HZ_STANDSPEAK/PAGES [A09] | 08/14/13
23:00 | SUPERIMPSC
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Our
Standard~Speaker
A9
Revisiting the popular Standard-Speaker feature of two decades ago, we celebrate with pride the spirit of ...
Towns
Weatherly
ERIC CONOVER/Staff Photographer
The Weatherly Train Works, where the Lehigh Valley Railroad shops and later Weatherly Iron and Steel Co. operated, is being eyed for new uses. The building at the right, which was the dispatch building, is the new Weatherly Museum.
At 150, Weatherly’s future may lie in its past By JIM DINO StaffWriter
W
eatherly is a community that is unique in several ways. It is the only community in the area that has its own electric company, as it buys its power in bulk and resells it to borough users. Weatherly had a borough manager since 1964, long before other communities in the area. Weatherly has its own school system, two public parks and the only community swimming pool in a 20mile radius. It is has an extensive industrial history exemplified by Weatherly Casting and Machine Co., which has operated for more than 100 years. Part of Weatherly’s future may lie in its past, through proposals that would give old industrial sites modern uses. What is now Weatherly was first settled in 1825 through the purchase of a 400-acre tract of land. John Romig and Samuel Barber bought land in present-day Weatherly, and Benjamin Romig set up a sawmill to furnish lumber for a schoolhouse in Hudsondale — later the Packer Township Municipal Building, which was torn down just a few years ago. The Romigs are considered the first settlers of Weatherly, but which one actually was first is unknown. Originally called Black Creek, the town’s name was changed to Weatherly in 1848. Clock-maker David Weatherly, also an executive of the Beaver Meadow Railroad, made an agreement under which he would build a clock for the town if its leaders would rename it as Weatherly. The name was changed, but Weatherly the man disappeared shortly afterward and the borough never got its clock. Asa Packer and Charles Schwab, both involved in the Bethlehem Steel Co., played a major part in the development of Weatherly. Packer purchased vast acres of land in its early days and developed plans for the town. Schwab married a Weatherly girl, Eurana Dinkey, and gave the town a new 10-room, three-story brick school building, which cost $75,000 in 190102. The school served as Weatherly High School until 1992, when the new Weatherly Area High School opened on the Evergreen Avenue campus next to the middle and elementary schools.
The former Weatherly Train Station has served as the borough building since 1977.
On land near the American Legion, Borough Manager Harold Pudliner would like to build a new borough complex. Weatherly Area High School sports teams got their nickname, the Wreckers, from a Standard-Speaker headline describing a decisive win over an opponent in the eastern Pennsylvania basketball playoffs, when the Weatherly team “wrecked” its opponent. Mrs. Schwab surprised the community on its 50th anniversary in 1913 by purchasing and presenting to the borough Blakeslee’s Grove. Later renamed Eurana Park, the park boasts a swimming pool, pavilion, band shell and large playground. The borough was incorporated on Oct. 8, 1863.
Now, 150 years later, the community celebrates this milestone anniversary with a bazaar featuring food and live music Friday through Sunday.
Industry develops
Between 1850 and 1890, Weatherly grew with the timbering industry, and then the development of the railroad for the transportation of coal, as the Lehigh Valley Railroad took over the Beaver Meadow Railroad and the Hazleton Railroad. The population went from 500 to 2,790 during this period. The train tracks were right along Hazle Creek, also called Black Creek, because
it was known for its dark water that came from the hemlock swamps that flowed down through the town. It is a tributary to the Lehigh River and runs right through the middle of Weatherly. Three bridges have been built over the water, the first around 1867 and the last in 1955. The Lehigh Valley Railroad built a complex there to manufacture locomotives and cabooses. The three buildings that constitute the complex were built in 1869, comprise about 30,000 square feet, and sit on about four acres of land. About 80 locomotives were built at the site before Lehigh
Valley abandoned it around the turn of the century. It was the last locomotive fabrication shop Lehigh Valley operated. Another was in White Haven, which recently became the White Haven Library and a visitors’ center for the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor. The railroad sold the property in 1910 for $10,000, and three years later, the Weatherly Steel Co. was founded. Weatherly Steel did specialized work for such companies as Bethlehem Steel, and fabricated the steel framing for the Markle Building
See FUTURE, A10
MORE OUR TOWNS See previous installments of Our Towns at standardspeaker.com/ community/our-towns. Previous editions of Our Towns have included: April — Conyngham/ Sugarloaf May — Jim Thorpe June — Tamaqua July — Freeland Upcoming: Next Thursday — Mahanoy City September — Bloomsburg
HZ_STANDSPEAK/PAGES [A10] | 08/14/13
22:47 | SUPERIMPSC
A10 Standard~Speaker
Our
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Revisiting the popular Standard-Speaker feature of two decades ago, we celebrate with pride the spirit of ...
