USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania : from its first beginnings to the present time, including chapters of newly-discovered early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume IV > Part 65
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Whatever may be said of the value of the Centennial celebration from an historical or edu- cational standpoint, it seemed to break the ice of ultra-conservatism which had long acted as a
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handicap to modern civic progress. Hundreds of citizens who had never before been asked to serve in organized community development were grouped in various committees of the Centennial.
Many new comers were extended the hand of fellowship through acquaint- ance formed by reason of Centennial activities. Association begot understand- ing. Understanding begot unity and confidence. The celebration ended with a fine civic spirit in evidence and resolution as to future development took the place of pessimism and hesitancy.
This newly created feeling was shortiy manifest. A city bond issue of $400,000 enabled authorities to complete an extensive sewer and street paving program. Both the Matheson and Adder Machine plants began active operations. Two new bank buildings, the First National and Wyoming Valley Trust Company were completed in Centennial year, as was the Hotel Redington. The Second National Bank began the erection of the city's first "sky-scraper." Concordia, under Adolph Hansen, added a thrill to musical circles by capturing the Kaiser Prize at Newark, New Jersey, on July 4th.
In the lower, and until then neglected, section of the city, the Delaware and Hudson and Pennsyl- vania Railroads began the condemnation of large tracts of lowland in order to form a direct connection link for interchange of a large amount of freight traffic between the two systems.
This was the beginning of the Wilkes-Barre Connecting Railroad, which was later to bridge the Susquehanna and thus provide a means of routing the interchanged traffic around the city instead of through its congested districts. This undertaking was eventually completed at a cost of approximately $5,000,000.
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THE SECOND NATIONAL BANK BUILDING
The year 1907 reflected the spirit of Centennial year. Prosperity was evident on every hand. For the first time since the "town plot" had been sur- veyed in 1770 the idea of providing additional public lands for park and recre- ation purposes seemed to take serious hold of public imagination. Not a square foot of soil had been added to the public acreage in a century and a quarter of the community's existence. The old court house was about to be removed from the Public Square, thus bringing that area back to an open tract of land as originally laid out.
The common, or "river bank" as it was popularly termed, had lost much of its original acreage by erosion and was otherwise unkempt. Practically the only landscape treatment it had ever received was a planting of fine elms suggested and accomplished by Hendrick B. Wright in 1865.
Its surface was kept free from weeds and other river growth by private subscriptions of adjacent property holders. Following an editorial campaign in favor of the creation of an intelligently laid out and properly supervised park system, which had engrossed the Wilkes-Barre Leader for a number of months, Abram Nesbitt offered on May 8, 1907, through the Hon. Fred C. Kirkendall and Ernest G. Smith, publishers of that newspaper, to purchase and present to the city a section of natural riverside park lands then known as "Rutter's Grove."
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This plot, supplement by an adjoining strip of land along the west side of the river above North Street, later donated by Dr. Levi I. Shoemaker, now con- stitutes Riverside Park of the city's system.
The value of this land to the city, in that its present use forever estops any hideous industrial development opposite residential sections, such as so frequently exists in other communities abutting on waterways, can never be computed.
On July 9th of the same year, another public spirited resident, George Slocum Bennett, deeded to the city a plot of vacant land at the corner of Penn- sylvania Avenue and Scott street. This was part of the farm lands of Jonathan Slocum from whose home nearby, Frances Slocum, the "Lost Sister of Wyoming" had been abducted on November 2, 1778. Albert Lewis of Bear Creek vol- unteered to erect thereon comfortable and artistic shelters for children and the whole, when completed and equipped, was and is known as the Frances Slocum Playground, the first of the chain of city- owned recreation centers. In July of the same year John Welles Hollen- back moved by the rising tide of public spirit, pre- sented to the city a fine wooded park bordering the northern limits of the municipality. This splendid gift, supplement- ed by an additional grant the year following, gave the city an open space of approximately one hun- dred acres which can never be encroached upon. Seven GEORGE SLOCUM BENNETT, A.B., A.M. years later, the city laid out a nine-hole golf course on a part of this park, thus providing one of the first municipal golf courses in the east.
