History of Freeland, Pa.

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	History of Freeland, Pa. Past featured photos
	Note: For recently received corrections or added information, search for double asterisks and maroon-colored headings. Crescents Football Team, 1902, sent by Curt Javic, posted in January 2012 I received this image from Curt Javic recently. Here's what he wrote about it: Chuck, here is a copy of the Crescents 1902 football team I have. The ball in the photo is marked Crescents 1902. ... After researching the names on the back most of the gentlemen are from Freeland or Foster Township . Therefore the team has to be from Luzerne County. Again the names on the back are as follows; John Nowak, J Coll, Bernard McLaughlin, Frank Hindson, Louis Stolz, Cony Welsh, H Sims, Cletus Fultz. Sitting – Geoge Hartman, John Dusheck, J. Motsko, John James Baskin, Harvey Deitrich, Peter O’Donnell, Aubrey Powell. [Louis Stolz at one time was the Police Chief of Freeland & was born in 1880, therefore in this picture he was 21- 22 years old.] I think therefore these people might be slightly older than say Freeland High School. I know there was a prep school in Freeland called Mining & Mechanical Institute that a lot of miners attended after work but to me these gentlemen don’t appear to be miners. In 1908, I did find a semi–pro football team out of West Scranton called the Crescent Team but again that is pretty far from Freeland & also 6 years later. If anyone knows anything about this photo I would appreciate that info. I wrote to Tom Landers, president of the Freeland Historical Society, former Freeland athlete and longtime local sports enthusiast, to ask what he knows about the team. Here's his very informative reply: The 1902 Crescents - a very good team - all Freeland residents. John Nowak - owned the pool room on Centre St. Bernard McLaughlin, a mailman. Louis Stolz - Chief of Police during 1920s, later a coal and iron police office. George Hartman - Freeland Burgess (mayor). Connie Welsh - owned Welsh's Drug Store on Centre St. Aubrey Powell - a small man but very fast runner; a Freeland page writer for the Standard Speaker in the 1930s-1940s, a penny per word. I do not know if the field was named after the team or the team after the field. Crescents Field was located across from Alvin and Maple streets, and the outfield had a crescent running track around it. My high school baseball team (St. Ann's) played its home games on this field, 1948-1953. Curt is interested in selling this photo, if anyone is interested. Here's his reason: I bought it from a friend of mine in Renningers for way too much expense - $80.00. The reason I paid so much is that at the time we both thought it was the Crescents Rowing Club in Phila. They were a major rowing club in Phila. - late 1880-early 1900’s. They also played some semi pro football. I collect anything to do with very early Phila. semi-pro football. Even at that price I was thrilled to get it. If anyone is interested in it I would mail at my cost or less or offer it in a trade for something. It is a pretty big photo in rough shape. If anyone has additional information to offer about the Crescents Team or the individuals in the photograph, would you please let me know? Also, if you're interested in contacting Curt about the photograph, please let me know and I'll put him in contact with you. Thanks! DCM class photo of 1919 or 1920, from Ed Merrick - posted December 8, 2011 Here's a great photo of a young class at Daniel Coxe Memorial School. Ed Merrick sent it with this note: "Here is a copy of a great old photo that my cousin in Sarasota, Ann Cravener, sent to me. It was sent to her by another cousin of mine, Nancy (Remak) Penn, who is the family's most ardent historian. The photo had been sent to Nancy by Carol (Corazza) Jones, with whom I went to school from grades 1 through 8, until we parted ways when I went to MMI." According to the legend at the bottom of the photo, these kids were in grades 1 and 2, with Miss Sara Gallagher as their teacher, standing in the back row at right. I love the ties on the two boys in the front row at right, and the big bow on the girl in the middle of the 2nd row. Several nice family links spelled out on the bottom of the photo, too. Thank you to Carol Jones, Nancy Remak Penn, Ann Cravener, and Ed Merrick for this! Featured photos - St. John's Nepomucene Roman Catholic Church Band - posted October 28, 2011 This great photo comes to us from Pat Boren, along with this note: "Love your website about Freeland. My mom grew up there in the 30s and 40s. Her father was Mike Herkalo, who was a butcher with a grocery store in the front of their home at 904 Centre Street. Mike was born in Freeland in 1884, first generation born here (his parents