Scranton, Pennsylvania

Scranton is a city in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, United States. It is the county seat of Lackawanna County and the largest principal city in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area. Scranton had a total population of 76,089 in 2010, according to the United States Census Bureau, making it Pennsylvania's sixth-most-populous city after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, and Reading.

Scranton is the geographic and cultural center of the Lackawanna River valley. It is the largest city located in a contiguous quilt-work of former anthracite coal mining communities including the smaller cities of Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, and Carbondale. Scranton was incorporated as a borough on February 14, 1856, and as a city on April 23, 1866.

Humble beginnings (1776–1845)
Present-day Scranton and the surrounding area had been inhabited by the native Lenape tribe, from whose language "Lackawanna" (or "le-can-hanna", meaning "stream that forks") is derived. In 1778, Isaac Tripp, known as the area's first white settler, built his home here; it still stands in the Providence section of the city. More settlers from New England came to the area in the late 18th century, gradually establishing mills and other small businesses. Their village became known as Slocum Hollow.

Industrial foundation established: iron, coal and railroads (1846–1899)
Though anthracite coal was being mined in Carbondale to the north and Wilkes-Barre to the south, the industries that precipitated the city's growth were iron and steel. In 1840, brothers Selden T. and George W. Scranton founded what would become the Lackawanna Steel Company. On October 8, 1845, the Montour Iron Works in Danville, Pennsylvania, produced the first iron T-rails made in America, offering the first domestic competition to English exports. Two years later, the Scranton's firm began making rails for the Erie Railroad in New York state, and soon became a major producer.

In 1851, the Scrantons founded the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W) to transport iron and coal products from the Lackawanna valley. The Pennsylvania Coal Company built a gravity railroad here for the same purpose. In 1856, the Borough of Scranton was officially incorporated and named after its industrious founders. The Delaware and Hudson (D&H) Canal Company, which had its own gravity railroad from Carbondale to Honesdale, built a steam railroad that entered Scranton in 1863.

Scranton was incorporated as a city of 35,000 in 1866 in Luzerne County when the surrounding boroughs of Hyde Park (now part of the city's West Side) and Providence (now part of North Scranton) were merged with Scranton. Twelve years later, the city became the county seat of the newly formed Lackawanna County. The nation's first successful, continuously operating electrified streetcar (trolley) system was established in the city in 1886, giving it the nickname "The Electric City". In the late 1890s Scranton was home to a series of early International League baseball teams. By 1890, three other railroads had built lines to tap into the rich supply of coal in and around the city, including the Erie Railroad, the Central Railroad of New Jersey and finally the New York, Ontario and Western Railway (NYO&W). Underneath the city, a network of coal veins was mined by workers who were given jobs by the wealthy coal barons with low pay, long hours and unsafe working conditions. Children as young as 8 or 9 worked 14-hour days separating slate from coal in the breakers.

Growth and prosperity (1900–1945)
By the United States Census of 1900, the population of Scranton was about 102,026, making it the 38th largest city in the United States.

The turn of the 20th century saw many beautiful homes of Victorian architecture built in the Hill and Green Ridge sections of the city. In 1901, the dwindling local iron ore supply took the Lackawanna Steel Company away to Lackawanna, New York, where iron ore from Minnesota was more readily available by ships on the Great Lakes. The city lost the industry on which it was founded.

Scranton forged ahead as the center of Pennsylvania's anthracite coal industry. During the first half of the 20th century, it became home to many groups of newly arrived immigrants from Eastern Europe. This patchwork still survives and is represented by the Catholic and Orthodox churches that primarily dot the North Scranton, West Side, and South Side neighborhoods of the city; a substantial Jewish community was established as well. In 1903, an electric interurban railroad known as the Laurel Line was started, and two years later connected to nearby Wilkes-Barre, 20 mi to the southwest. Working conditions for miners were improved by the efforts of labor leaders like John Mitchell, who is honored with a statue on the downtown Courthouse Square.

