We found the Scranton Iron Furnaces by chance as we were driving by to go to another location and…read moredecided to pull in. I'm so glad we did because the stop was educational and unique, even if it was really really cold on the particular day we chose to visit. The original reviewer, actually the only other reviewer at the time of me posting this, gave so much information and history about this location that I will try and keep it quick. There definitely is a lot to read and a lot to learn here. The furnaces are huge, not like anything I expected, and reading the plaques makes you think about how intense it must have been here back when this place was active. Is really interesting. It's also a large open space so it was dog friendly and our dog liked walking around and sniffing the paths. There was a nice grassy area down at the bottom for her to run around in as well. It was also helpful that we were the only people there, with the exception of a city cop who seemed to be sleeping in his car or hiding from the general public. It was definitely a unique place to visit and these furnaces are worth checking out if you're in Scranton, especially if you're a history buff, but between the open space and the stairs, it's also just a good place to wander and get some steps in.

The Scranton Iron Furnaces, aka the The Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company Furnaces, represent the…read more19th century iron industry in the United States at it's finest. The four massive stone blast furnaces are the remnants of a once extensive plant operated by the Lackawanna Iron & Steel Company. Started in 1840 as Scranton, Grant & Company, the firm began as a partnership between William Henry (he had already been experimenting in New Jersey will the concept of using a "hot-blast technique" to make steel), his son-in-law Seldon Scranton, George Scranton and Sanford Grant. Henry with help from the Scrantons and other investors bought 500+ acres of land in what was then called Slocum Hollow along the Roaring Brook and set up shop building their first blast furnace in 1841. Initially the operation hemorrhaged money and had numerous production issues that plagued the company for its first few years almost driving it to bankruptcy on several occasions. Eventually by 1844 more investors were brought in so that capital could be raised for upgrades and to take care of any lingering flaws in their production model. By the summer of 1844 the furnace averaged five to seven tons of pig iron a day, but the company soon went into the more profitable business of producing T-rails for the railroad industry as there were no facilities in America where rails were capable of being produced. Everything at that point had to be ordered and shipped from Europe. In 1851, the town of Slocum's Hollow changed its name to Scranton in honor of the majority owners of the iron works for their success. (Scranton had other names in between like Harrison in honor of Presidential candidate William Henry Harrison and Scrantonia but I'm just focusing on what stuck.) By 1865 the company had the largest iron production capacity in the United States and were the second largest independent steel making operation in America.. After a long and successful run the fortunes of the company began to change due to higher labor costs, multiple strikes, higher shipping costs, changing markets and more efficient steel making processes in Europe all of which caused the company to move the operation to the Buffalo area in at the beginning of the 20th century. (The operation in the Buffalo area lasted all the way thru several mergers until Bethlehem Steel shut it down in the 1980's.) In 1903 the Scranton property was sold to the Wyoming Valley Railroad, which contracted with a Philadelphia company that scrapped all of the equipment, and tore down all the structures except the stone blast furnaces that you still see today. From the Internet: "In the late 1960s the furnaces were acquired by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and were administered under the State park system. The furnaces were transferred to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in 1971. Today the four connected stone blast furnace stacks are surrounded by 3.84 acres. The furnaces are set into the south side of a hillside with a 10 foot wide bridge, supported by masonry arches connecting them to the rock cliff. The two easternmost furnaces, dated 1848-1849, are built of smooth dressed stone blocks and stand 40 feet high and are 40 feet wide at the base. No. 3 and No. 4 furnaces were constructed c.1852 and c.1857 respectively, and are constructed of rough dressed stone blocks and also stand 40 feet high. Furnace No. 3 is 46 feet wide at the base, and furnace No. 4 is 48 feet wide at the base. All of the furnace stacks still contain vestiges of their firebrick linings. The first, third and fourth stacks contain ruins of their 19th-century hearths." If you go today what you see quite honestly isn't a whole heck of a lot. The entrance to the furnace site has two small brown NPS style signs that lead you up a narrow driveway to the parking area which has space for maybe 15-20 cars. You've got what's left of the four blast furnace stacks, an example of a T-rail along the walkway the leads from the parking lot to the upper viewing platform and an acre or two of grassy park land that sits along Roaring Brook. Worth mentioning is that there are plenty of displays at the site explaining what you're looking at but if you need more your best bet would be to head over to the Anthracite Heritage Museum which is about four miles away over in McDade Park on the other side of town. If you go: The site itself is free and open to the public daily from sunrise until sunset. There are no amenities on site although you are very close to all the fun (LOL!) that downtown Scranton has to offer including the foamtastic fun over at Steamtown. There are a few special events that occur on the grounds annually. Most notably would be the Scranton Bonfire Festival which happens every year in October.