Under resolution of the city council adopted in December 1906, a Park Commission of five was created to provide ways and means of beautifying and utilizing the community lands. The Commission named later, consisted of Major Irving A. Stearns, A. L. Williams, James M. Boland, William S. Goff and Daniel Carmody. Shortly after the gift of Mr. Nesbitt was announced, the Commission procured the services of Warren H. Manning, a well known municipal engineer who drew up a comprehensive plan of extending the River Common by securing parkway rights south of South Street; laying out walks, flower
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plots, a municipal conservatory and otherwise providing for park areas which have become a joy to resident and visitor alike. Charles L Seybold, Superin- tendent of Parks of Baltimore, was later induced to accept a like commission for the new system.
The original plan of the council was to sell the coal underlying a portion of these acres for the improvement of the whole. Bids received for the coal failed to measure up to expectations, however, and the project was dropped for the more practical method of levying a special tax of one mill on city valuation for improvement and upkeep; a method found satisfactory and since followed.
The city's first apartment house, the Cumberland on West Ross Street, was completed in 1897. A movement to annex Lee Park to the city proper, sponsored by the Board of Trade, proved a set-back at the fall elections in an attempt to extend the city's narrow confines. Another campaign for the an- nexation of a portion of Hanover Township, to permit consolidation with Ashley, likewise failed at the general elections the following year.
A movement of major importance, originated in 1906 by the Board of Trade, was destined to deserve a better fate. The project called for the freeing of all toll bridges of the Wyoming Valley and the purchase of all toll turnpikes by the county. By a court decision in June, the Laurel Run turnpike, thereto- fore closed to automobiles, was ordered opened to their use. By gradual pro- cesses, the County Commissioners in 1908 secured by purchase or condemnation, the ownership of several bridges and corporate owned highways. Toll gates began to disappear, the first to be abolished being those of the Wilkes-Barre and Dallas turnpike. On October 3rd, the Market Street bridge came into the County's possession at a price of $165,000 and familiar toll houses at this important gateway to the city were removed. The Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company's new office building on the site of the old Wyoming Valley Hotel was occu- pied in 1908, as was the Poli Theatre, one of the largest and most elaborate amusement places in Pennsylvania.
In the fall, the delapidated horse drawn vehicles familiar to residents of South Franklin Street gave place to modern buses operated by the Wilkes-Barre Motor Transit Company.
LEHIGH AND WILKES-BARRE COAL COMPANY BUILDING
The new registration and primary laws went into effect prior to the fall elections of this year and resulted in a bitter court contest between Hon. Henry W. Palmer and Col. Asher Miner as to the con- gressional election.
Several important events marked the record of 1909. An unusual summer drought caused the Spring Brook Water Supply Company to pump water from the river to keep its reservoirs from going dry. Due to a costly mine cave in Pittston, the Wilkes-Barre council passed an ordinance requiring coal corpor- ations to file maps with the city engineer as to all subterraneum work done under its surface limits. The first Milk Dispensary was opened in June on East Northampton Street. At the fall elections voters of Wilkes-Barre were called upon to decide if the city would undertake to join with interested railroad com-
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panies in the elimination of grade crossings and the erection of a new union passenger station. The project was an ambitious one, calling for the expenditure of nearly $6,000,000, approximately $700,000 of which was agreed upon as the city's share. Largely through a popular ignorance of the importance of the measure, it was defeated. Since that time, the city has spent far larger sums for the elimination of only two such crossings and with no other benefits accruing.
An outstanding event of 1909, and one of far reaching import to the county generally, was the completion and opening of the new Court House on the upper River Common.
As early as 1895, the inadequacy of the old structure occupying the center of the Public Square, as described in a previous Chapter, was a matter of public discussion. A single court room did not suffice. The business of county offices had outgrown the quarters assigned them. Corridors of the old building, owing to their accessibility, became a common meeting place for throngs of people daily.
