of 19–64, and 15.8% over the age of 65. Females made up 50.6% of the population.
The median household income was $37,902, while 26.6% of the city were found below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...
. The
per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population.
Per capita i ...
was $20,197.
Dialect
The local
accent of
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
is
Northeast Pennsylvania English.
Religion
More than half (59.3%) of the city's population is religious: 43.8%
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, 4.4%
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
, 3.1%
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
, 2.0%
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
, 1.1%
Pentecostal
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement , 0.8%
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
, 0.6%
Episcopalian
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...
, 0.5%
Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
, 0.5%
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
, and 0.3%
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...
.
Economy
As of March 2019,
income per capita
The median income is the income amount that divides a population into two equal groups, half having an income above that amount, and half having an income below that amount. It may differ from the mean (or average) income. Both of these are ways of ...
in Wilkes-Barre was $18,375, compared to the national average of $31,177.
Household income
Household income is a measure of the combined incomes of all people sharing a particular household or place of residence. It includes every form of income, e.g., salaries and wages, retirement income, near cash government transfers like food stamp ...
was $32,484, compared to the national average of $57,652. Family median income was $42,782, compared to the national average of $70,850. The city's
unemployment rate
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the referen ...
in March 2019 was 6.4%. Recent job growth was 0.8%. 49% of jobs were in sales, office, administrative support, production, transportation, and material moving sectors. In 2016, 30.1% of residents lived below the poverty line, more than double the Pennsylvania average of 12.9%. Large employers in the city include
GUARD Insurance Group
Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance Companies currently insure over 250,000 businesses in the US.
History
In July 1982, the company's original subsidiaries were formed in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, by Susan and Judd Shoval and a group of priv ...
and
Lord & Taylor
Lord & Taylor was the oldest brick and mortar department store in the United States, in business from 1826 to 2020. The brand was purchased during former owner Le Tote's 2020 liquidation bankruptcy and relaunched by new owner, Saadia Group, as ...
.
Government
City government
Executive
The city is headed by an elected
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
, who serves four-year terms. The current mayor is George Brown (
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
). He has been in office since 2019. Before becoming mayor he was a business man and a former city councilman.
Legislative
The legislative branch consists of a five-member
City Council
A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...
. They are elected by a
single-member district
A single-member district is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. Single-member districts are also sometimes called single-winner vo ...
to four-year terms. The following are current members of the council: Bill Barrett, Mike Belusko, Tony Brooks, Beth Gilbert, and John Marconi.
Audit and Control
The office of Audit and Control is the third branch of Wilkes-Barre City government. It is headed by the City Controller, elected to a four-year term. Darren G. Snyder, the current City Controller, is a Democrat and has been in office since 2016.
Judicial
The city of Wilkes-Barre is served by two City Attorneys (Timothy Henry and Maureen Collins). They advise both the mayor and city council.
The chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime in Wilkes-Barre is 1 in 35. Based on FBI crime data, Wilkes-Barre is not one of the safest communities in America. Relative to Pennsylvania, Wilkes-Barre has a crime rate that is higher than 91% of the state's cities and towns of all sizes.
County government
![Luzerne County Courthouse flickr](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Luzerne_County_Courthouse_flickr.jpg)
The
Luzerne County
Luzerne County is a county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and is water. It is Northeastern Pennsylvania's second-largest county by total area. As of ...
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
operates out of Wilkes-Barre. The city is the
administrative center
An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or ...
of Luzerne County. The county government is responsible for imposing taxes, providing services to the public, and administering laws and regulations. They govern over a population of nearly 320,000 people. Many government offices are situated within the
county courthouse
A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...
(located at 200 North River Street in Downtown Wilkes-Barre). The Luzerne County
Court of Common Pleas
A court of common pleas is a common kind of court structure found in various common law jurisdictions. The form originated with the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, which was created to permit individuals to press civil grievances against one ...
also operates out of the same building.
On November 2, 2010, the voters of Luzerne County held a
referendum
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
on the question of
home rule
Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wit ...
. A total of 51,413 (55.25%) voted in favor of home rule, while another 41,639 (44.75%) voted against the move. This vote was the direct result of the corruption, wasteful spending, higher property taxes, and out-of-control debt facing the county. The home rule charter took effect on January 2, 2012; the Luzerne County
Board of Commissioners
A county commission (or a board of county commissioners) is a group of elected officials (county commissioners) collectively charged with administering the county government in some states of the United States; such commissions usually comprise ...
was abolished and replaced with the new form of government (
council–manager government
The council–manager government is a form of local government used for municipalities, counties, or other equivalent regions. It is one of the two most common forms of local government in the United States along with the mayor–council govern ...
). This government consists of a
county council
A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries.
Ireland
The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irela ...
. The
council chair, who is appointed by his or her fellow council members, is both the highest-ranking officer on the assembly and the
head of county government for ceremonial purposes. The council also appoints and works alongside a full-time
manager
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities o ...
(who supervises the county's day-to-day operations).
The county government is also made up of many other officials (e.g., the county controller,
district attorney
In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...
, and
sheriff
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
).
State and federal representation
State
*
Eddie Day Pashinski (
D) represents Wilkes-Barre in the
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts.
It ...
.
*
John T. Yudichak (
I) represents the city in the
Pennsylvania State Senate
The Pennsylvania State Senate is the upper house of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Pennsylvania state legislature. The State Senate meets in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. Senators are elected for four year terms, staggered ev ...
.
Federal
*
Matthew Cartwright
Matthew Alton Cartwright (born May 1, 1961) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the U.S. representative from Pennsylvania's 8th congressional district since 2013. The district, numbered as the 17th district from 2013 through 2019, in ...