My family and I found this tour and though it'd be something cool to do while on our vacation. We…read morehad a really good time and it was very interesting and informative. The tours run consistently throughout the day so if you arrive and miss one, you won't have to wait long for the next one. There is a museum at the top of the hill but we did not have time to go through it. The tour starts with a ride down a miners car towed by a cable. It's not an original car to this mine but retrofitted from another mine and holds about 20 to 25 people. Everyone wears hard hats and if you want a hair net they have them. The tour is about an hour long give or take a few minutes and although I'm sure all the guides know their stuff, Patty was outstanding in giving explanations and answering questions. The mine closed in 1965 and the tourist tour opened in 1985. It is crispy cool and wet and dark and you get lots of views of how the mine operated. Remember, you only get paid for the coal brought out and the crew is expected to churn out about 8 tons a day with which is four carts overfilled. If you wanted to make things easier for yourself you can (like adding safety timbers or a gravity chute) go right ahead but that'll eat into your coal production and again, you only get paid for the coal. We learned about the mules, air shafts, child labor, sally doors, frogs, rats, canaries, and much more. In the area where you pay for your tickets, they also have a nice gift shop with very reasonable pricing, and a small snack shop. Tickets for August 2026 were $12 adults and a small discount for seniors and little children. My wife's pants dragged and now they're black with coal dust. This was a nice excursion to kill some time and we all learned a thing or two!

Great tour! Very informative and a great way to beat the heat on a summer day! Definitely worth the…read more$10 to walk around an old coal mine and learn about how it operated

If you're anywhere near Scranton and even remotely curious about transportation history, this…read moreMuseum is worth popping into. But let me say up front, if you have a dog, plan accordingly. The museum shares a parking lot with Steamtown and is a non-profit dedicated to preserving and restoring historic trolley cars. The museum building itself is not a dog friendly. We had our dog with us so we took turns going inside and honestly that was fine. It just meant that we couldn't spend as long as we wanted. There are clean bathrooms inside as well as exhibits about electric rail, old photographs, artifacts and even restored trolley cars inside. And the best part for me, BY FAR, is that even though the museum is not dog friendly, the trolley ride is. I highly highly recommend the trolley ride for any and everyone. The gentleman running the trolley were so friendly and welcoming with lots of stories to share. After you board, you travel along a historic line through the Lackawanna valley passing woods, bridges, and streets where one of the gentleman has to get out and hold a sign so that the trolley can get across traffic. It also goes through a tunnel which is really fun. Sitting in the wooden seats and feeling the clack of the car while you watch the beautiful scenery go by almost takes you back in time. We even saw a bear in the woods during our trolley ride. It was a really fun experience. Compared to the ride, the museum itself felt informative and well intentioned but not nearly as exciting. And as much as I appreciate the history and preservation efforts, if I'm being honest, I would skip the indoor exhibits and head straight for the trolley ride! It's the best 12 bucks you will spend in Scranton.

While not the only trolley museum in Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, Washington, PA)…read morethis one is unique to the area. This museum shares a parking lot with the Steamtown National Historic Site and fits in quite nicely. When I showed up in this area I opted to do the trolley museum first and I am glad I did. Rates to enter the museum are reasonable. $7 for an adult, $6 for senior, and $5 for a child (ages 3 - 17). They also do offer a ten mile roundtrip trolley ride. You can do this in conjunction to viewing the museum or do it separately. I highly encourage you to do this in conjunction to the museum. The prices listed above, just add $5. Trolley ride itself...$10 for an adult, $9 for senior, $8 for a child. Believe me, it is worth it. I was lucky enough to have arrived about a half hour before the next trolley ride departed. The museum itself, is not huge, and I will get into that later in this review, so you can do both in a very short amount of time. If you purchase a trolley ride you will receive a wristband to verify that you paid the entrance fee. Around ten minutes before the trolley leaves station they tell you where to go to board. There is a train platform about midway up the parking lot, it is a bit of a hike. You do not have to wait to go to the platform, you can head that way at any time. You are then allowed to board the trolley, find your seat and lock in. You are on an original trolley car and are about to head five miles to the baseball stadium and then turn around and come back. This ride is relaxing and informative. Along the way you will make a few stops, one of the first is at the barricaded entrance to a long closed coal mine, then you will stop near the manmade waterfall, then sit back and enjoy your ride through the tunnel. At the end of this, you are at the ballpark where they have a maintenance garage with other trolley cars either being stored or worked on. This is one of the few ballparks in the country that utilizes a trolley to transport people to and from the park. In the building they have a map of the track you just took to get here and it is broken up into the phases it took to have this line up and running. Then you reboard the trolley and head back to the platform outside of the museums. As for the museum portion, definitely worth your time to go through each section. There is the big informative section with artifacts. Each display has a breakdown of the items and information on the use of those items. There are some interactive aspects here as well. One particular thing is the refurbished dissected trolley car. This show you how one was built and how it worked. They do have a garage here as well and there are several trolley cars in storage and in different stages of repair. There is a kids room and even if you are an adult, check it out, if only for the train track suspended from the ceiling. Do check out the store on your way out. Staff were super pleasant. Great museum. Oh! I almost forgot, the electric trolley was the whole reason Scranton is called the Electric City.