The first action on the part of the County Commissioners appears to have been taken in September, 1898, when they announced an intention of erecting a new building on the Public Square site.
This decision accomplished some purpose. The trend of sentiment pointed clearly to an almost unanimous desire for a new structure. On the other hand, this sentiment was almost hoplessly divided as to whether the new building should again close off the Public Square from its originally intended purpose or whether the building should be located elsewhere.
In March, 1899, the first of a number of sensations as to the building was sprung. Plans, under bids advertising for same, from thirty-six architects were opened on that date and F. J. Osterling of Pittsburg was selected by a majority of the Commissioners as architect.
Commissioner John Guiney immediately interposed objections to the award by his colleages on the ground that Mr. Osterling had been intimately associated with them on several trips which had been taken to inspect county buildings elsewhere. Other charges followed. The court took cognizance of these objections and appointed a commission consisting of Hon. A. H. McClintock, S. J. Strauss, Esq. and F. W. Wheaton, Esq., to make careful inquiry into them. On May 15th, this commission reported that it did not sustain the objections. On May 23rd, before further steps were taken, injunction proceedings were begun on behalf of certain taxpayers on the ground that the plans were too elaborate, that the Public Square was not county property and therefore could not be used for a county building and alleging other matters.
On August 1, Judge Stanley Woodward handed down an opinion sustain- ing the contention that the county had no right to build on the Public Square site unless that right were given it by the city.
There the matter rested until July 11, 1900 when the Supreme Court, to which the injunction decision had been referred, technically, at least, affirmed Judge Woodward's opinion. In August, the commissioners announced that they would build either on the River Common site, the Public Square or not at all, as they had no authority to expend money for a new site. The commissioners then intimated that if a previous offer of the city council were renewed to ex- change a portion of the River Common above Union Street for what interest the county possessed in the Public Square, such an exchange would be con-
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sidered. This the council at first refused to do. On October 29, after many public sessions, the council changed its mind and on November 19th, presented an ordinance favorable to the county's wishes. Another injunction immediately followed, alleging that the city had no right to make the trade contemplated. It was not until May, 1901, that this injunction was argued and not until Octo- ber 1st, that Judge Endlich of Reading, who had been called into the case by local judges, denied the injunction. Meanwhile the commissioners were wrest- ling with the free road and free bridge problem and decided not to move further in the court house matter on account of lack of funds.
It was not until April 12, 1902, that another chapter was written in the court house imbroglio. The Supreme Court, to which an appeal of the Endlich decision had been taken upheld the Judge-and hoped Luzerne County would find some other way to decide whether it wanted a court house without taking up the time of that august body.
On April 25th, local judges decided to accept the Osterling plans, modified to conform to the River Common site and on May 10th, the first shovelful of earth was prematurely turned. On July 24th, the contract was let to the Hendler Construction Company of Wilkes-Barre at its bid of $597,000, exclusive of fur- nishings. A few days later the Hendler company refused to sign the agreement. on the ground that Ohio sandstone could only be secured at an exorbitant price, due to the influence of architect Osterling. To Wilson J. Smith, the second lowest bidder, the contract was then let with a specification that the dome of the building should be left off so as to keep the bid within a legal limit. On August 2nd, another injunction followed alleging a score of reasons why the contractor should not proceed with the work. Experts were then called in by the commissioners, some of whom stated that the plans were faulty, left too many loopholes for extras and that under them the building could not possibly be finished for less than from one to two million dollars.
Once again the contending forces waited. On March 9, 1904, the court dismissed the last injunction and confirmed the Smith contract. The contractor immediately began excavations for the work and on March 20th, the commis- sioners announced an additional two mills levy for county purposes to provide necessary funds. Another injunction was thereupon applied for on behalf of a determined opposition. It was October, before this was argued and February 24, 1905, before it was dismissed by Judge Shay of Schuylkill County. Meanwhile, foundations had been laid and troubles, which had encompassed the undertaking, seemed at an end. These broke out anew when contractor Smith presented a bill of $12,000 for extras on the foundation.