(
D) represents Wilkes-Barre on the federal level (in the
U.S. House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
).
*
Bob Casey (
D) and
Pat Toomey
Patrick Joseph Toomey Jr. (born November 17, 1961) is an American businessman and politician serving as the junior United States senator for Pennsylvania since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he served three terms as the U.S. representat ...
(
R) represent the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the
U.S. Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
.
Education
High schools
Wilkes-Barre City is part of the
Wilkes-Barre Area School District
Wilkes–Barre Area School District is an urban public school district located in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The District encompasses approximately 123 square miles. The district includes the city of Wilkes-Barre as well as sma ...
. The district operates three high schools:
*
James M. Coughlin High School
James M. Coughlin High School was an urban school located in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. It served grades 9-12 in the Wilkes-Barre Area School District.
History
Established in 1890 as Wilkes-Barre High School, the current school structure was ...
*
G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) Memorial High School
*
Elmer L. Meyers High School
In 2020, the 3 High Schools became one, as Wilkes-Barre Area High School was built in nearby Plains Township. They chose the nickname “Wolfpack”.
The
Diocese of Scranton
The Diocese of Scranton is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church. It is a suffragan see of Archdiocese of Philadelphia, established on March 3, 1868. The seat of the bishop is St. Peter's Cathedral in th ...
also has a high school in Wilkes-Barre—
Holy Redeemer High School
Holy Redeemer High School is a high school of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton. It is located in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, United States. It is currently the only Catholic high school in Luzerne County
Luzerne County is a county in th ...
.
Colleges
The area in and around Wilkes-Barre is home to several colleges and universities:
*
King's College
*
Wilkes University
Wilkes University is a private university in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. It has over 2,200 undergraduates and over 2,200 graduate students (both full and part-time). Wilkes was founded in 1933 as a satellite campus of Bucknell University, and bec ...
*
Misericordia University
Misericordia University is a private Roman Catholic university in Dallas, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Religious Sisters of Mercy in 1924 as College Misericordia; in 2007 it became a university and changed its name. The university offers ...
*
Luzerne County Community College
Luzerne County Community College (LCCC) is a public community college in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania. LCCC offers over 100 academic, technical, and career programs. The institution uses an open admissions policy for most programs, and has over 35,000 ...
*
Penn State Wilkes-Barre
Penn State Wilkes-Barre is a commonwealth campus of Pennsylvania State University located in Lehman Township, Pennsylvania.
History
In May 1915, two Penn State graduates, reacting to the needs of the local anthracite mining industry, proposed the ...
*
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Wilkes Barre Campus
Libraries
Along with the libraries associated with the colleges, Wilkes-Barre has several libraries. These include three branches of the
Osterhout Free Library
The Luzerne County Library System (LCLS) is an organization that administers ten libraries in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1984, it is headquartered at the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Along with hosting vario ...
, with the headquarters for the
Luzerne County Library System
The Luzerne County Library System (LCLS) is an organization that administers ten libraries in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1984, it is headquartered at the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Along with hosting variou ...
in the main branch.
Transportation
![KAVP Terminals](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/KAVP_Terminals.jpg)
Airports
Five international airlines fly from the
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport is mostly in Pittston Township, Pennsylvania, and spans the border between Luzerne County and Lackawanna County. It is owned and operated by the two counties; it is about 7 miles from Scranton and 8 m ...
in nearby
Pittston Township
Pittston Township is a township in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. The population was 3,179 as of the 2020 census. The township is located within the Greater Pittston region. As of 2010, the total population of Greater Pittston was 48,020. The Wilkes ...
. Smaller, private planes may also use the
Wilkes-Barre Wyoming Valley Airport
Wilkes-Barre Wyoming Valley Airport is a county-owned, public airport three miles north of Wilkes-Barre, in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and 10 miles south of Scranton, in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. The National Plan of Integrated Airpo ...
in
Forty Fort
Forty Fort was a stronghold built by settlers from Westmoreland County, Connecticut, on the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. During the American Revolutionary War, both Connecticut and Pennsylvania claimed this territory, as ...
.
Highways
Interstate 81
Interstate 81 (I-81) is a north–south (physically northeast–southwest) Interstate Highway in the eastern part of the United States. Its southern terminus is at I-40 in Dandridge, Tennessee; its northern terminus is on Wellesley Island ...
passes north–south near Wilkes-Barre, and the city is also located near the
Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It is also about north of
Interstate 80
Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...
. The
North Cross Valley Expressway, starting at the junction of Interstate 81 and
Pennsylvania Route 115
Pennsylvania Route 115 (PA 115) is a north–south state highway in eastern Pennsylvania. It stretches from U.S. Route 209 (US 209) in Brodheadsville, Monroe County, northwest to Interstate 81 (I-81) and PA 309 ...
, carries
Pennsylvania Route 309
Pennsylvania Route 309 (PA 309) is a state highway that runs for 134 miles (216 km) through eastern Pennsylvania. The route runs from an interchange between Pennsylvania Route 611, PA 611 and Cheltenham Avenue on the border of Philadelphia an ...
through northern Wilkes-Barre, connecting the city to
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
in the north. Route 115 provides access from the
Pennsylvania Turnpike
The Pennsylvania Turnpike (Penna Turnpike or PA Turnpike) is a toll highway operated by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. A controlled-access highway, it runs for across the state. The turnpike's we ...
's
Northeast Extension, but it does not enter Wilkes-Barre city limits.
Buses
Public transportation
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
is provided by the
Luzerne County Transportation Authority
The Luzerne County Transportation Authority (LCTA) is the operator of mass transportation in the city of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and portions of surrounding Luzerne County. Services provided by the LCTA replaced previously offered services of ...