were from Kucin, Slovakia and they spelled the name Hirkala). Here are a couple of photos that I hope you share on your website. In the band photo, Mike is holding his white hat and tuba , 2nd row back, on the right. I believe his brother is behind him to the right on the end, horn visible. Guessing the time frame is 1910-ish?" Can anyone identify anybody else in this photo? Please let me know and I'll add the information here. Also, if you have any similar photos from the Freeland area, of if you know anyone who does, I hope you'll consider sharing them. Meanwhile, here's a related photo from my own family collection. My dad's mother was a Berta, and so I'm related to several people in this photo of a later version of St. John's Band, dated September 6, 1943. This is one of those wonderful situations where someone wrote the names of the people in the photo on the back of the photo. Maybe you know some of these people! Names include Berta, Prussock, Barna, Jadish, Jacko, Stegana, Hollis, Morro, Stefanik, Barron, Dinovic, Halko, Shemo, Kardisco, Casper, Drauschalk, Charnigo, Zippay, Spock, Wargo, a few others I wasn't sure of from the handwriting. A number of these guys had nicknames that are also written on the back of the photo. I remember that a lot of my dad's friends from his youth in Upper Lehigh had such nicknames. Summer Fun - Mystery photos from Ed Merrick - posted August 20, 2011 Recently Ed Merrick sent me some photos and a note detailing what he knows about them. He's looking for more information on who the people are and where the photos were taken. In his words, "If you decide to run any of them, perhaps your fans would be able to shed light on them." Well, by "your fans" he means fans of this website, so if any of you looking at this page now can offer information or even guesses for Ed, would you please email me and let me know? Perhaps you are of an age to be able to remember some of these people. Or if not, perhaps you could show them to someone you know who might remember them. Please help if you can! Here's the message he sent with the photos, and I've embedded the photos next to the part that talks about each one. Hi, Chuck. My sister sent me these mystery pictures, which she got from my Aunt Mary Merick (she spelled her name with one 'r') before she died about 8 years ago. I would guess that they are photos of an outing of a group from St. Casimir's. The site is a puzzle. It can't be Woodside because the only water there was in strippings, which were deep. On the platform in Picnic01 are the words "deep water" but it can't be that deep because most of the adults are only chest deep. Note the bench in the background. I think Picnic02 was taken from behind the platform, and that bench in the background is probably the same one because of the configuration of the tree canopies. My Aunt Mary is on the right. The woman with her could be Jenny Drobick, a good friend who lived directly across Chestnut Street from my aunt and who attended St. Casimir's. In Picnic03, my aunt is on the extreme right, with her face partly hidden by the tree. Note the age of the car. Unfortunately the license plate is not visible. In Picnic04, that's Mike Ostroff second from the left in the second row, while my aunt is third from the right in the first row. Obviously, beer is allowed at this locale, which would rule out Eurana Park. Did Hazle Park allow people to bring in beer? That's my aunt on the extreme left in Picnic05. I included Picnic06 to show the vintage of the cars. I would guess that these photos were taken in the 1930s. [The photo marked] Mary01 is a total mystery. Written in pencil on the back in loopy longhand is what looks like "Miss Mary Merick." Neither of the women looks like my aunt. I have no idea what the outfits represent and what is in the right hand of the woman in the front (a flashlight?). The men could be miners, but they lack the ubiquitous lunch pail and aren't black with coal dust (though they could just be on the way to a shift). The card-like things on their hats baffle me. My sister speculates that this could have been taken at the Freeland Shirt Co. factory. (Notice the guy inside the window.) If you decide to run any of them, perhaps your fans would be able to shed light on them. -- Ed Featured photos - Centre Street in March, 1966 - posted March 2011 These photos come from Ed Merrick, who snapped them in the mid-'60s. I was halfway through high school at the time. Thank you, Ed, for sharing these memories. Looking south from above Front Street, there's Caster's Floral Shop on the right, next to Fairchild's news shop. That Fairchild's business was in the building that was built in 1893 and which contained Freeland's post office at one time. On the other side of Caster's, Dr. Drogowski