Starting the early 1920s, the Scranton Button Company (founded in 1885 and a major maker of shellac buttons) became one of the primary makers of phonograph records. They pressed records for Emerson (whom they bought in 1924), as well as Regal, Cameo, Romeo, Banner, Domino, Conqueror, and after merging with Regal, Cameo, Banner, and the US branch of Pathe (makers of Pathe and Perfect) in July, 1929, became the American Record Corporation. From that point until 1938, Scranton also added Brunswick, Melotone, and Vocalion to their production schedule. In 1946, the company was acquired by Capitol (who continued to produce Capitol Records through the end of the vinyl era).

By the mid-1930s, the city population had swelled to over 140,000 due to the extensive growth of the mining and silk textile industries. World War II created a great demand for energy, which was satisfied by expanded strip mining operations throughout the area.

The end of an era (1946–1984)
After World War II, coal lost favor to oil and natural gas. While some U.S. cities prospered in the post-war boom, the fortunes and population of Scranton (and the rest of Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties) began to diminish. Coal production and rail traffic declined rapidly throughout the 1950s. In 1952, the Laurel Line ceased passenger service. The Scranton Transit Company, whose trolleys had given the city its nickname, transferred all operations to buses as the 1954 holiday season approached. In 1955, some eastern and southern parts of the city were destroyed by the floods of Hurricane Diane, and 80 lives were lost. The NYO&W Railroad, which depended heavily on its Scranton branch for freight traffic, was abandoned in 1957.

The Knox Mine Disaster of January 1959 all but erased the mining industry in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The event eliminated thousands of jobs as the waters of the Susquehanna River flooded the mines. The DL&W Railroad, nearly bankrupt by the drop in coal traffic and the effects of Hurricane Diane, merged with the Erie Railroad in 1960. Scranton had been the hub of its operations until the Erie Lackawanna merger, when it was no longer needed in this capacity; it was another severe blow to the labor market. Mine subsidence was a spreading problem in the city as pillar supports in abandoned mines began to fail; cave-ins sometimes consumed entire blocks of homes. The area was then scarred by abandoned coal mining structures, strip mines, and massive culm dumps. During the 1960s and 1970s, the silk and other textile industries shrunk as jobs moved south or overseas.

There were some small bright spots during the era. In 1962, businessman Alex Grass opened his first "Thrif D Discount Center" drugstore on Lackawanna Avenue in downtown Scranton. The 17 by store, an immediate success, was the progenitor of the Rite Aid drugstore chain.

During the 1970s and 1980s, many downtown storefronts and theaters became vacant as suburban shopping malls became the dominant venues for shopping and entertainment.

Stabilization and restoration (1985–present)
There has been an emphasis on revitalization since the mid-1980s. Local government and much of the community at large have adopted a renewed interest in the city's buildings and history. Aged and empty properties are being redesigned and marketed as tourist attractions. The Steamtown National Historic Site captures the area's once-prominent position in the railroad industry. The former DL&W train station was restored as the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel. The Electric City Trolley Museum was created next to the DL&W yards that the Steamtown NHS occupies. Other attractions responsible for recent popularity and favorable attention to the Scranton area include the Snö Mountain ski resort (formerly Montage Mountain), the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, AHL affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (formerly the Red Barons), AAA affiliate of the New York Yankees, and their PNC Field, and the Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain concert venue.

Geography
Scranton is located at °N, °W (41.410629, −75.667411). Its total area of 25.4 square miles (65.9 km²) includes 25.2 square miles (65.3 km²) of land and 0.2 square miles (0.5 km²) of water, according to the United States Census Bureau. Scranton is drained by the Lackawanna River.

Center City is about 750 feet (229 m) above sea level, although the hilly city's inhabited portions range about from 650 to 1400 ft. The city is flanked by mountains to the east and west whose elevations range from 1900 to 2100 ft.

Climate
Scranton lies in a humid continental climate zone (Köppen Dfa). It features four distinct seasons, where summers are typically warm (with occasional heatwaves), fall and spring are generally mild, and winter is cold and snowy. Precipitation is almost uniformly distributed throughout the year.

January lows average 18.5 °F and highs average 34.1 °F. The lowest officially recorded temperature was -21 °F in 1994. July lows average 61.5 °F and highs average 82.6 °F. The highest temperature on record was 103 °F in 1936. Early fall and mid-winter are generally driest, with February being the driest month with only 2.08 in of average precipitation.