. In addition to servicing the city, it provides transportation for the northern half of the county. It also has a connecting bus to
Scranton
Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U ...
via an interchange at
Pittston
Pittston is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The city gained prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as an active anthracite coal ...
with the
Transit System of Lackawanna County (COLTS), the public transit authority of
Lackawanna County
Lackawanna County (; unm, Lèkaohane) is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania and had a population of 215,896 as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is Scranton.
The county ...
.
Martz Trailways
Martz Group is a bus company headquartered in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, operating intercity commuter buses, charter buses, and tours. The company operates Martz Trailways, which is a part of the Trailways Transportation System. Martz Trailways ...
provides intercity bus service from the Martz Trailways Bus Terminal in downtown Wilkes-Barre to Scranton,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
,
Atlantic City
Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, Boardwalk (entertainment district), boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020 United States censu ...
, and
Wind Creek Bethlehem
The Wind Creek Bethlehem (formerly Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem) is a casino hotel located in the Bethlehem Works development site in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It is owned and operated by Wind ...
.
Rail
The city was at one time served by the
Lehigh Valley Railroad
The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad built in the Northeastern United States to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Pennsylvania. The railroad was authorized on April 21, 1846 for freight and transportation of passengers, goods, w ...
,
Central Railroad of New Jersey
The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central or Jersey Central Lines , was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s. It was absorbed into Conrail in April 1976 along with several other prominent bankrupt railroads of ...
, the
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad
The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad) was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey (and by ferry with New York City), a distance of . Incorporated in ...
(later
Erie Lackawanna Railway
The Erie Lackawanna Railway , known as the Erie Lackawanna Railroad until 1968, was formed from the 1960 merger of the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. The official motto of the line was "The Friendly Service Route" ...
),
Delaware and Hudson Railway
The Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H) is a railroad that operates in the Northeastern United States. In 1991, after more than 150 years as an independent railroad, the D&H was purchased by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). CP operates D&H ...
, the
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
, the
Wilkes-Barre and Eastern Railroad
The Wilkes-Barre and Eastern Railroad (WB&E) was a railroad that operated in Pennsylvania from 1892 to 1939.
History
The WB&E was a wholly owned subsidiary of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad (NYS&W). It was chartered in 1892 to p ...
, and the
Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad
The Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railroad, more commonly known as the Laurel Line, was a Pennsylvania third rail electric interurban streetcar line which operated commuter train service from 1903 to 1952, and freight service until 1976. Its main li ...
(known as the Laurel Line). CNJ trains included the ''
Interstate Express
The ''Interstate Express'' was a long-distance passenger train operating between Syracuse, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, jointly operated by the Reading Railroad, the Central Railroad of New Jersey and the Delaware, Lackawanna and West ...
'' (ending in 1957) and local service to Allentown and Philadelphia. The last Lehigh Valley trains were the ''
Black Diamond'' (ending in 1959), ''John Wilkes'' and ''
Maple Leaf
The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree. It is the most widely recognized national symbol of Canada.
History of use in Canada
By the early 1700s, the maple leaf had been adopted as an emblem by the French Canadians along the ...
'' (the last two, ending in 1961).
The Wilkes-Barre Traction Company formed a
streetcar
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
line from
Georgetown to
Nanticoke Nanticoke may refer to:
* Nanticoke people in Delaware, United States
* Nanticoke language, an Algonquian language
* Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, a state-recognized tribe in New Jersey
Place names Canada
* Nanticoke, Ontario
** Nanticoke Generating S ...
and over the river into
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
(it ceased operations in the mid-1940s).
The
Norfolk Southern Railway
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...
, which was acquired the former Delaware and Hudson line from successor
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...
) and the
Luzerne and Susquehanna Railway
The Luzerne and Susquehanna Railway is a shortline railroad in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. It both serves local traffic and connects to the Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad in Pittston and to the Norfolk Southern Railway at three sep ...
, provides freight service within the city.
Arts and culture
Local attractions
* Dorothy Dickson Darte Center for the Performing Arts, located on the campus of Wilkes University
*
F. M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts
* Frederick Stegmaier Mansion
*
Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre The Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre is one of the oldest continuously-running community theatres in the United States.
Founded in 1922 as the Drama League, Little Theatre was incorporated as a non-profit under the new name in 1929. Its first perfor ...
* Luzerne County Convention and Visitors Bureau
*
Luzerne County Museum
*
Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza
Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza (originally Northeastern Pennsylvania Civic Arena and Convention Center, formerly First Union Arena and Wachovia Arena) is an 8,050-seat multi-purpose arena located in Wilkes-Barre Township, Pennsylvania just no ...
*
Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, Pennsylvania's first slots casino
*
River Street Historic District
*
Stegmaier Brewery
Lion Brewery, Inc, is the operator of the Lion Brewery, located in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, which was founded in 1905. A "heritage brewery", it is one of only 10 United States pre-Prohibition breweries that has independently and continuously op ...
*
Wilkes-Barre station
*
Wyoming Monument
The Wyoming Monument is an American Revolutionary War monument and grave site located in the Borough of Wyoming in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
History
Background
The monument marks the location of the bones of victims from the Battle of ...
Media
''
Times Leader
The ''Times Leader'' is a privately owned newspaper in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Founding
Founded in 1879, it was locally owned until being purchased by Capital Cities in 1978.
Early history
On November 27, 1907, the ''Wilkes-Barre Times' ...
'' and ''
The Citizens' Voice
''The Citizens' Voice'' is a compact newspaper published daily in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Its 2005 circulation was 32,862, mostly Luzerne County residents.