County Controller George R. McLean refused to approve the bill.
The contractor ceased work awaiting payment and instituted an action to compel adjustment of the bill. The court ruled that approval by the control- ler was not necessary to payment. Meanwhile, the commissioners secured from the contractor an estimate of what extras would later come up in finishing the building. An estimate of $72,000 was given. Experts were again called in, with a result that the question of extras was left in as chaotic a condition as it had been from the start. Net result, no work on the building during the whole of 1905.
The indignation of citizens began to take practical form in 1906. A meeting was held in city hall with the then new commissioners, Patrick J. Finn, Jacob
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Schappert and Thomas Smith in attendance. Following the meeting the com- missioners notified the contractor that he must begin work April 1, 1906 or for- feit his contract. After resuming work on March 16th, a strike occurred among the stone masons.
On June 9th, a grand jury began an investigation of the whole sorry busi- ness. Its report was right from the shoulder, criticising the architect, contractor and sub-contractor on iron work. June 17th, found a mass meeting of citizens again asking questions in the Chamber of Commerce rooms. The meeting authorized the appointment of a committee of one hundred to approach the commissioners and demand the discharge of architect Osterling. A majority of the commissioners refused to heed this request. Again an election of com- missioners resulted in the court house matter being carried to the polls. Walter McAvoy, Silas E. Jones and George Smith were elected on a platform of sweep- ing out Osterling and cleaning up the reeking mess.
On January 15, 1907, the sweeping process began by the discharge of Mr. Osterling and the substitution of McCormick and French of Wilkes-Barre as architects to finish the structure. Peace was established between sub-contractors. The work reached the roofing stage. Controller James Norris then appeared as a disturber of serenity. He objected to the plans of McCormick and French for the interior of the building, alleging much the same argument that had been urged against plans for the building proper, and refusing to advertise for bids for this portion of the work. The court on June 14th, ordered him to advertise. The contract for interior work was thereupon let to the Carlucci Stone Company of Scranton, at a figure of $379,146. In 1908, the public seemed relieved to find that the endless quibbling had apparently ceased. Work progressed rapidly with a hope expressed that the building would be finished early in 1909. Careful estimates at this period indicated that the completed new structure would cost no less than $1,800,000 and bond issues were prepared accordingly. January 3, 1909, was the fiftieth anniversary of opening Luzerne County's third court house on the Public Square and on April 3rd, the fourth court house was first used by Judges Lynch, Fuller and Ferris in hearing applications for liquor licenses.
On June 1st, the formal opening of the court house occurred. Judges Lynch, Halsey, Ferris and Fuller were on the bench and Judge Evans of Columbia County appeared as a guest. There were no stated exercises, authorities deem- ing it wise to prevent too large a crowd from attempting to gain entrance to the building at one time.
The completion and occupancy of the new structure were not, however, to end the bickerings, charges and counter-charges of ten years of turmoil.
Rumors of failure to live up to specifications, graft and other ugly matters were in the air. The August grand jury indicted two sub-contractors for con- spiracy in substituting plaster of paris for Keene cement in interior work. Still more startling was the action of the September grand jury which made a lengthy and highly sensational report, recommending criminal proceedings against the commissioners, the controller, architects, nine contractors, and inspectors on the ground of criminal negligence. Civil action to recover losses by reason of this negiigence was likewise recommended in certain cases. On October 21st, warrants were sworn out by the district attorney's office for the arrest of those specified by the grand jury. Some of these charges were withdrawn before presentation to the October grand jury.
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VIEW OF THE COURT HOUSE AND SECTIONS OF THE RIVER COMMON, WILKES-BARRE
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Others passed into oblivion by the route of faulty indictment. Still others failed for the reason that important witnesses could not be compeiled to give testimony or that important documents were lost. In the end, no net result. By the opening of 1911, the public seemed content with its two million dollar court house and with an end to the muck of its construction.