Snowfall is variable, with some winters bringing light snow and others bringing numerous snowstorms. Average snowfall is 47.1 in per year, with the months of January and February receiving the highest at just over 13 in and 10 in each. Rainfall is generally spread throughout the year, with 10 to 13 wet days per month, at an average annual rate of 37.56 in.

Neighborhoods
Scranton is broken into five major sections: West Side, South Side, the Hill Section, North Scranton, and Downtown. As with most cities and neighborhoods, boundaries can be ambiguous and are not always uniformly defined.

West Scranton (West Side) (shown in orange) is made up of a group of smaller neighborhoods including Hyde Park, West Mountain (everything north of Keyser Ave.), the Keyser Valley, Bellevue, and some of Tripp's Park, which straddles both West and North Scranton. North Scranton (shown in blue) contains the neighborhoods of Providence, Tripp's Park, Bull's Head, the Plot, upper and lower Green Ridge, and Pine Brook which is between downtown Scranton and the Green Ridge area.

The Upper Green Ridge area is the wealthiest of the neighborhoods, which extends into the neighboring borough of Dunmore. It was here and in parts of the Hill Section that the mansions built by former coal barons still stand. The Hill Section is the nicest section by far. There are beautiful trees and also Nay Aug Park. South Scranton (South Side) has the Flats, East Mountain (everything east of Interstate 81) and Minooka, which is a neighboorhood in the southwestern part of the city.

Adjacent municipalities

 * South Abington Township (north and northwest)
 * Dickson City (north)
 * Throop (northeast)
 * Dunmore (east)
 * Roaring Brook Township (east and southeast)
 * Spring Brook Township (south)
 * Moosic (south)
 * Taylor (west and southwest)
 * Ransom Township (west)
 * Newton Township (northwest)

Demographics
As of the 2010 census, there were 76,089 people, 30,069 households, and 18,124 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,006/mi² (1,161/km²). There were 33,853 housing units at an average density of 1,342/mi² (518/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 84.11% White, 5.45% African American, 0.23% Native American, 2.98% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 4.69% from other races, and 2.49% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race make up 9.90% of the population.

There were 30,069 households out of which 24.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.8% were married couples living together, 13.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.1% were non-families. The city had 36.7% of its households with single occupancy and 18.1% whose individual was aged at least 65. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 3.01.

The population's age is distributed with 20.8% under 18, 12.3% from 18 to 24, 25.5% from 25 to 44, 21.2% from 45 to 64, and 20.1% at least 65. The median age was 39. For every 100 females there were 87.0 males. For every 100 females aged at least 18, there were 83.0 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $28,805, and the median income for a family was $41,642. Males had a median income of $30,829 versus $21,858 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,174. Found below the poverty line are 15.0% of the population, 10.7% of families, 18.9% of those under age 18 and 12.0% of those at least age 65.

The local dialect of American English is "Northeast Pennsylvania English", at least for the older generations of Scranton residents.

As of the 2006 American Community Survey the average family size is 2.95. Of the population that's 25 years old and over 83.3% of them have graduated from High School. 18.7% of them have a Bachelor's degree or higher. In labor force (population 16 years and over) 57.6% of them work. The per capita income (in 2006 inflation-adjusted dollars) is $17,187.

Fire department
The Bureau of Fire was incorporated as a paid service in 1901. It is a full-time service consisting of about 130 firefighters. Its headquarters is on Mulberry Street in Central City. The fire department has eight fire stations, which are located in the city's South Side, Central City, the Pinebrook section, West Side, North Scranton, Bull's Head, the Petersburg section, and on East Mountain. It has 9 firefighting vehicles, including six engines, two trucks, and one rescue engine. Due to recent changes in staffing in early 2011 by the mayor, Engine Company #9 was closed & at times some remaining companies are left unmanned due to lack of manpower

Police
The Scranton Police Patrol Division is broken down into three shifts. Police headquarters is located on South Washington Avenue in downtown Scranton. Special Units include Arson Investigations, Auto Theft Task Force, Child Abuse Investigation, Crime Scene Investigation, Criminal Investigation, Juvenile Unit, Special Investigations Unit, Canine Unit, Community Development and Highway Unit.