Founding
The newspaper was founded in 1978 by striking employees of the Wilkes-Barre P ...
'' are the two largest daily newspapers in Wilkes-Barre. The
Wyoming Valley
The Wyoming Valley is a historic industrialized region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The region is historically notable for its influence in helping fuel the American Industrial Revolution with its many anthracite coal-mines. As a metropolitan are ...
's
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
affiliate,
WBRE-TV
WBRE-TV (channel 28) is a television station licensed to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, United States, serving Northeastern Pennsylvania as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which provides certain services to Scranton-license ...
28, is the only television station licensed to Wilkes-Barre, but
WNEP-TV
WNEP-TV (channel 16) is a television station licensed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for Northeastern Pennsylvania. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on Montage Mountain Road in Moosic. Th ...
16 (
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
),
WYOU
WYOU (channel 22) is a television station licensed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is owned by Mission Broadcasting, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with ...
22 (
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
),
WVIA-TV
WVIA-TV (channel 44) is a PBS member television station licensed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving Northeastern Pennsylvania. Owned by the Northeast Pennsylvania Educational Television Association, it is sister to NPR member WVIA ...
44 (
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
), and
WSWB
WSWB (channel 38) is a television station licensed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the CW affiliate for Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is owned by MPS Media, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with New Age M ...
38 (
CW), all in Scranton,
WOLF-TV
WOLF-TV (channel 56) is a television station licensed to Hazleton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving Northeastern Pennsylvania as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is the flagship property of locally based New Age Media, LLC, and is co-ow ...
56 (
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
) in Hazleton, and
WQMY
WQMY (channel 53) is a television station licensed to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, United States, serving Northeastern Pennsylvania as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is owned by locally based New Age Media, LLC, alongside Hazleton-licensed Fox a ...
53 (
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...
) in Williamsport also serve the city. Wilkes-Barre's radio market is ranked No. 69 by
Arbitron
Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by mergin ...
's ranking system. There are news, adult alternative, and music radio stations which are receivable in the area.
Popular culture
* Wilkes-Barre's economic plight is featured in the movie ''
Capitalism: A Love Story'', directed by
Michael Moore
Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American filmmaker, author and left-wing activist. His works frequently address the topics of globalization and capitalism.
Moore won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ' ...
.
* The Wilkes-Barre variation (or Traxler variation, as it is more commonly known) of the
Two Knights' Defense is named for the Wilkes-Barre
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
club.
* In the TV series ''
Supernatural
Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...
'' episode 8.13 "Everyone Hates Hitler," the lead protagonists investigate a case in Wilkes-Barre.
* In the TV series ''
The Office
''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries.
The original series of ...
'', In the episode "Michael's Birthday", Dwight gives Michael a jersey from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, a local professional hockey team that plays in Wilkes-Barre. Throughout the series there is a magnet that is on the Kitchen Fridge that reads "
Scranton/Wilkes Barre Yankees
The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (often abbreviated to SWB RailRiders) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. They are located in Moosic, Pennsylvania, in the ...
."
* In the TV series ''
Days of Our Lives
''Days of Our Lives'' (also stylized as ''Days of our Lives''; simply referred to as ''Days'' or ''DOOL'') is an American television soap opera that streams on the streaming service Peacock. The soap, which aired on the American television net ...
'', Episode 8/31/2021, Phillip tells Belle that Brady and Chloe are in Wilkes-Barre PA. In the end of the episode Phillip tells them to fuel up the jet for Wilkes-Barre PA."
Sports
Notable people
*
Jane Alexander
Jane Alexander (née Quigley; born October 28, 1939) is an American actress and author. She is the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and nominations for four Academy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. From 1993 to 1997 ...
, lawyer and Pennsylvania state representative
*
George Emil Banks, spree killer
*
Hazel Barnes
Hazel Estella Barnes (December 16, 1915 – March 18, 2008) was an American philosopher, author, and translator. Best known for her popularization of existentialism in America, Barnes translated the works of Jean-Paul Sartre as well as writing o ...
, philosopher
*
Douglas Carter Beane
Douglas Carter Beane is an American playwright and screenwriter. Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Beane now lives in New York. His works include the screenplay of ''To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! J ...
, playwright
*
Al Bedner
Albert Leon Bedner (July 9, 1898 – July 12, 1988) was an American football player who played three seasons in the National Football League with the Frankford Yellow Jackets and New York Giants. He played college football at Lafayette College and ...
, NFL player
*
Ray Black
Raymond Anthony Black (born June 26, 1990) is an American professional baseball pitcher in the Milwaukee Brewers organization. He previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Francisco Giants and Brewers.
Career Amateur career
B ...
, Pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers
*
David Bohm
David Joseph Bohm (; 20 December 1917 – 27 October 1992) was an American-Brazilian-British scientist who has been described as one of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th centuryPeat 1997, pp. 316-317 and who contributed u ...
, quantum physicist
*
Benjamin Burnley
Benjamin Jackson Burnley IV (born March 10, 1978) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the founder and frontman of the American rock band Breaking Benjamin. As the sole constant of the group, Burnley h ...
, lead singer and guitarist for rock band
Breaking Benjamin
Breaking Benjamin is an American Rock music, rock band from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, formed in 1999 by lead singer and guitarist Benjamin Burnley and drummer Jeremy Hummel. The first lineup of the band also included guitarist Aaron Fink an ...
*
Lillian Cahn
Lillian Cahn (née Lenovitz; December 11, 1923 – March 4, 2013) was a Hungarian-born American businessperson who co-founded Coach New York with her husband, Miles Cahn. Lillian Cahn also created Coach's first line of handbags, which remains ...
