More than 1,500 people packed the Lackawanna Station for the arrival of an 11-car train celebrating all things Pennsylvania 70 years ago.
The stop on Oct. 18, 1949, was part of the annual Pennsylvania Week festivities, designed to “make each citizen more acutely conscious of Pennsylvania’s almost unlimited resources and the immense variety of the production in or near all the communities of the state,” according to a pamphlet on the 1949 tour given to reporters by the state’s Department of Commerce.
The train pulled into Scranton about 40 minutes late, according to an account published in The Scranton Times the next morning. Bands from Central and Tech high schools entertained the crowd and “sent up a melodious welcome” as the train finally arrived.
“A group of 30 students from the State Oral School, led by Miss Margaret Nelson, supervising principal, and Miss Mary Evans, waved American flags in greeting,” the newspaper reported.
Among the VIPs on the train: then-Gov. James H. Duff, who gave a short speech “citing Scranton’s importance as the anthracite capital of the world and lauded its efforts to develop diversified industries,” according to an Oct. 18, 1949, Scranton Times article about the visit.
Joining the governor and other local and state politicians were two entertainers: radio personality, actor and director Ezra Stone and Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. Both originally hailed from Pennsylvania and greeted the crowd gathered.
Scranton Times reporter Ned Gerrity also rode the train as it stopped throughout Pennsylvania, joining a group of reporters who filed regular dispatches on the week’s whistle stops.
Pennsylvania Week was launched in 1946 by Gov. Edward Martin’s administration as a way to celebrate and educate residents about the history, resources and potential of their home state.
The weeklong, large-scale celebration of all things Pennsylvania would continue until 1951, when then-Gov. John S. Fine felt the money earmarked for Pennsylvania Week would be better spent elsewhere. He did encourage communities to mount their own celebrations.
Erin L. Nissley is an assistant metro editor at The Times-Tribune. She’s lived in the area for more than a decade.
Contact the writer:
localhistory@timesshamrock.com