The Pennsylvania collection
Luzerne County
23 places. A county full of stories.
Discover local legends, historic places and the stories of sites you can explore virtually.
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Outdoors · Historical imageAvondale Colliery
On September 6, 1869, a fire at Avondale Colliery near Plymouth cut off the coal mine’s only exit. The disaster killed 110 people, including two…
Outdoors · Aerial viewChase Street duplex
Jack and Janet Smurl lived with their four daughters in one half of a Chase Street duplex in West Pittston; Jack’s parents occupied the other. In…
Outdoors · AI illustrationEckley Road on Buck Mountain
Beside Eckley Road on Buck Mountain, a group of rocks forms a seat known as the Stone Couch. Local folklore gives it a three-part curse. In one…
Former Bishop Hafey High School
The former Bishop Hafey High School in Hazleton had a library legend familiar to students even after the building became Holy Family Academy. They…
Inns & businesses · Aerial viewFormer Hersker/Key Theatre and Cinema & Drafthouse
The former Key Theatre on West Broad Street in West Hazleton hosted a paranormal investigation on June 8, 2002. Investigator Kenny B. described two…
Schools · Historical imageFormer Holy Trinity School in the Masonic Temple building
Holy Trinity School in Hazleton occupied different buildings over its history, including an earlier West Oak Street address and the former Masonic…
Bridges & railways · Aerial viewFormer Little Black Bridge
The Little Black Bridge was a railroad crossing over Suscon Road in Pittston Township. Its awkward angle forced drivers to pause and check for…
Former Stage Coach Inn
The Stage Coach Inn on Route 309 in Luzerne County was a restaurant built in 1946 and named for the area’s stagecoach history. A regular customer,…
Former White Haven Sanatorium campus
The former White Haven Sanatorium campus in Luzerne County treated tuberculosis patients in buildings laid out above its steam plant. After…
OutdoorsHarveys Lake
Before mechanical refrigeration, workers harvested ice from Harveys Lake in Luzerne County, using horses to pull plows across the frozen surface. A…
Schools · Historical imageKirby Hall
Kirby Hall on Wilkes University’s campus began as a private Wilkes-Barre mansion. Before the Kirby family acquired it in 1905, it belonged to Reuben…
OutdoorsLake Jean campground peninsula
Lake Jean in Ricketts Glen State Park has a Christmas legend about a family who lived beside the water when it was known as Mud Pond. Folklorist…
CemeteriesLost Graves Memorial
The 1972 flooding caused by Hurricane Agnes devastated Forty Fort Cemetery, carrying graves and remains into the surrounding landscape. Eighteen…
Historic homesNathan Denison House
Nathan Denison built this house beside Abrams Creek in 1790, in what is now Forty Fort. A settler from Connecticut, he used a familiar New England…
Penn State Hazleton
A Penn State Hazleton campus-security story concerns a blue Volkswagen Beetle that seemed to vanish and reappear on the campus roads. As collected by…
Pine Run Road
Pine Run Road in Luzerne County has a local nickname, Baby Road, attached to a story about a woman and infant. One driver described seeing a woman…
OutdoorsSheppton Mine
In August 1963, a collapse at a mine near Sheppton trapped David Fellin, Henry Throne, and Louis Bova underground. Fellin and Throne were together,…
South Cedar Street
A former neighbor using the name Southcedar described stories associated with one half of a double house on South Cedar Street in Hazleton. The…
St. Anns Drive
St. Ann’s Drive in Drifton has a local tale about a twisted tree, called either the witch tree or the devil’s tree. According to the version…
Cemeteries · Aerial viewSt. Michael’s Byzantine Catholic Cemetery
The Bagunk is a long-running ghost tradition around the cemeteries west of Glen Lyon in Newport Township. When the Times Leader investigated the…
BattlefieldsSugarloaf Massacre Monument
On September 11, 1780, Seneca fighters and Loyalists attacked Northampton County militia beside Little Nescopeck Creek. Lieutenant John Moyer was…
Historic homesSwetland Homestead
The Swetland Homestead in Wyoming, Luzerne County, began as a house built in 1803. Generations of the family enlarged and furnished it before…
West Hazleton Elementary/Middle School
West Hazleton Elementary/Middle School on North Street has a ghost story tied to one particular night: May 7. According to the local tale, cries and…