A great town about to lose its centerpiece

 

 

The stone building at the center is the Sterling Hotel and planned for demolition

 

Bye-bye

 

 

 

 

Sterling rear

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So they're actually demolishing the Sterling? What a shame. You and Sherman are exploring more of PA than I am and I freaking live there haha. Great tour. I have been in Downtown Scranton which is pretty nice, but not Wilkes-Barre. I'll have to check it out.

So they're actually demolishing the Sterling? What a shame. You and Sherman are exploring more of PA than I am and I freaking live there haha. Great tour. I have been in Downtown Scranton which is pretty nice, but not Wilkes-Barre. I'll have to check it out.

 

Everything I have read indicates that demolition is still planned, but I do not think they have the funds yet.

I dig the Wilkes.

So they're actually demolishing the Sterling? What a shame. You and Sherman are exploring more of PA than I am and I freaking live there haha. Great tour. I have been in Downtown Scranton which is pretty nice, but not Wilkes-Barre. I'll have to check it out.

 

Everything I have read indicates that demolition is still planned, but I do not think they have the funds yet.

 

I remember reading an article on WNEP about it a while back and it pretty much said the same thing about funds. But there was also a chance it could have been saved at that point. I forget why but I think there was an interested party who wanted the building. If nothing has happened though, then I guess it's still on track for demolition.

Excellent photos. It's sad that they'll likely lose a landmark and it looks like downtown retail is on hard times, as it is in the majority of cities that size. Still, the downtown looks much cleaner and more attractive than it did when I passed through the area in the 1960s.

Looking forward to the rest of this area....presumably you also visited Scranton and the rest of that "Wyoming Valley" region? 

 

I was there last fall (November) on way way through to Hartford and couldnt get enough of this area.  I stayed in downtown Scranton (that coverted Lackawanna depot) and drove up to Wilkes Barre and back, through that valley with those old towns strung along the river (Old Forge, Pittson, etc).  Drove up one side of the valley and back the other.  Wished I had a camera, and sort of glad I didnt becuase I would have never made...the place is very photogenic.  Potential shots just set themselves up.

 

I came in to Wilkes-Barre over that grand neoclassical bridge that you so excellently document and thought "this is something the engineering profession has forgot how to do.achitecturally distnictive and urbanistically appropriate infrastructure".  I noticed that the bridge also seem to have some wide sidewalks, too, which you show.  I remember that. 

 

That downtown is more interesting than mos due to that diamond-shaped square, which which jazzes up the urban space...and all the tall things are tightly clustered near the square.  One is built on an angle with the square if I recall right (but I dont see a pic of it).  I was wondering if it was as active as Scranton at night. 

 

I see W-B still has a downtown department store, too.  Boscovs.  Which is also in downtown Scranton at that mall they have. 

 

Too bad about the hotel, though.  Still, a lot of old stuff still survives in this area. You got that wierd mosque thing (Masons or Shriners?).  There's also a restored victorian brewrey building just south of downtown, too. 

 

Any neighborhood shots of Wilkes-Barre or Scranton (& vicinity)?  Thats what impressedd me about this area, how photogenic the side streets and older neighborhoods were due to the hills and sometimes odd angles. 

Looks like an interesting place.  I'm surprised to see Barnes & Noble in a Downtown location instead of a mall.

I'm surprised to see Barnes & Noble in a Downtown location instead of a mall.

 

I think that is a campus store for the two colleges in town, not a conventional Barnes & Noble.

They have those college stores all over. In Lewisburg PA, Bucknell has the same setup right in downtown Lewisburg.

Demolition of the Sterling Hotel started today:

 

http://www.pahomepage.com/story/demolition-begins-on-historic-hotel-sterling-in-w-b/d/story/bLQ_F7OhgkiUCX2I0WeY1Q

Demolition of the Sterling Hotel started today:

 

http://www.pahomepage.com/story/demolition-begins-on-historic-hotel-sterling-in-w-b/d/story/bLQ_F7OhgkiUCX2I0WeY1Q

 

'murica!

 

PA has so many great towns

Very nice spread, Ink... A few years ago, I dreaded a biz trip to W-B because I knew how dull and boring it would be... but I was pleasantly surprised by it's relative sophistication and friendliness -- the downtown public square sandwiched between Wilkes College, on one side, and King's Coll, on the other, makes the place more young and alive than similar towns...  And the downtown architecture, which you so well captured, surprised me.  (real bummer about the Sterling -- when we were there, there was optimism that a buyer would be found and the building, saved... damn shame).

 

Oh yeah, and how about little Wilkes-Barre with a major department store like Boscov's, while we in major metropolitan Cleveland would do back flips for such a place... oh well.

Very nice spread, Ink... A few years ago, I dreaded a biz trip to W-B because I knew how dull and boring it would be... but I was pleasantly surprised by it's relative sophistication and friendliness -- the downtown public square sandwiched between Wilkes College, on one side, and King's Coll, on the other, makes the place more young and alive than similar towns...  And the downtown architecture, which you so well captured, surprised me.  (real bummer about the Sterling -- when we were there, there was optimism that a buyer would be found and the building, saved... damn shame).

 

I got a similar feel in Scranton.....place wasnt as dead/vacant as I expected!....

 

I was wondering if downtown Wilkes-Barre was as fun as Scrantons'....sounds like it might be!!!!  Excellent!

 

I hope there still IS a hotel in downtown W-B since I might stay there on my next trip east this fall.  Was debating about doing the overnight more in the old "German" part of PA (Bethlehem, Harrisburg, Reading, Lancaster...one of those), but am drawn to the "Wyoming Valley" because of the good vibe and good time I had there on my two visits so far....

 

 

 

 

That damned river sure does like to flood.

I got a similar feel in Scranton.....place wasnt as dead/vacant as I expected!....

 

A few years ago my wife and I took a trip to the Poconos, and one day we checked out Scranton. I think it was 2006. "The Office" hadn't hammered Scranton with publicity yet, and the only other reference I knew to Scranton was that Edith Bunker's character (All in the Family) talked about Scranton a lot and probably came from there.

 

In terms of deadness and decay, Scranton is the anti-Dayton, the mirror universe Dayton. Scranton is what Dayton would be if Dayton didn't blow.

why tear it down and more importantly what will replace it?

 

The river, the bridge, some of the architecture.  Looks like Hamilton OH.

The Sterling is gone, and now another entire block is set to be demolished:

 

(from Summit Street's thread: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,28419.msg664270.html#msg664270)