, co-founder of
Coach, Inc.
Tapestry, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Luxury goods, luxury fashion holding company. It is based in New York City and is the parent company of three major brands: Coach New York, Kate Spade New York and Stuart Weitz ...
and Coach handbag designer
*
George Catlin
George Catlin (July 26, 1796 – December 23, 1872) was an American adventurer, lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the Old West.
Traveling to the We ...
, artist
*
Britton Chance
Britton "Brit" Chance (July 24, 1913 – November 16, 2010) was an American biochemist, biophysicist, scholar, and inventor whose work helped develop spectroscopy as a way to diagnose medical problems. He was "a world leader in transforming t ...
, bio-physicist and Olympic sailor
*
Catherine Chandler
Catherine M. Chandler (born November 1950) is a Canadian poet and translator, born in Queens, New York City and raised in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, emigrating to Canada in 1971. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and Spanish from ...
, poet
*
Mark Ciavarella
Mark Arthur Ciavarella Jr. (born March 3, 1950) is an American convicted felon and former President Judge of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, who was involved, along with fellow judge Michael Conahan, in t ...
, disgraced judge in
kids for cash scandal
The "kids for cash" scandal centered on judicial kickbacks to two judges at the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, US. In 2008, judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella were convicted of accepting money in ret ...
*
Mark Cohen, street photographer
*
Ed Cole
Edward Nicholas Cole (September 17, 1909 – May 2, 1977) was an American automotive executive for General Motors.
Career
Cole was the son of a dairy farmer. In his youth, he designed, built, and sold homemade radio sets, and as a teenage ...
, Major League Baseball pitcher
*
Colleen Corby
Colleen Corby (born August 3, 1947) is an American retired model. She is best known for her work as a teen in the 1960s, as well as for her modeling work in department store catalogs from the 1960s and 1970s, including those of Sears, JC Penney, Mo ...
, 1960s fashion model
*
Mary Helen Peck Crane
Mary Helen Peck Crane (, Peck; April 10, 1827 – December 7, 1891) was a 19th-century American church and temperance activist, as well as a writer. She was the mother of the writer, Stephen Crane. She died in 1891.
Early life and education
Mary ...
(1827–1891), activist, writer; mother of
Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 – June 5, 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism an ...
*
Amasa Dana
Amasa Dana (October 19, 1792 – December 24, 1867) was an American lawyer and politician who served two non-consecutive terms as a U.S. Representative from New York from 1839 to 1841, and from 1843 to 1845.
Biography
Born in Wilkes-Barre, P ...
, former U.S. Congressman
*
Charles B. Dougherty, Army National Guard
major general
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...
who commanded the
28th Infantry Division
*
Mark Duda
Mark D Duda (born February 4, 1961) is a former professional American football defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). He played his entire NFL career with the St. Louis Cardinals from 1983 until 1987.
From 1979 to 1982, Duda pla ...
, NFL player,
Lackawanna College
Lackawanna College (Lackawanna or LC) is a private college in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It also has satellite centers in Hazleton, Hawley, Sunbury, Towanda, and Tunkhannock, and an Environmental Education Center in Covington Township.
Acade ...
football head coach
*
Francis A. "Mother" Dunn, football player for the
Canton Bulldogs
The Canton Bulldogs were a professional American football team, based in Canton, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League from 1903 to 1906 and 1911 to 1919, and the American Professional Football Association (later renamed the National Football Leag ...
*
Benjamin F. Evans Jr.
Benjamin Franklin Evans, Jr. (September 3, 1912 - September 2, 1991) was a U.S. Army Major General. He served as the U.S. military’s chief of the joint U.S. military aid mission in Turkey.Washington Post. “BENJAMIN F. EVANS JR.
Army Major Gene ...
(1912–1991),
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
Major General
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...
, U.S. military's chief of joint U.S. military aid mission in
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
.
*
Pete Elko, Major League Baseball third baseman
*
Dave Evans, Hollywood filmmaker most known for the movie ''
The Sandlot
''The Sandlot'' (released in some countries as ''The Sandlot Kids'') is a 1993 American coming-of-age sports comedy film co-written, directed, and narrated by David Mickey Evans
David Mickey Evans (born October 20, 1962) is an American film d ...
''
*
Jesse Fell
Jesse Fell was an early political leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He was one of the first Pennsylvanians to successfully burn anthracite on an open air grate. Anthracite differs from wood in that it needs a draft from the bottom, and Judge ...
, early experimenter with anthracite coal
*
Pat Finn, game show host whose shows include
Lifetime
Lifetime may refer to:
* Life expectancy, the length of time a person is expected to remain alive
Arts, entertainment, and media
Music
* Lifetime (band), a rock band from New Jersey
* ''Life Time'' (Rollins Band album), by Rollins Band
* ...
's,
The Family Channel's, and
PAX
Pax or PAX may refer to:
Peace
* Peace (Latin: ''pax'')
** Pax (goddess), the Roman goddess of peace
** Pax, a truce term
* Pax (liturgy), a salutation in Catholic and Lutheran religious services
* Pax (liturgical object), an object formerly kiss ...
's ''
Shop 'til You Drop
''Shop 'til You Drop'' is an American game show that was on the air intermittently between 1991 and 2005. Four different series were produced during that time, with the first premiering on Lifetime on July 8, 1991, and the fourth series airing it ...
''
*
Ham Fisher
Hammond Edward "Ham" Fisher (September 24, 1900 (some sources indicate 1901) – December 27, 1955) was an American comic strip writer and cartoonist. He is best known for his long, popular run on '' Joe Palooka'', which was launched in 1930 and ...
