Pittston, Pennsylvania

How Pittston is governed

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0 of 14 positions listed. Gray dashed boxes are placeholders waiting for a name.

• Mayor

  Executive

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  The city's chief elected official. Presides over the executive branch, proposes the budget and represents the city.

  • City Manager / Administrator

    Executive

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    The professional administrator who runs day-to-day operations (in some cities appointed by the council instead of the mayor).

    • Police Chief

      Administration & departments

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      Leads the police department.

    • Fire Chief

      Administration & departments

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      Leads the fire and emergency services department.

    • Public Works Director

      Administration & departments

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      Streets, water, sewer, and city buildings.

    • Finance Director

      Administration & departments

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      The budget, taxes, and city accounts.

    • Planning & Zoning Director

      Administration & departments

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      Land use, zoning, building permits.

    • Parks & Recreation Director

      Administration & departments

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      Parks, programs, and public facilities.

• City Council

  Legislative

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  The elected body that passes ordinances, sets the tax rate and approves the budget.

  • City Clerk

    Administration & departments

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    Keeps the official records, runs meeting agendas and, often, local elections.

  • City Attorney

    Administration & departments

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    The city's lawyer; advises officials and prosecutes ordinance violations.

  • Boards & Commissions

    Legislative

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    Citizen advisory bodies, such as planning, zoning appeals and library boards.

• Municipal Court

  Judicial

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  Hears traffic, ordinance and other minor cases.

  • Municipal Judge

    Judicial

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    Presides over the municipal court.

Website

pittstoncity.org

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Population over time

From 3,682 in 1860 to 7,591 in 2020 (+106.2%).

History

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

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

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

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.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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