This place cracked me up. I drove across country with my brother and he really wanted to stop here…read morebecause he loves The Office. As we get into the city, we see the city signs that say, "Scranton, the Electric City. By Dundler Mifflin." We're thinking, the hell, that isn't a real company, right? So my brother goes into city hall to ask, "what's with Dundler Mifflin?" The reply was, "Oh, we love the show, so we thought it'd be fun to use Dundler Mifflin around the city." That cracked me up. So this is why I am rating Scranton City Hall a five, for their sense of humor.

One person who works there in th permtt and licensing dept is very gracious she didnt have to be so…read morepatient to a senior citizen her name is Ms Paulette helpful and kind . Thank You very much Sara Pinto Mulberry Towers give 5 stars

I grew up in the area and last visited Steamtown when I was a child. I've since moved away, but was…read morevisiting family in the area and my wife and I decided to re-visit Steamtown, which was a great choice. The site is really quite well done and is thorough and organized. We learned quite a bit here and we really enjoyed getting a full picture of how the industry developed and thrived in the Scranton area. Steamtown is a gem and I'm very glad that we decided to re-visit it after all these years!

We actually visited Steamtown National Historic Site during a government shutdown. That's probably…read morepart of what ended up making the stop feel so memorable. Because it was officially closed, there were very few people visiting and there was plenty of parking, so that definitely added to my personal enjoyment of the experience. We were able to walk around and enjoy the incredible collection of locomotives and historic rail yard but the star of the collection is the "Big Boy" locomotive. It's one of the largest and most powerful steam engines ever built. It's huge. It was cool to see the massive wheels and be able to read and learn about this amazing machine. This is the second "Big Boy" I have seen and the first was surrounded by a fence, so being able to get up close and personal with this one was exciting. While checking out the trains, a local gentleman who was walking his dog struck up a conversation with us and was very chatty and friendly. He offered suggestions for other places to visit in the area and gave us some great info. Our dogs also enjoyed getting to know each other. It would have been nice if the building had been open and we could have gone inside and learned more, but I'm glad for the private time that I had to enjoy the site and reflect on the beauty of the machines. We probably spent almost an hour walking around the yard with our dog and soaking it all in. You could spend quite a while here even without tours or ticketed exhibits and if you do come, the trolley ride in the area is a must, but that is for a different review...

I genuinely want to thank the Everheart Museum and specifically their amazing CEO Tim Holmes for…read morethe incredible visit I had to the museum a few months ago. I am a huge fan of "The Office" and when I knew I would be traveling through PA for the first (and likely only) time, I carved out a few days specific to Scranton and "The Office" to live my fangirl dream. I planned the trip months in advance and when I saw that an exhibit on the show would be opening here "soon" it was the first thing on my itinerary and it was by far one of the things I was looking forward to the most. As the trip got closer, I noticed that the opening of the exhibit had been pushed and I got nervous, but I still had time, so I checked everyday until about 3 weeks before I was scheduled to visit, when I saw there was a "Preview Party" held for the exhibit. That made me feel better. Unfortunately, a few days before I arrived, there were still no tickets available for the exhibit. I tried corresponding with someone from the museum via email you wrote "There have been some last minute setbacks that have delayed the exhibit's opening". I was devastated, but if you know me, you know I don't give up and I wasn't NOT going to try, especially for something that would be a once in a lifetime opportunity for me. I arrived at the museum (Dundie in hand) and was greeted by a kind, patient young man. He told me the price of admission and I immediately asked "Does that include 'The Office' exhibit or is that extra?" He told me the same thing I had been told in the email and I asked if any parts of the exhibit were visible or if there was any way I could even just peek for a moment. I explained to him that I would never be there again and he seemed sympathetic so I asked once more if there was anyone there working on the exhibit I could talk to. He ultimately called a gentleman down from upstairs who took me up to a section of the museum with a sign that read "Please excuse the appearance of this gallery while installation is in progress" and asked me to wait there. There was a poster for the exhibit and a giant Dundie outside the door so I took some photos with it while I waited. I had no idea he was the CEO at the time, but a few minutes later a lovely gentleman named Tim came out to speak to me. He told me the exhibit wasn't ready but he would be happy to show me around. I was so excited at the thought of even getting a few moments to peak inside but Tim spent almost AN HOUR with me in the exhibit. He pointed out things to me and discussed and explained everything in detail. It was one of the most enjoyable museum experiences of my life. I was able to see real props and costumes from the show, get a selfie in front of the "confessional" window, learn all about the local events Scranton has and how much the show means to people here as well. I was also able to learn from the curator himself how much goes in to making an exhibit like this and how much can go wrong. I waited a long time to post this review because I just knew this page would be swarmed with star reviews showing the completed exhibit with others raving about their experience but it has been months and I have yet to see a single one. Please know that the photos I am posting are of the unfinished exhibit but they are still fantastic to see. I hope lots of people are coming to view the exhibit and I really hope they show it the love it deserves online. Thank you again to this museum and it's wonderful staff for giving this reviewer and experience she won't ever forget!