, cartoonist
*
Tess Gardella
Therese Gardella (December 19, 1894 – January 3, 1950) was an American performer on the stage and screen whose stage persona was Aunt Jemima. She was of Italian descent. The Aunt Jemima brand name used for pancake mix and related products in t ...
, actress
*
Billy Goeckel
William John Goeckel (September 3, 1871 – November 1, 1922) was a professional baseball player who played first base for the 1899 Philadelphia Phillies.
Biography
Goeckel attended Canisius College and the University of Pennsylvania (Penn).
Wh ...
, baseball player
*
Bob Good
Robert George Good (born September 11, 1965) is an American politician who is the U.S. representative in Virginia's 5th congressional district. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Early life and education
Good was born in Wilkes-Barre, ...
, U.S. congressman
*
Kevin Gryboski
Kevin John Gryboski (born November 15, 1973) is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher and current head coach of Wilkes University's baseball team.
Career
High school career
At Bishop Hoban High School in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania ...
, Retired Major League Baseball pitcher
*
William Harmatz
William Harmatz (February 9, 1931 – January 27, 2011) was an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey who won the 1959 Preakness Stakes aboard Royal Orbit. The recipient of the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1960, given to a jockey ...
, jockey, winner of 1959
Preakness Stakes
The Preakness Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race held on Armed Forces Day which is also the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs () on ...
*
Laning Harvey, Pennsylvania state senator
*
Mickey Haslin
Michael Joseph "Mickey" Haslin (October 25, 1909 – March 7, 2002), born Michael Joseph Hazlinsky, was a Jewish-Austrian American professional baseball player whose career spanned 13 seasons, six of which were spent in Major League Baseball (MLB) ...
, Major League Baseball infielder
*
George Washington Helme
George Washington Helme (May 18, 1822 – June 16, 1893) was the founder of Helmetta, New Jersey.
Early life and family
Helme, born in Kingston, Pennsylvania, USA, was the ninth child and fifth son of Major Oliver Helme (descendant of an old Rho ...
, businessman and founder of
Helmetta, New Jersey
Helmetta is a borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The borough is nestled within the heart of the Raritan Valley region, with Manalapan Brook (a Raritan River tributary) flowing through the center of the community. As of the ...
*
Joe Hergert, former professional football player
*
William Henry Hines, U.S. Representative for Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district from 1893 to 1895
*
Raye Hollitt
Raye Hollitt (born April 17, 1964) is an American actress and bodybuilder, also known by her stage name Zap, one of the original cast members of '' American Gladiators''.
Biography
Hollitt graduated from Lake-Lehman High School in 1982, then w ...
, bodybuilder and actress
*
Qadry Ismail
Qadry Rahmadan Ismail (born November 8, 1970), nicknamed "the Missile", is a former American football wide receiver. He was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the second round (52nd overall) of the 1993 NFL draft. He played college football at S ...
, former
NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
wide receiver on the
Baltimore Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays its ...
*
Raghib Ismail
Raghib Ramadian "Rocket" Ismail (born November 18, 1969) is an American former American and Canadian football wide receiver and kick returner. He played college football at Notre Dame before moving on to both the Canadian Football League (CFL) ...
, former
NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
player and
Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...
runner-up
*
Florence Foster Jenkins
Florence Foster Jenkins (born Narcissa Florence Foster; July 19, 1868 – November 26, 1944) was an American socialite and amateur soprano who became known, and mocked, for her flamboyant performance costumes and notably poor singing ability. S ...
, unconventional operatic soprano, subject of
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
starring
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise Meryl Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Often described as "the best actress of her generation", Streep is particularly known for her versatility and accent adaptability. She has received numerous accolades throu ...
*
Candy Jones
Candy Jones, originally known as Jessica Arline Wilcox (December 31, 1925 – January 18, 1990), was an American fashion model, writer and radio talk show hostess.
Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, she was raised and educated in Atlantic Cit ...
, fashion model, writer, radio personality
*
Dorothy Andrews Elston Kabis
Dorothy Andrews Elston Kabis (March 22, 1917 – July 3, 1971) was a Republican Party activist from the U.S. state of Delaware who was appointed the 33rd Treasurer of the United States, having served from May 8, 1969, until her death. She was th ...
,
Treasurer of the United States
The treasurer of the United States is an officer in the United States Department of the Treasury who serves as custodian and trustee of the federal government's collateral assets and the supervisor of the department's currency and coinage produc ...
*
James Karen
James Karen (born Jacob Karnofsky; November 28, 1923 – October 23, 2018) was an American character actor of Broadway, film and television. Karen is known for his roles in '' Poltergeist'', ''The China Syndrome'', '' Wall Street'', ''The Retu ...
, actor
*
Mary Holland Kinkaid
Mary Holland McNeish Kinkaid (December 31, 1861 — October 20, 1948) was an American novelist and journalist.
Early life
Mary Holland McNeish was born and raised in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the daughter of John McNeish and Nettie Simpson Mc ...
, journalist
*
Michael J. Kirwan
Michael Joseph Kirwan (December 2, 1886 – July 27, 1970) was an American Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician from Ohio who served as a United States House of Representatives, Representative to the United States Congress ...
, represented Youngstown, Ohio in Congress, 1938–1970
*
Al Klawitter, Major League Baseball pitcher
*
Franz Kline
Franz Kline (May 23, 1910 – May 13, 1962) was an American painter. He is associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940s and 1950s. Kline, along with other action painters like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Mothe ...
,
abstract expressionist
Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
painter
*
Mike Konnick
Michael Aloysius Kozicky (January 13, 1889, in Glen Lyon, Pennsylvania – July 9, 1971, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) was a major league baseball player and scout and a minor league manager.