Towns
Weatherly
ERIC CONOVER/Staff Photographer
The new Weatherly American Legion building was built on a portion of the former Tung-Sol property.
The roof on the Weatherly Train Works had to be torn down because of deterioration.
Future (Continued from A9) in downtown Hazleton. Weatherly Steel operated until 1989. The buildings have been vacant ever since.
What’s ahead
A few years ago, the Weatherly Rotary club and foundation proposed using the complex for new retail development and other community needs. A $200,000 federal Housing and Urban Development grant paid off the Train Works’ mortgage and helped bring the land up to environmental standards.
The borough subsequently acquired the buildings so grants might be more accessible. But the roof of the largest building was deteriorating and had to be torn off. Borough Manager Harold Pudliner said plans are to make it a heritage park, maintain the walls where large photos can be put up for tourists to see, and have grass planted. One new attraction at the Train Works is an 1873 vintage Jersey Central Railroad caboose, which has been loaned to the Train Works for display. It is being displayed with a Lehigh Valley
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coal car that was donated and has been refurbished. Pudliner’s vision for Weatherly includes building a new borough complex — complete with a new borough building and equipment garages — on a portion of the former Tung-Sol property, and allow the current borough building in the former Weatherly Train Station to become part of the Train Works complex. “We have the money for the police station and the magistrate’s office,” Pudliner said. “I’m waiting on a (grant) application for the municipal building.” Pudliner envisions a retail complex developing at the Train Works and the current borough building. The other building, a dispatch office, has become a museum. To generate traffic, Pudliner would like to foster the development of a “loop” walking trail that could connect to the Greater Hazleton Rails-to-Trails, which will also eventually connect to the 165-mile Delaware and
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ough to conduct a feasibility study for construction of two generating units with the capability of generating 26 gigawatt-hours each year. The permit ran out about 18 months ago, but Pudliner said application for the Future of electricity? three-year permit will be Weatherly’s history of made again in another 18 electricity dates to 1889, months. when the town purchased Pudliner took an idea that two lots from the Lehigh Val- first surfaced in the 1970s ley Railroad and began to when there were early warngenerate its own electricity ings that energy sources with coal-fired boilers. were not as abundant as Weatherly, which has pur- many believed. He said the chased its electricity in bulk borough at that time and sold it to borough users inquired about a project that since 1968, is looking at creat- included construction of a ing a hydroelectric plant on hydroelectric generating the Lehigh River at the Fran- plant at the dam. The project cis E. Walter Dam — an never got off the ground untapped alternative energy after Weatherly secured a source that could cut rising permit for a study. electricity costs and generate The borough tried again more than a thousand times in 1985 after getting a permit the amount of power the bor- for a feasibility study. Howevough needs. er, the U.S. Army Corps of Pudliner said Weatherly Engineers had plans for the has applied to the Federal site, and that prompted the Energy Regulatory Commis- Federal Energy Regulatory sion for a preliminary perCommission to turn down a mit that will enable the borlicense request by Weatherly. Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Trail. That trail passes near Weatherly at Lehigh Gorge State Park in Rockport, as part of its path from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, Bucks County.
In 1989, a second attempt at securing a license failed because the federal government wasn’t interested in developing the project. In 1994, the borough applied for an extension of its rights to build the plant, but the project never took hold. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the dam and operates the facility, has made modifications to the dam on the Lehigh River, which increased the level of the dam by 35 feet. The move spread out the dam by another 160 acres and increased volume from millions to billions of gallons of water. Those modifications, Pudliner said, would make it easier to build the plant. If the hydroelectric plant becomes a reality for Weatherly, the plant would be located in both Luzerne and Carbon counties and parts of Kidder and Bear Creek townships. jdino@standardspeaker.com
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