The final decade embraced in this History concerns itself, as might be imagined, with a multiplicity of events. Many of these events, like the World wae, which will close the narrative, are of too recent occurrence to admit of being properly weighed in the balance. Others while they excited much comment at the time, have but little significance in the composite picture of a decade. It should be borne in mind that the period considered found Luzerne County third in population and resources in the Commonwealth. The old order had greatly changed, somewhat in proportion as the texture of population had changed. In 1910, eighteen per cent. of the County's population was alien born. Names which had marked the successive arrival of waves of Irish, English, Jew and Welsh found themselves placed beside those of races that were new to the Valley. Time and circumstance likewise wrought changes among families of the older settlers. The newcomer of the nineties and later stepped into places of responsi- bility. This was due not so much to the fact that the old order was disintegrating. Rather to the fact that there were many more places of responsibility to be filled and many new comers gravitated into those places.
Nor is this situation in anywise indigenous to the Wyoming Valley. It is true all over America and it is the spirit of America. A few quiet villages of New England or of the southland alone preserve the flavor of an older day. The Wyoming Valley fortunately has enough of it left to add to its charm and to make the community a peculiarly delightful place in which to live. And this in face of the fact that we have become the center of a great, prosperous industry with all its attendant metropolitan populations, the crowding of traffic, the marring of beauty spots by the encroachment of building construction and the tendency of an age which has standardized American communities so that they differ only in bank clearings, factory chimneys, the aggregates of paved streets and in other yard sticks by which prosperity is computed. To narrate what events have been of sufficient importance to inter-weave themselves with other events in the making of this history has been the purpose of the writers whose efforts have inscribed these pages. The pursuit of that same course will follow until this, the final Chapter, is concluded.
The thread of narrative is resumed with the year 1910. If population figures may be of avail in attempting to forecast the future, an encouraging condition existed at that period.
Luzerne county showed the largest increase between census reports in its history. From a population of 257,121 in 1900, the figures had climbed to 343,186 in 1910, a gain of 86,078. The city, becoming crowded in area, was less in evidence in percentage of gain.
The 1910 census gave it 67,105 as against 51,721 at the beginning of the previous decade.
Finding itself in the classification of more than 300,000 population, Luzerne attached various features in government which formerly had applied to Allegheny
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county alone. One of these was a complete revision in methods of county assess- ment for taxation purposes.
In previous years a politically hungry horde of assessors had been elected to function for county purposes in each ward and district.
There was no standardization of methods of assessment, no intention of equalizing them and no fluctuations in valuations apparent.
Under the new regulation, a Board of County Assessors, consisting of three members was appointed. The first Board consisted of Jonathan R. Davis of Wilkes-Barre, W. I. Hibbs of West Pittston and Jacob H. Lahm of Hazleton. After careful checks and comparisons from the vantage point of a single office, this Board made its first report in 1913 prior to the triennial assessment. The report added the stupendous sum of $148,000,000 to the real taxables of the county as compared with the haphazard guess work of the past.
Almost as startling as the disclosures of a checkup of the inefficiency of petty assessors, were results accomplished by an investigation begun in 1910 of methods employed by mine examining boards in the county. Petty graft, discrimination, preying upon the ignorance of applicants, forgery and general malfeasance in office were disclosures of this investigation. The court thereupon appointed a new board within its jurisdiction with instructions to carefully examine certificates already issued. As a consequence, a large number of certi- ficates were revoked and the methods of examination of candidates placed upon a more honest basis.
On June 14, 1910, the fifth annual Hill Climb up Giant's Despair mountain was staged by the Wiikes-Barre Automobile club. This was the most successful of all efforts in that direction Ralph de Palma lowered the course record of a mile and a quarter by driving a 200 H.P. Fiat over the finish line in 1:2812, a record which has remained.
County commissioners purchased the bridges at North street, Wilkes-Barré, two bridges at Pittston and the bridge crossing the Susquehanna at Shickshinny, thus freeing from toll charges the last of bridges and highways within confines of the county.
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