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1893 Map of Scranton

Name: 1893 Topographic Map of Scranton
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1916
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1916

About this map

The Lackawanna River valley serves as the industrial and transit spine of this late 19th-century landscape, dominated by the dense street grid of Scranton. Flanked by the Moosic Mountains, the valley is a complex network of collieries and rail lines, including the Delaware Lackawanna and Western and the Erie and Wyoming Valley Railroad. These corridors connect a string of coal-patch settlements and neighborhoods like Hyde Park, Providence, Priceburg, and Minooka.

Away from the urban center, the topography rises sharply toward Moosic Lake and Pinnacle Hill, revealing the watershed management necessary for the growing city at the Scranton Reservoir. The map captures a moment when smaller communities such as Barber Town, Old Forge, and Archbald were distinct hubs within a rapidly consolidating industrial corridor, before modern suburban expansion merged these boundaries.