Emergency medical services
Emergency medical services are provided by two private companies, Community Life Support and Lackawanna Ambulance. The city requires that only Advanced Life Support units respond to emergencies, which include a crew of a Paramedic and an EMT. Ambulances are dispatched by an advanced GPS system which allows the 911 dispatcher to send the closest ambulance to the scene of the emergency.

Media
The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area is the 54th-largest U.S. television market. Local television stations include:
 * WNEP-TV ABC affiliate
 * WBRE-TV NBC affiliate
 * WYOU-TV CBS affiliate
 * WVIA-TV PBS affiliate
 * WOLF-TV Fox affiliate
 * WQMY MyNetworkTV affiliate
 * WSWB CW affiliate
 * WQPX ION Television affiliate

Local public-access television and government-access television (GATV) programming is aired on Comcast cable TV channels 19 and 21.

Scranton hosts the headquarters of Times-Shamrock Communications, which publishes the city's major newspaper, The Times-Tribune, a Pulitzer Prize-winning broadsheet daily founded in 1870. Times-Shamrock also publishes the Electric City, a weekly entertainment tabloid and The Citizens' Voice, a daily tabloid based in Wilkes-Barre. The Scranton Post is a weekly general interest broadsheet. The Times Leader is a daily paper that primarily covers Wilkes-Barre and also publishes in Scranton, and the Weekender is a Wilkes-Barre-based entertainment tabloid with distribution in Scranton. There are several other print publications with a more narrow focus, including the Union News, La Voz Latina, and Melanian News.

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre radio market is ranked #71 in the country by Arbitron.

Sports
Scranton's professional sports date to 1887, when the minor-league Scranton Indians became the city's first professional baseball team. Many more followed, including teams in the Pennsylvania State League, Eastern League, Atlantic League, New York State League, New York-Penn League and the New York-Pennsylvania League. As of 2011, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (formerly the Red Barons) of the International League play their home games at PNC Field in Moosic, south of Scranton.

In football, the Scranton Eagles, a semi-pro/minor league team, dominate their Empire Football League, having won 11 championships. The former arena football Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers, who played eight seasons at the Mohegan Sun Arena (formerly Wachovia Arena) in Wilkes-Barre Township had made the playoffs in their last six years of existence and contended for the ArenaCup VIII in 2007 and the ArenaCup X in 2009, their final year, but lost both times. Another semi-pro/minor league team the North East Pennsylvania Miners of the Big North East Football Federation (BNEFF) recently started play in the area in 2007.

Scranton previously had pro basketball teams, including the Scranton Apollos, Scranton Miners and Scranton Zappers. Syracuse University men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim played for the Miners before turning to coaching. Starting in 2012, the city will be home to a currently-unnamed expansion team in the Premier Basketball League.

Professional ice hockey arrived in 1999 when the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League began play at the Mohegan Sun Arena (formerly Wachovia Arena) in Wilkes-Barre Township. The team won conference championships in 2001, 2004, and 2008.

Starting in 2012, professional lacrosse will come to the area in the form of the North American Lacrosse League's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Shamrocks.

Landmarks and attractions
Many of Scranton's attractions celebrate its heritage as an industrial center in iron and coal production as well as its ethnic diversity. The Scranton Iron Furnaces are remnants of the city's founding industry and of the Scranton family's Lackawanna Steel Company. The Steamtown National Historic Site seeks to preserve the history of steam locomotives. The Electric City Trolley Museum preserves and operates pieces of Pennsylvania streetcar history. The Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour at McDade Park is open for those who desire to learn about the history of mining and railroads in the Scranton area. The tours are conducted inside a part of a former working mine. The DL&W Passenger Station is now a Radisson hotel with dining and banquet and conference facilities called Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel.

Museums in Scranton include the Everhart Museum in Nay Aug Park, which houses a collection of "natural history, science and art" exhibits and the Houdini Museum features films, exhibits, and a stage show. It is housed in a unique, century-old building. Terence Powderly's house, still a private dwelling, is one of the city's many historic buildings and the city's other National Historic Landmark besides Steamtown. Tripp House was built by the Tripp family in 1771 and is the oldest building in the city.