had his office in that corner building. Seventy years earlier it was the site of Amandus Oswald's General Store. Below Front Street the People's Bank, Genetti's and Citizens Bank signs are visible. Here's what I had written: Here we're standing in front of the Refowich Theatre, watching the St. Patrick's Day parade on March 13, 1966. To the right across Main St. is Allan's Show Store, with Vercusky's Drug Store and Bellezza's Shoe Store signs visible. Seitzinger's Drug Store is across Centre St. The same buildings shown in the previous photo are seen here from the other direction. I guess that's a fire alarm box on the telephone pole? Here's a correction from Charlie Gallagher, sent 3-28-12: The box pictured on the pole was not a fire alarm box. It was actually a phone box that the Freeland Police used up to about 1973 or 74. When you called the Freeland Police (636.0111) the phone would ring in the borough building and on the pole in front of the Refowich. It was a locking box with the Police having the key. You may recall that the Freeland PD used to park on Center in front of the Ref and watch the town before the advent of radio communications with the Luzerne County Communications Center. I believe that is Rich Petchol and Nick Goida standing next to it in the photograph. Turning in the other direction we see the J. J. Newberry Co. (now VideoMania) and, to the extreme left, part of the sign for Pittman's Furniture Store. They had pretty crummy weather for the parade that year, but that didn't dampen the spirits of the marchers or the hardy souls who came out to see them. Parades were always a special thing in Freeland, a way for the town to turn out and celebrate the community. Featured photos - SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! - posted Feb. 8, 2011 Two of these photos come courtesy of John Zubach, and the one marked "Blizzard March 1st 1914" comes from Carol Jones. All show a very snowy Freeland in the time when, although some people had cars, there were still horse-drawn carriages in use. (You can find more information about horse-drawn carriages in Freeland on the Transportation page.) This photo seems very evocative of the wonderful silence that comes after a winter storm. These young kids look like they're having so much fun out there! Everything has been transformed by the snow and ice. The DCM school is decorated with snow and icycles. Even the trees look a bit like ballerinas. This storm came at the tail end of a heavy year for winter storms in Freeland! So here we are on upper Centre Street, just down the block from the Borough Building (which still had its spire at this time). Look at the snow on the street! Those horses can't have had an easy time of it. Nor did the human pedestrians, actually. And this was March, almost springtime. Those guys standing in the doorway don't seem to me as though they're quite bundled up enough for this weather. Many of these buildings are still with us today, by the way. NEWS! Ed Merrick has identified what we're looking at in this photo! He writes: "I think the photo that puzzles you is of Main Street looking east from Centre. The Ref is at the right, with its distinctive second-story bay windows. That is the old St. Luke’s on the left. My grandparents’ house is the squarish, four-story on the left, and it looks as though the clock might be in front of it. Just beyond it is the building that preceded the Post Office." Thank you, Ed. As I wrote back to him, now that I look at pictures of the Refowich, it's obvious that that's the building in the right front of the photo (there's a photo of the Refowich on the Entertainment page). Looking at other aspects of this photo, isn't it cool to see that horse in the background? That looks like a sleigh on the left side of the street, maybe, and there's a carriage or car just beyond the man who's crossing the street. Don't you love how crooked the telephone poles used to be? I wonder what business that clock on the left was connected to? Photo of interior of Refowich Theatre, 1940s - posted Nov. 20, 2010 This photo comes to us courtesy of Ed Merrick, who copied it years ago from Stanley Potosky, who was projectionist at the Refowich in the 1960s. Ed writes: This is the interior of the Refowich in the 1940s. Notice all the kids up front. They were sitting in what was notoriously known as the First 6, a zone zealously enforce by the ushers. The seats were not upholstered and were for use by children not accompanied by an adult. Adults and kids accompanied by adults could sit in the upholstered seats. Trying to sneak back to the padded seats when the movie began became an adventure, more often than not thwarted by the ushers. The restrooms were under the stairs to the balcony, the men's on the left in the