Shamokin, PA (3/8/2022)

Tuesday, March 8, 2022
After Kent attended a metting at GFE, we left to head north, stopping in Shamokin, PA. Named from an indigenous word meaning "place of eels." Shamokin was founded in 1835 by the coal speculators John C Boyd and Ziba Bird. Industries in the past included anthracite coal-mines, silk and knitting mills, stocking and shirt factories, wagon shops, ironworks, and brickyards. However, since World War II, Shamokin has been in decline. Now the economy is based on service industries such as health care.

Yet, for tourists, there are the murals:

Mural #4: Anthracite Italian Specialties (2015, by
Claude Harrington, Matt Leavens, and Jeff Tweed) celebrates
Italian immigrants who owned shops in Shamokin,
who were also ancestors of the Gallina family,
current owners of the Original Italian Pizza

Moose Lodge (511 N Rock Street)

Transfiguration Ukrainian Catholic Church
(1904-1905, by Luaife & Howe)

Mother Cabrini Catholic Church, formerly
St Edward's Catholic Church (1872-1880)
claims to be the first church in the world to
have electricity, in 1883

Inventor, scientist, and entrepreneur Thomas A Edison, briefly a resident of nearby Sunbury, established the Edison Illuminating Company of Shamokin in the fall of 1882. When the Shamokin power generating station on Independence Street (the second three-wire electric light station in the world) started on September 22, 1883, it supplied St Edward's Catholic Church.

Housing on Spurzheim Street

Many abandoned buildings had this "signal flag,"
which indicates a dangerous building that
no one, including and maybe especially
fire fighters, should enter

Shamokin Creek seems to have iron in the water

Mural #8: Celebration of the Arts (2017, by Claude Harrington
and Matt Leavens) reflects the importance of art and
its impact on children, painted on the Karraway House that
was donated to the Northumberland County Council for the Arts

Soldiers and Sailors Monument (1898) is
dedicated to those from Shamokin
who served duing the Civil War

John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial (1964)

The Hiker (1938), official figure of the Spanish-
American War Veterans, was erected in tribute
to over 200 men from Shamokin who
volunteered to fight in that war

Mural #9: Dick Kashner - Dedication to Youth Sports (2019,
by Emma Dailey) recognized C Richard 'Dick' Kashner
who was involved in youth baseball for over 50 years

Mural #7: When Coal was King (2016, by Claude Harrington,
Matt Leavens, and Jeff Tweed) celebrates the history of
the anthracite coal region, and two men, Sam Vetovich and
Clarence Kashner, who were the grandfathers of Sam and Kathy
Vetovich, owners of the mural location: Heritage Restaurant

Stanley Coveleski Monument (1997) honors
the Shamokin native who became a Major
League Baseball player and Hall of Famer

Mural #3: Ice Cream (2014, by Claude Harrington,
Matt Leavens, and Jeff Tweed) remembers the milk
delivery dairies and ice cream shops of Shamokin

Many homes still had Christmas decorations

The Shamokin Mission Seventh Day Adventist Church
has taken over a former synagogue (c 1875)

Mural #5: Shamokin Theatres (2016, by
Jeff Tweed) depicts three theatres
that existed in the 1950s

Mural #6: Central Drug Store (2013, by
Claude Harrington)

Mural #1: Shamokin History Mural (2012, by
Claude Harrington, Matt Leavens, and Jeff Tweed) shows
the Eagle Silk Mill Clock, a Danville and Pottsville Railroad
(1826, third oldest line in the country) locomotive, coal
mining, and a traveling waffle iron invented in Shamokin
by John Kleimbach in 1891 for Mansion House Hotel

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Egads! We woke up to snow, and it kept coming down as we
continued north to Buffalo, where it was sunny and warmer!