Biography
Kozicky had a very brief major league care ...
, former
MLB
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
player
*
Mary Jo Kopechne
Mary Jo Kopechne (; July 26, 1940 – July 18 or 19, 1969) was an American secretary, and one of the campaign workers for U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign, a close team known as the "Boiler Room Girls". In 1969, she d ...
, passenger killed in car driven by
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...
at
Chappaquiddick
*
Harley Jane Kozak
Harley Jane Kozak (born January 28, 1957) is an American actress and author. She made her film debut in the slasher film ''The House on Sorority Row'' (1982), and had a recurring role as Mary Duvall on the soap opera '' Santa Barbara'' between 1 ...
, actress and author
*
Matthew Lesko
Matthew John Lesko (born May 11, 1943) is an American author known for his publications and infomercials on federal grant funding. He has written over twenty books instructing people how to get money from the United States government. Widely re ...
, infomercial personality
*
Edward B. Lewis
Edward Butts Lewis (May 20, 1918 – July 21, 2004) was an American geneticist, a corecipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He helped to found the field of evolutionary developmental biology.
Early life
Lewis was born in Wi ...
, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine
*
Santo Loquasto
Santo Richard Loquasto (born July 26, 1944) is an American production designer, scenic designer, and costume designer for stage, film, and dance.
His work has included the films ''Big'', ''Radio Days'', '' Cafe Society'', ''Blue Jasmine'', ''Desp ...
, production designer
*
Garrick Mallery
Garrick Mallery (April 25, 1831 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – October 24, 1894) was an American ethnologist specializing in Native American sign language and pictographs.
Family
His father was Judge Garrick Mallery, who was born April 1 ...
, ethnologist
*
Herman Mankiewicz
Herman Jacob Mankiewicz (; November 7, 1897 – March 5, 1953) was an American screenwriter who, with Orson Welles, wrote the screenplay for ''Citizen Kane'' (1941). Both Mankiewicz and Welles would go on to receive the Academy Award for Best Or ...
, screenwriter of ''
Citizen Kane
''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited ...
''
*
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Joseph Leo Mankiewicz (; February 11, 1909 – February 5, 1993) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career, and won both the Academy Award for Best Director and the Academy Award for Best ...
, Academy Award-winning director and producer
*
Al Markim
Alfred Markim (born Alfred D. Moskowitz; May 22, 1927 – November 24, 2015) was an American film and television actor, best known for his role as Astro in the 1950s live, sci-fi television series, ''Tom Corbett, Space Cadet''. His lead character, ...
, actor (
''Tom Corbett, Space Cadet'')
*
Mary McDonnell
Mary Eileen McDonnell (born April 28, 1952) is an American film, stage, and television actress. She received Academy Award nominations for her roles as Stands With A Fist in ''Dances with Wolves'' and May-Alice Culhane in ''Passion Fish''. McD ...
, actress twice nominated for Academy Award
*
Edward Peter McManaman
Edward Peter McManaman (May 3, 1900 – July 18, 1964) was a bishop of the Catholic Church in the United States. He served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Erie from 1948 to 1964.
Biography
Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, McMan ...
, Roman Catholic bishop
*
Edward Meneeley, painter
*
Asher Miner
Asher Miner (November 14, 1860 – September 2, 1924) was an American businessman and military officer from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He was most notable for his business career as president of the Miner-Hillard Milling Company, the largest gra ...
, U.S. Army brigadier general and prominent businessman
*
Albert Mudrian
''Decibel'' is a monthly heavy metal magazine published by the Philadelphia-based Red Flag Media since October 2004. Its sections include Upfront, Features, Reviews, Guest Columns and the Decibel Hall of Fame. The magazine's tag-line is currentl ...
, author and magazine editor
*
Leo C. Mundy, Pennsylvania state senator and physician
*
Jozef Murgas, radio pioneer
*
Joe Murray, left-handed pitcher for the
Philadelphia A's
The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oakl ...
*
Claudette Nevins
Claudette Nevins (née Weintraub; April 10, 1937 – February 20, 2020) was an American stage, film and television actress.
Biography
Claudette Nevins was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She was a daught ...
, actress
*
Amedeo Obici
Amedeo Obici (July 15, 1877 – May 22, 1947) was an Italian-born American businessman and philanthropist who founded Planters.
Childhood, emigrating to the United States
Obici was born in Oderzo in the Veneto region of Italy to Pietro Ludovico ...
, founder of Planters Peanuts
*
Kid O'Hara
James Francis "Kid" O'Hara (December 19, 1875 – December 1, 1954) was an outfielder in Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the wo ...
, baseball player
*
Rose O'Neill
Rose Cecil O'Neill (June 25, 1874 – April 6, 1944) was an American cartoonist, illustrator, artist, and writer. She rose to fame for her creation of the popular comic strip characters, Kewpies, in 1909, and was also the first published fema ...
, cartoonist, illustrator, artist, and writer.
*
Jerry Orbach
Jerome Bernard Orbach (October 20, 1935 – December 28, 2004) was an American actor and singer, described at the time of his death as "one of the last'' bona fide'' leading men of the Broadway musical and global celebrity on television" and a " ...
,
Tony award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...
-winning actor
*
Phil Ostrowski, NFL player
*
John Paluck, football player for
Washington Redskins
The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...
and
Pro Bowl
The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players.
The format has changed thro ...
selection
*
William Daniel Phillips
William Daniel Phillips (born November 5, 1948) is an American physicist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1997, with Steven Chu and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji.
Biography
Phillips was born to William Cornelius Phillips of Juniata, Pennsylva ...