The city's religious history is evident in the Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Ann which draws thousands of pilgrims to its annual novena and St. Stanislaus Cathedral which is the national seat of the Polish National Catholic Church in North America. The history of the founding of this denomination is intricately tied with Polish immigration to Scranton in the late 19th century.

Since the 1970s, Scranton has been the home to La Festa Italiana, a three day Italian festival, which takes place every Labor Day weekend on the courthouse square. The festival originally took place around Columbus Day, but was moved to Labor Day because of the cold weather that Scranton receives in October.

Scranton's large Irish population is represented in the annual Saint Patrick's Day Parade, first held in 1862. It is organized by the St. Patrick's Day Parade Association of Lackawanna County and is now the nation's fourth largest in attendance and second largest in per capita attendance. Over 8,000 people participate on the Saturday before Saint Patrick's Day including floats, bagpipe players, high school bands and Irish groups. In 2008, crowds estimated as high as 150,000 people congregated downtown for the event.

For recreational opportunities, there is Snö Mountain Ski Resort (formerly called "Montage Mountain"), which rivals the numerous resorts of the Poconos in popularity and offers a relatively comprehensive range of difficulty levels. The 26.2 mi Steamtown Marathon has been held each October since 1996 and finishes in downtown Scranton. Nay Aug park is the largest of several parks in Scranton and was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Central Park in Manhattan, New York City. The city is the home of Electric Theatre Company, a professional Equity theatre with a nine month season.

The Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain, a partially covered amphitheater seating 17,500, is Scranton's primary concert venue. In the summer months, musical artists ranging from James Taylor to Dave Matthews Band perform. Scranton Cultural Center at the Masonic Temple is an impressive piece of architecture which houses several auditoriums and a large ballroom. It plays host to the Northeast Philharmonic, Broadway Theater and other touring performances.

Cooper's Seafood House, formerly the Erie Train Station, has been in business for over sixty years on North Washington Avenue.

In popular culture
The city is the home of the fictional Dunder-Mifflin paper company, the setting of NBC sitcom The Office. The program frequently refers to things in and around of Scranton, including the Mall at Steamtown, Cooper's Seafood House, Farley's Pub, Poor Richard's Pub, Alfredo's Pizza Cafe, The Bog, Montage Mountain, The Scranton Anthracite Museum, and Lake Wallenpaupack. The exterior of the Penn Paper & Supply at 215 Vine Street appears in the opening titles of the show. Other appearances in pop culture include:
 * The city is imagined as a member of the class of interstellar Okies in James Blish's 1962 novel, A Life for the Stars. Scranton, in 2273, leaves an impoverished Earth behind, under Spindizzy drive.
 * The 1973 Pulitzer Prize– and Tony Award–winning play That Championship Season by Jason Miller was based on the fictionalized lives of Scranton's 1957 state basketball champions. Miller wrote and directed the 1982 film, in which all exterior scenes were filmed in Scranton.
 * The city is the subject of George Inness's 1855 painting, The Lackawanna Valley, which hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
 * Harry Chapin's 1974 song "30,000 Pounds of Bananas" dramatizes the wreck of a truck carrying bananas on March 26, 1965, just outside downtown Scranton.
 * The Travel Channel's Magic Road Trip program featured the city's Houdini Museum as one of the world's top magic attractions.
 * The 2010 film Blue Valentine was filmed in the Scranton area; the University of Scranton campus and downtown Scranton appear in various scenes.

Transportation
The main highways that serve Scranton are Interstate 81, which runs north to Binghamton, New York and Ontario and south to Harrisburg and Tennessee; Interstate 84, which runs east to Milford and New England; Interstate 380, which runs southeast to Mount Pocono and Interstate 80 east to New York City and west to San Francisco; Interstate 476/Pennsylvania Turnpike Northeast Extension, which runs south to Allentown and Philadelphia; U.S. Route 6, which runs east to Carbondale and parallel to I-84 to New England and west to Erie; and U.S. Route 11, which runs parallel to I-81.

Scranton's provider of public transportation is the County of Lackawanna Transit System (COLTS). COLTS buses provide extensive service within the city and more limited service that reaches in all directions to Carbondale, Daleville, Pittston, and Fleetville.