Stopped in on a weekend venture, this museum was nice! It was easy to walk around small but the…read morekinda place that you can spend time in and enjoy. We skipped the office exhibit but the NASA exhibit was very cool and highly interactive. The glass exhibit was very pretty, the nature exhibit was amazing with all of the birds and the Jurassic exhibit was very cool! There was a small geode exhibit to which was very exciting!!

Great place. The Locust Grove Gardens that the Morse mansion sits on are completely FREE and open…read morefrom 8am til sundown and are absolutely beautiful! Amazing views of gardens, farms, woods and the Hudson River. Morse Mansion is incredible. This was $11 per person but worth the price of admission in my opinion. Large from the outside with sprawling porches but once you get inside the rooms just keep going. Once inside you will see so much vintage furniture and beautiful architecture. Pro tip: Felicia was a wealth of historic knowledge outlining so many features of the home plus the family history from Morse to Young!

This was a big disappointment. Even though they reference Samuel Morse, the tour covers the house…read moreand interiors of the owners who purchased the home and lived there after the death of Samuel Morse. Visiting during the holiday season (in December) the house is buried with Christmas decorations that blocked the view and enjoyment of the historical mansion. The house looked more like a Christmas village than a historical landmark. The coverage of Samuel Morse was limited to a room in the reception building which the docent never discussed. If we hadn't used the restroom we wouldn't have seen the original art of Samuel Morse or any discussion of his invention. Lucky we at least glimpsed the only interesting section of this site. I also must add that the grounds around the property may look beautiful in the Spring but don't waste your time going in Winter when the gardens are desolate. I would hope the Spring would bring out the gardens that the site is known for.

Such a beautiful surprise in Scranton, its biggest park! I would come here as a child and they've…read moredone a wonderful job of upkeep and renovations. When my mom was little they had a zoo here, which thankfully closed and is now used as a cat adoption shelter, among other things. The waterfall is legendary and gorgeous. Take your time here to explore, walk, and take in the history. The waterfall and pond is a bit of a slippery walk on some rocks to get to but so worth it! The rest of the trails and pathways are easy.

I grew up in the Scranton area, but somehow never went hiking at Nay Aug until last year when my…read morewife and I were back in the area visiting family. The trails are quite nice and it's always nice to walk to some waterfalls, particularly when it's hot out. There's a good amount of trails and there's plenty of parking all around the park. It's definitely one of the nicest things to do in Scranton and I'd definitely recommend it if you're in the area!

I wish the library had quiet space and was bigger. Overall thought is good. I believe you can get a…read morefree living card with just proof of address.

I spent two days in Scranton and stopped by Albright Memorial Library for a few minutes. The…read morelibrary is your typical run-of-the-mill library and I'm sure it's a nice addition to the town. The architecture is nice on the outside but pretty plain on the inside. Not much as far as an attraction but I'm sure nice for residents of Scranton.

I really enjoy this space, always interesting art on the walls and some interesting group…read moreactivities, like the figure drawing sessions

This art gallery is in the center of town. I was invited to attend an art presentation by a friend…read more VIRGINIA, a local art instructor, displayed her students' art for the public's perusal. Most of the items that were on display, were also up for sale, priced from $50. This event attracted many people. The place was packed. A food presentation was available free of charge to all the attendees. This was a very pleasant affair, well orchestrated. I would assume this gallery leases space to would -be art enthusiasts from time to time throughout the year.