, co-recipient of the 1997
Nobel Prize in Physics
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
*
Mendy Rudolph
Marvin "Mendy" Rudolph (March 8, 1926July 4, 1979) was an American professional basketball referee in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 22 years, from 1953 to 1975. One of the few basketball game officials to be inducted into the Bas ...
,
NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
referee
A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...
from 1953 to 1975
*
Sam Savitt
Sam Savitt (March 22, 1917 – December 25, 2000) was an equine artist, author, and teacher, as well as an illustrator of over 130 books, in addition to his own. He was designated the official illustrator of the United States Equestrian Team, and ...
, equestrian artist, author
*
Michael Schoeffling
Michael Earl Schoeffling (born December 10, 1960) is an American former actor and model. He is known for playing the role of Jake Ryan in ''Sixteen Candles'', Al Carver in '' Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken'', Kuch in ''Vision Quest'', and Joe in ''M ...
, actor, played Jake Ryan in film ''
Sixteen Candles
''Sixteen Candles'' is a 1984 American coming-of-age comedy film starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling, and Anthony Michael Hall. Written and directed by John Hughes in his directorial debut, it was the first in a string of films Hughes ...
''
*
Don Schwall
Donald Bernard Schwall (born March 2, 1936) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox (1961–62), Pittsburgh Pirates (1963–66) and Atlanta Braves (19 ...
, MLB pitcher
*
M. Gerald Schwartzbach
M. Gerald Schwartzbach (born 1944) is an United States of America, American criminal defense Lawyer, attorney.
Early life and career
Schwartzbach, the youngest of three children, was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He attended Washington & J ...
, California criminal defense attorney
*
Greg Skrepenak
Gregory Andrew Skrepenak (born January 31, 1970) is an American former county commissioner in Pennsylvania and retired professional football player. He was an offensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL) for the Los Angeles/Oakland R ...
, former
NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
player, convicted felon
*
Jonathan Slavin
Jonathan Slavin (born November 8, 1969) is an American actor and activist.
Early life
Slavin was born in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and raised in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Career
Slavin portrayed illustrator Byron Togler on the Fox netw ...
,
character actor
A character actor is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014, "..a breed of actor who has the ability to b ...
*
Ron Solt
Ronald Matthew Solt (born May 19, 1962) is a former American football guard in the National Football League. He played professionally for the Indianapolis Colts and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Biography
Solt was born in Bainbridge, Maryland and gra ...
, former
NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
player
*
Jacob Sullum
Jacob Z. Sullum (born September 5, 1965) is a syndicated newspaper columnist with Creators Syndicate and a senior editor at ''Reason'' magazine. He focuses most of his writings on shrinking the realm of politics and expanding individual choice. ...
, journalist and author, featured in
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
-nominated documentary ''
Super Size Me
''Super Size Me'' is a 2004 American documentary film directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. Spurlock's film follows a 30-day period from February 1 to March 2, 2003, during which he ate only McDonald's f ...
''
*
Bob Sura
Robert Sura Jr. (born March 25, 1973) is an American former professional basketball player who played ten seasons for five different teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA). At , , he played as a shooting guard and point guard.
Earl ...
, basketball player,
Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its ho ...
*
Louis Teicher, pianist; member of the duo Ferrante & Teicher
*
Alexis Toth
Alexis Georgievich Toth (or Alexis of Wilkes-Barre; March 18, 1853 – May 7, 1909) was a Russian Orthodox church leader in the Midwestern United States who, having resigned his position as a Byzantine Catholic priest in the Ruthenian Catholi ...
(St. Alexis of Wilkes-Barre), saint in the
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...
*
Ty Tyson
Edwin Lloyd "Ty" Tyson (May 11, 1888 – December 12, 1968) was an American sports broadcaster and radio play-by-play announcer.
Early life
Tyson was born in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania and he attended Penn State University. As a young man, he ...
*
John Walsh, MLB third baseman
*
Helen L. Webster
Helen L. Webster (August 1, 1853 – January 4, 1928) was an American philologist and educator. She taught at Vassar College, 1889–90, at same time giving a course of lectures on comparative philology at Barnard College. She served as professor o ...
(1853–1928), philologist and educator
*
Michael Whalen, actor
*
Ira W. Wood, represented from 1904 to 1913
*
Hal Woodeshick
Harold Joseph Woodeshick (August 24, 1932 – June 14, 2009) was an American left-handed pitcher who spent eleven seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Detroit Tigers (1956 and 1961), Cleveland Indians (1958), the original modern Washin ...
, professional baseball player
*
Tom Woodeshick
Thomas Woodeshick (; born December 3, 1941) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL).
Woodeshick played football at Hanover Township High School and college football at Wes ...
, professional football player
*
Frank Zane
Frank Zane (born June 28, 1942) is a retired American professional bodybuilder and author. He is a three-time Mr. Olympia, and his physique is considered one of the greatest in the history of bodybuilding due to his meticulous focus on symmetry ...
, bodybuilder, three-time Mr. Olympia, won Mr. America, Mr. Universe, Mr. World; donated gym at Wilkes University
See also
*
Giants Despair Hillclimb
The Giants Despair Hillclimb is a hillclimb which was established in 1906 in Laurel Run, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States, just southeast of its border to Wilkes-Barre Township. The contest was first run in conjunction with Wilkes-Ba ...
Notes
References
External links
*
Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce*
{{Authority control
1769 establishments in Pennsylvania
Cities in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
Cities in Pennsylvania
County seats in Pennsylvania
Municipalities of the Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania
Populated places established in 1769
Pennsylvania populated places on the Susquehanna River