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport is located in nearby Avoca. The airport is serviced by American Airlines, Continental, Delta, United, and US Airways.

Martz Trailways and Greyhound Lines provide coach bus transportation from its downtown station to New York City, Philadelphia and other points in the northeast.

Private operators such as Posten Taxi and McCarthy Flowered Cabs service the Scranton area. They are hired by telephone through central dispatch and cannot be hailed on the street as in larger cities.

Railroads
Rail transportation plays an important part in the city's history and continues to have an impact today. The Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Rail Authority is a bi-county creation of both Lackawanna County and Monroe County to oversee the use of common rail freight lines in Northeastern Pennsylvania, including one formerly owned by Conrail running from Scranton, through the Pocono Mountains towards New Jersey and the New York City market. One of its primary objectives is to re-establish rail passenger service via New Jersey Transit between Scranton and Hoboken, New Jersey by way of the New Jersey Cut-Off, with connecting service into Manhattan, New York.

The Canadian Pacific Railway (Delaware and Hudson division) operates the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W) line between Scranton and Binghamton, with frequent through trains often jointly operated with Norfolk Southern Railway. The Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad services the former DL&W Keyser Valley branch in the city.

The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad, as designated operator of county-owned rail lines, oversees the former Delaware and Hudson line from Scranton north to Carbondale, the former DL&W line east to the Delaware Water Gap and the former Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad third-rail interurban streetcar line south to Montage Mountain, Moosic. These are the lines hosting the seasonal passenger trains of both the Steamtown National Historic Site and the Electric City Trolley Museum and now under the jurisdiction of the new Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Rail Authority.

Primary and secondary education
The city's public schools are operated by the Scranton School District (SSD), which serves almost 10,000 students. The city has two public high schools for grades 9–12: Scranton High School just northwest of the downtown and West Scranton High School located on the West Side of the city. The district also has three public middle schools for grades 6–8: Northeast Intermediate, South Scranton Intermediate, and West Scranton Intermediate. In addition, SSD maintains 12 public elementary schools for grades K–5.

Scranton has two private high schools: Scranton Preparatory School, a private Jesuit school, and Yeshiva Bais Moshe, an Ultra Orthodox school. Holy Cross High School in Dunmore is a Catholic high school operated by the Diocese of Scranton that serves students in Scranton and the surrounding area. The diocese also operates several private elementary schools in the city. Protestant schools that serve the Scranton area include Abington Christian Academy, Canaan Christian Academy, The Geneva School, Summit Academy, and Triboro Christian Academy. The Pennsylvania Department of Education provides oversight for the Scranton School for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children. Penn Foster High School, a distance education high school, is headquartered in Scranton.

Scranton, West Scranton, Scranton Prep and Holy Cross all compete athletically in Pennsylvania's Lackawanna League which is a part of District 2 of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association.

Colleges and universities
The city hosts five colleges and universities: Lackawanna College, Marywood University, The University of Scranton, Johnson College, and The Commonwealth Medical College and one technical school, Fortis Institute. The Pennsylvania State University operates a Commonwealth Campus north of the city, in the borough of Dunmore, where ITT Tech is also located. Penn Foster Career School, a distance education vocational school, is headquartered in Scranton. Other colleges within 30 mi of Scranton include Baptist Bible College & Seminary and Keystone College.

Libraries
The Lackawanna County Library System administers the libraries in Scranton, including the Albright Memorial Library and the Lackawanna County Children's Library. As of 2008, Scranton libraries serve more than 96,000 people and have a circulation of over 547,000.

Politicians

 * Joseph Biden – current Vice President of the United States, former U.S. Senator from Delaware
 * Frank Carlucci – United States Secretary of Defense from 1987 until 1989
 * Robert P. Casey – 42nd Governor of Pennsylvania
 * Robert P. Casey, Jr. – current senior U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania
 * Parents of Hillary Rodham Clinton – former First Lady, U.S. Senator from NY and current U.S. Secretary of State
 * Hermann Eilts – former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Bangladesh
 * Terence V. Powderly – head of the Knights of Labor from 1879 until 1893
 * Robert Reich – professor, author, and political commentator, United States Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, from 1993 to 1997
 * William Scranton – 38th Governor of Pennsylvania and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
 * William Scranton III – served as the Republican Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1987