photo and the women's on the right. Notice also the standees, a common occurrence in those days because you didn't purchase a ticket for a particular showing and could stay as long as you wished. We kids would always stay to see "the good part" a second time. Ticket for Grand Ball at Haas's Hall, New Year's Eve, 1890 - posted Sept. 27, 2010 First question: where was Haas's Hall? It didn't ring a bell with me at all. This ticket is from 1890. Aha - in the city directories for 1882-1884, 1884-1886 and 1886-1888, Frederick Haas is listed as proprietor of a hotel / the Cottage Hotel at the corner of Washington and Main streets. In 1895 he's listed as the proprietor of the Cottage Hotel as well as a saloon at that address, and in 1897, HENRY Haas is listed as the proprietor of the Cottage Hotel. According to the 1897 city directory, also living at that address are Annie Haas (dressmaker), Harry Haas (barber), and Lillie Haas (waitress). Frederick isn't mentioned; maybe he died between 1895 and 1897? In W. W. Munsell's History of Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming Counties, Pa. (1880), Frederick Haas is described as having been born in Germany, March 11th, 1830 and as being the proprietor of Harmony Hall at South Heberton. It also says that he kept a hardware store and shoe shop, and that his wife was Ann Elizabeth Noth, of New York city. So, there are a few questions right there: where were the hardware shop and shoe shop, and might she be the dressmaker mentioned in the 1897 directory (in which case, maybe she's his widow by then)? Going back to my first question: where was Haas's Hall? In 1880 Munsell says that Frederick was proprietor of Harmony Hall, in South Heberton. Where was that hall located exactly? South Heberton was the area of town around Birkbeck Street, between Front Street and Upper Lehigh. Wonder where Harmony Hall was? Ten years later, does he have a new hall at the Cottage Hotel? Or somewhere else? Or does he still have Harmony Hall, now being referred to as Haas's Hall? Maddeningly, because at this time South Heberton was still a separate community, it's not represented in the city directories for Freeland yet. And what would the "Grand Ball" on New Year's Eve on December 31, 1890 have been like? The ticket says "By the 'Kosciusko Guards' of Freeland, Pa." That suggests something to do with Freeland's Polish community. The Kosciusko Guards also marched in the civic and industrial parade at Freeland's Pearl Jubilee in 1906. How many people do we think would have attended a ball like this? If it was at the Cottage Hotel, well, that building is a decent size but it's not huge. This little ticket will probably generate more questions, too. As with all these feature photos, it's posted to share it with all of the visitors to this website, and also to ask everyone who sees it to let me know if they can shed any light on it. I'd love to know more about Haas's Hall and Harmony Hall, about the various businesses of the Haas family, and about the Kosciusko Guards, and about the types of balls that would have been held to celebrate events like New Year's Eve back in 1890. Please share what you know or what you think and I'll post the best info here. ** Here's some new information sent by Ed Lakitsky on 3-3-12: I notice your article on Hass Hall in Freeland Andrew and Katie Lakitsky purchased the Cottage Hotel around 1917 (I have the deeds) and operated a rooming house, butcher shop and maybe a saloon. Before that a John Fisher owned what is now the garages which were horse and stables behind the present day cottage hotel. that I understand from my aunt is where they kept horse sleds for travel in the snow. The big dining room on the south side of the cottage hotel, from the Hass and Fisher days of ownership, was removed in a boundary dispute when Fisher sold the hotel to my grandfather around 1917. Hope this helps a little. Gubi from St. Mary's church in Freeland - posted June 18, 2010 This photo comes to us courtesy of Ann Malenky Nakpairat. From time to time I receive photos or copies of photos reflecting Freeland area history from correspondents. I will feature one of these on this page every once in awhile, so that more people get to see them. Today's feature photo came from Ann Malenky Nakpairat. She doesn't know who any of the people are in the photo, but they may be from St. Mary's around 1929. Can you or someone you know help??? Ann wrote: "I believe [this photo] is a group of Gubi from St Mary's church in Freeland, who went out before Christmas singing carols and were scary as all get out to kids. It was my grandfather's. I remember it being at the farm ever since I can remember. Whether I ever saw these Gubi, I don't know; however, I do remember much talk about them and how