American Revolutionary War During the
Revolutionary War, the Wyoming Valley became a battleground between the
British and the Americans. On July 3, 1778, a force of British provincial soldiers, with the assistance of about 500
Iroquois, attacked and killed about 300
Patriot soldiers at the
Battle of Wyoming. A company of militia, led by Captain Jeremiah Blanchard and Lieutenant Timothy Keyes, held and maintained a military fort in Pittston, which was surrendered on July 4, 1778, one day after the
Battle of Wyoming, and was later partially burned. In 1780, Pittston Fort was reoccupied, restored and strengthened. From then on it was under
patriot control until the signing of the
Treaty of Paris in 1783, which largely brought the war to an end. A
marker stands at the site where the fort once stood.
Establishment In 1853, Pittston broke away from
Pittston Township and officially became a
borough. John Hosie served as the first
burgess of the borough. It was later chartered as a city on December 10, 1894. Thomas J. Maloney served as the city's first mayor from 1894 to 1898. Throughout the late 1890s, Pittston's borders extended from
Scranton to
Wilkes-Barre, but due to financial and civil differences, the community was later divided into several
townships and boroughs throughout the
Greater Pittston.
Coal mining 's photo of child laborers at Pittston coal mine in 1911 Pittston is located within Pennsylvania's
Coal Region. The first discovery of the
anthracite coal (in the Wyoming Valley) occurred around 1770. The first mine was established in 1775 near Pittston. With the opening of a
canal in the 1830s, Pittston became an important link in the
coal industry. Money made through the mining and transportation of coal led some of the leading merchants to petition its separation from
Pittston Township. The anthracite and railroad industry attracted thousands of immigrants, making Pittston a true
melting pot with once-distinct ethnic and class neighborhoods. The population of Pittston boomed in the late 19th century. The boom continued well into the 20th century. The anthracite coal mining industry, and its extensive use of
child labor in the early part of the 20th century, was one of the industries targeted by the
National Child Labor Committee and its hired photographer,
Lewis Hine. Many of Hine's subjects were photographed in the mines and coal fields in and around Pittston between 1908 and 1912. The impact of the Hine photographs led to the enactment of
child labor laws across the country.
Mining disasters in Pittston immediately after the shaft's collapse in 1896 Coal mining remained the prominent industry in Pittston for many decades, but disasters did strike on more than one occasion. The first major tragedy, the
Twin Shaft disaster, occurred at the Newton Coal Company near the city's railroad junction. In the early morning hours of June 28, 1896, 90 miners were at work in the Red Ash Vein of the Newton Coal Company's Twin Shaft Mine in Pittston when, at 3:00 am, the roof quickly collapsed. The concussion from the explosion was so great that it was heard for miles around. The foundation of nearly every building in Pittston was shaken. The cave-in killed 58 miners, including the city's then-acting mayor. Anthracite coal mining remained a major industry in the
Greater Pittston region until the
Knox Mine disaster. It essentially killed the industry in
Northeastern Pennsylvania. On January 22, 1959, the ice-laden Susquehanna River broke through the roof of the River Slope Mine of the Knox Coal Company in nearby
Port Griffith (in
Jenkins Township). This allowed for billions of gallons of river water to flood the interconnected mines. It took three days to plug the hole in the riverbed, which was done by dumping large railroad cars, smaller mine cars,
culm, and other debris into the whirlpool formed by the water draining into the mine. Sixty-nine miners escaped; twelve miners died and their bodies were never recovered. The heroic efforts of one miner,
Myron Thomas of
Taylor, led 26 miners to safety. Another group of six men was led by Pacifico "Joe" Stella of Pittston. Amedeo Pancotti was part of the second group, and for his remarkable climb out of the Eagle Air Shaft to the surface; he was later awarded the Carnegie Medal for Heroism from the
Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. At 5:15 pm on November 27, 1942, the cave-in of an
anthracite mine, that had not been operated since 1868, caused the earth of a half square mile of Pittston to crack and subside. The largest crack was "...five feet wide, 150 feet long and so deep the bottom was not visible. Two hundred homes were twisted, cracked or sprung from their foundations. Sidewalks were torn up and gas and water mains snapped in several places. Water cascaded through the streets and flooded cellars." "Since 1942 the Pennsylvania DEP [Department of Environmental Protection] and its predecessor, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources (PADER), as well as the U.S. Department of the Interior/Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM), have investigated 149 mine-related subsidence events in the city."
Economic rise and fall in Pittston Pittston became an active railroad center in response to its mining and industrial activity.
Lehigh Valley Railroad maintained a station in downtown Pittston, near the foot of the Water Street Bridge. The station did not survive the
urban renewal of the 1960s and was demolished in 1964. Pittston also had a station on the historic
Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad, commonly known as the
Laurel Line. Besides mining
anthracite coal, Pittston was home to many industries in the 19th and 20th centuries, including metals, plastics,
paper products,
apparel,
electrical equipment and
beverages. The Pittston Stove Company, established in 1864, manufactured coal and
wood-burning stoves for heating and cooking. The Pittston Brewing Company,
brewers of Glennon's Beer, maintained operations in Pittston from 1873 until 1948. Evan R. Jones Stoneware crafted pottery which bore the Pittston name in the 1870s and 1880s. From the 1930s to the 1980s, Pittston City emerged as a national center for
clothing manufacturing. Thousands of workers, mainly women, labored in many factories throughout the Greater Pittston area. Most were members of the
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU). They fought for higher wages, workplace health & safety improvements, and employee rights. The ILGWU was active in civic and political life throughout Pennsylvania. Main Street was the site of an active downtown into the 1970s, featuring clothing stores, shoe stores, jewelers,
JC Penneys,
Kresge's,
Woolworth's, drug stores, restaurants, movie theaters, and banks. It was home to at least two theaters, the Roman at 27 South Main and the American at 48 North Main, both of which have been
razed. Many historic commercial structures were demolished in the
urban renewal efforts of the 1960s. By the late 20th century, most of the city's factories were closed and
shipped overseas. Stores throughout the downtown closed and boarded up over this period. Pittston, like most
Rust Belt cities, also witnessed
population loss and
urban decay. On March 15, 1993, two Pittston firefighters, John Lombardo and Len Insalaco, were killed while fighting a blaze on the city's main street. A monument was built in the downtown and the nearby
Water Street Bridge was renamed to commemorate their sacrifice during that tragic March day.
21st century For decades, the towering spires of the many
Protestant and
Catholic churches dominated the city's skyline. Most of the numerous Catholic churches were established to serve one of the many ethnic communities that made up Pittston. The Irish had
St. John the Evangelist and St. Mary Help of Christians, the
Slovaks had St. John the Baptist, the
Lithuanians had
St. Casimir's, the
Germans had
St. Mary Assumption, and the Italians had St. Rocco's and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. There is also a
Carpatho-Rusyn Byzantine Catholic Church, St. Michael's, on Main Street. From 2004 to the present, the
Diocese of Scranton has closed many of the churches and private schools in and around Pittston due to declining population and enrollment.
Saint John the Baptist Elementary School closed in 2004, and
Seton Catholic High School closed in 2007. St. Mary's Assumption School closed in 2011. In 2009, Mayor Joseph P. Keating resigned after losing his bid for
re-nomination. The
city council appointed the
first female mayor in the city's history, Donna McFadden-Connors, to serve out the remainder of Keating's term. She was later succeeded in 2010 by the youngest mayor in the city's history, Jason C. Klush. ==Downtown renovation==