Arts

 * Walter Bobbie – theatre director and choreographer
 * Alan Brown – filmmaker
 * Sonny Burke – big band leader
 * Mark Cohen – photographer
 * Bob Degen – jazz pianist
 * Dorothy Dietrich – stage magician and escapologist, owner of the Houdini Museum
 * Cy Endfield – screenwriter, film director, theatre director, author, magician and inventor
 * Jane Jacobs – writer and activist with primary interest in communities and urban planning and decay
 * Gloria Jean – singer and actress
 * Jean Kerr – author and playwright
 * Michael Patrick King – writer, director and producer for television shows and movies
 * Michael Kuchwara – theater critic, columnist and journalist
 * Gershon Legman – cultural critic and folklorist
 * Bradford Louryk – multi-award winning theater artist and actor
 * Judy McGrath – television executive, CEO of MTV Networks
 * W.S. Merwin – poet, 17th United States Poet Laureate
 * Jason Miller – actor and playwright
 * Jay Parini – writer and academic
 * Cynthia Rothrock – martial artist and actress specializing in martial arts films
 * Lizabeth Scott – actress and singer, widely known for her film noir roles
 * Melanie Smith – actress
 * Thomas L. Thomas – Welsh-American baritone concert singer
 * Ned Washington – lyricist
 * Lauren Weisberger – novelist and author of the 2003 bestseller The Devil Wears Prada
 * Motionless in White – gothic metalcore band

Sports

 * P.J. Carlesimo – professional basketball coach and television broadcaster
 * Nestor Chylak – Baseball Hall of Famer and American League umpire from 1954 to 1978
 * Joe Collins – Major League Baseball player
 * Jim Crowley – American football player and coach, one-fourth of the University of Notre Dame's legendary "Four Horsemen" backfield
 * Paul Foytack – Major League Baseball pitcher
 * Charlie Gelbert – Major League Baseball player
 * Cosmo Iacavazzi – college and American Football League player
 * Edgar Jones – college and professional football player
 * Ralph Lomma – popularized miniature golf in the mid 1950s
 * Matt McGloin – college football player
 * Gerry McNamara – basketball player
 * Mike Munchak – current head coach of the Tennessee Titans of the NFL, former college and National Football League player; member of NFL Hall of Fame
 * Brothers Jim and Steve O'Neill – Major League Baseball players
 * Jackie Paterson – Scottish boxer
 * Parents of NFL coach Sean Payton
 * Tim Ruddy – college and National Football League player
 * Marc Spindler – college and National Football League player
 * Brian Stann – Mixed martial artist currently fighting in the UFC, former WEC Light Heavyweight MMA champion
 * John A. Walsh – executive vice president and executive editor of ESPN Inc.

Other notable people who lived in Scranton

 * Bishop Joseph Bambera – 10th and current Bishop of Scranton
 * Mamie Cadden – Irish midwife and backstreet abortionist
 * Lisa Caputo – current Executive VP, Global Marketing and Corporate Affairs for Citigroup
 * Howard Gardner – developmental psychologist and professor
 * Alex Grass – businessman and lawyer who founded Rite Aid
 * Jeffrey Bruce Klein – investigative journalist who co-founded Mother Jones (magazine) in 1976
 * Gino J. Merli – American soldier, and recipient of the Medal of Honor during World War II
 * Bishop Robert C. Morlino – 4th and current Bishop of Madison
 * Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor – 11th bishop (8th archbishop) of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, 7th Bishop of Scranton
 * Bill O'Reilly – television host, author, syndicated columnist and political commentator
 * Karen Ann Quinlan – important person in the history of the right to die controversy
 * Hugh Ellsworth Rodham – father of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
 * B.F. Skinner – behaviorist, author, inventor, social philosopher, and poet
 * Mel Ziegler – cofounded with his wife two companies, The Republic of Tea and Banana Republic

Sister cities
Scranton has three official sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International:
 * 🇮🇪 – Ballina, Co. Mayo, Republic of Ireland
 * 🇷🇺 – Balakovo, Russia
 * 🇸🇰 – Trnava, Slovakia