scary they were. I also recall hiding the picture in a trunk. Sometimes lore takes on a life of its own. The first one is carrying a church model with, they say, a nativity set in it. Born in 1855, I doubt that my grandfather was a caroler nor my father. No one in our family can sing a note. I do not know the identity of any of them. They would have to be from St. Mary's as we celebrated both Christmases in our family." Ann guessed that this photo might date from around 1929. Charlie Reczkowski also shared with me a recollection of a group that he called the Kuby Bace (pronounced "Koobee Botchee") from around 1930, who caroled in the Slovak, Polish and Greek Catholic parishes in Freeland at Christmas. The carolers included a Santa and several angels in white clothes with red and blue ribbons criss-crossing their chests. They would go from house to house, and would donate to the churches part of the money they received for their singing. As I look at this photo, I can see that it would have been the two individuals in masks on the right who would have been in charge of scaring kids. Notice also the sticks they carried. There is an even more descriptive account of such singers on the web at http://www.iarelative.com/xmas/gubi.htm. Meanwhile, show this photo to your older family members and see if they remember anything like these Gubi. If anyone reading this page knows of other people who participated in this tradition, I would love to hear about it. Additional photos would also be very welcome. I know that something like this tradition is still practiced in parts of Slovakia, and I don't know whether it is still done in other countries in eastern Europe. However, this is a tradition that has surely all but faded from our American experience. Oliver Miller in his store - posted May 7, 2010 This photo comes to us courtesy of Lori Vining and Nancy Paskin. From time to time I receive photos or copies of photos reflecting Freeland area history from correspondents. I will feature one of these on this page every once in awhile, so that more people get to see them. Today's feature photo came from Lori Vining, and Nancy Paskin provided the backstory. This is Oliver Miller standing in his jewelry and watch repair shop. Mr. Miller also repaired bicycles. In the 1890s this business was on Centre Street, and later it was moved to 711 Main Street in the area where the Post Office is today. It is listed on Centre Street in the 1895, 1897 and 1901 city directories, and at 711 Main Street in the 1921-1922 city directory, so he had his business in Freeland for nearly 3 decades. Nancy Paskin (great-granddaughter of Oliver Miller) wrote: "My father, who is now 92, remembers that the store always had patriotic buntings on the second story railings and that the family lived in the same building with rooms above and behind the store. He also said that later on when he was a young man, the building was taken down and made way for a post office. He said he worked one summer helping digging the foundation for the new post office." (You can actually see photos of our current post office foundation being dug on a page about Freeland's post offices.) Frank Balon's bar - posted April 30 2010 This photo comes to us courtesy of Frank Balon. This is a picture inside Balon's Bar from sometime in the 1920's. Behind the bar is Frank's grandfather, Frank Balon. The tin ceiling and cedar bar are still there today. This information came from Frank Balon in 2005, relaying information from his father Stanley: Dad thinks that my grandfather Frank Balon, of Polish descent, began the business around 1910, taking over a bar that was already in existence. He had arrived in the U.S. around 1892-1896. In the early years of the bar, mostly drinks were served, but Frank Balon was also known for making large pots of soup. He ran a boarding house/rooming house upstairs above the bar. I think miners stayed there. There are stories that I recall of Dad's older sisters having to wash miners' clothes, and leaving a mouse in miner's shoe. In fact, we still had the rooming house through my years, at least until around 1980. I recall as many as 5 roomers at a time. Dad was born in 1919 and took over running the bar when he returned from WW2, but Frank was still in the picture until his death in the mid-1950's. I helped out with the bar for a bit in the early 1980s, tending bar and doing short-order cooking - hamburgs, cheeseburgs, steak sandwiches. But Pop made the BEST burgers in town.
	Note: Photo at top left comes from J. Zubach; identification from Gretchen Collins says that the business on the right in that photo was Merkt Confectionery, run by Charles and Lena Merkt. It was located in the Birkbeck Block on Centre and Main streets, and reputedly sold fabulous ice cream.