Rotogravure: A Hazleton History

03/19/2026

A New York Times investigation this week found that civil rights and union icon Cesar Chavez abused girls in the 1960s and 1970s. Here's Chavez speaking at the Lattimer Massacre Memorial on Sept. 10, 1972. Chavez was director of the United Farm Workers. On Sept. 10, 1897, at this spot sheriff's deputies opened fire on striking immigrant miners who were marching to Lattimer. At least 19 were killed. In the 1970s Chavez built a reputation fighting for immigrant rights and trying to open UFW branches in states outside California. Among others on the stage in this photo are U.S. Rep. Daniel J. Flood, left, and on the right Gloria Chucot and Carlo DeMarco of the local United Labor Council that was instrumental in erecting the monument.

03/17/2026

Revelers celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in 1883 with a parade in front of Hazleton’s St. Gabriel’s Church. The Hazleton Sentinel observed that day: "Today is St. Patrick's day, and no doubt will be a big day for business men and saloons." It was. Trainloads of people arrived in town from surrounding patch towns and locals walked to the celebration. The Sentinel reported that "by noon our streets presented one dense mass of moving humanity, all attired in their best." The Rev. T.J. Marron of Audenried, delivered a sermon on the past and future of Ireland. At noon, a parade headed by Chief Marshall Patrick Burke and his aides, Thomas Gormley of the Good Will Association and Dennis Boyle of Ebervale's St. Patrick's Society headed down Wyoming Street. The Good Will Association later held a ball at Hazle Hall. That day incidentally was the last day of publication for the Hazleton’s Daily Bulletin, which was sold to the Sentinel. Bulletin publisher George Mauey, who would go on to work in the Sentinel's job department, told his readers: "We have struggled hard to make the Bulletin a success, but the business is overdone in Hazleton and we are forced to succumb to the inevitable. We heartily thank all who have patronized us and would most respectfully ask them to continue their patronage to the Hazleton Sentinel.”
The town's other paper, the Plain Speaker, noted, "while we have often crossed swords with the Bulletin in journalistic combat still we have never entertained aught but feelings of friendship for its late proprietor." You can see all,our posts at rotogravurehazleton.wordpress.com

03/17/2026

03/03/2026

The Valley Hotel was one of Hazleton's premiere boarding houses in the second half of the 19th century, but we've never seen a decent photo of it. Today Rotogravure offers a rendering that we believe accurately shows what the West Broad Street building looked like. The colors may be wrong but the structure shown here should be close to reality. We've based this rendering on the poor-quality black and white picture included with this post, along with glimpses of parts of the building gleaned from a couple of other poor-quality photos. The black-and-white image, the only picture we've ever seen that shows the entire hotel, appeared in an 1897 advertisement in the Hazleton City Directory and was printed at least twice in Hazleton newspapers. It's the only depiction we've ever seen that shows the entire hotel. The hotel, built in the 1860s and initially known as the Farmer’s Hotel, was located on the south side of Broad Street between Church and Vine streets. Many celebrities stayed there around the turn of the 20th century and its bar was a popular watering hole for theater people who performed at the Grand Opera House next door. In the 1920s the Hazleton YWCA bought the building and operated there until 1929 when the Y built a new facility on the site. During the 1880s the hotel was owned by Lewis Frederick, who was wounded in the battle of Gettysburg. He was killed in January 1884 when he fell from a sleigh while hauling ice. The hotel was home to a number of businesses in the late 1800s. William Charles manufactured harnesses in the basement beginning in 1880.The basement also was home to the Slusser Brothers meat and grocery business in the '80s, as well as the Smink and Fey painting business and te Great American Stock Co., which sold horses from stables there. Gen. J.P. Gobin set up headquarters at the hotel when he commanded troops sent here after the Lattimer Massacre in 1897. Two towering union organizers for miners -- Mother Jones and John Mitchell -- stayed at the hotel as they tried to rally miners at the turn of the century. Mitchell, founder of the United Mine Workers of America, maintained an office in the hotel during the anthracite strike of 1900. Carrie Nation, the firebrand temperance leader, stopped at the Valley for four hours on Dec. 1, 1903 and met with reporters there on her way from Girardville to Berwick.

02/25/2026

Broad and Wyoming, looking northwest, 1924.

02/16/2026

Winter usually means snow and ice in the Hazleton area and by March the streets are usually black and dirty thanks to the "anti-skid" material road crews deposit after snowstorms. That’s the way it was on Broad Street in March, 1947, as this photo shows. But at least folks could escape to the Capitol Theatre where they could catch Barbara Stanwyck and Ray Milland in "California." That same week, Stanwyck was also starring down the street at the Grand, where "Stella Dallas" was the feature. The Feeley was offering live vaudeville performers, including the Three Cabin Sisters, musical comedy dance stars Lloyd & Willis, "wire artists" Evers & Dolores and Naomi Ray & Co. in "Ballet Laughs." Prof. John "Mr. Music" Stanziola was leading the theater orchestra. The Feeley also was showing a movie called "Shadowed" with Anita Louise. Other movie choices were available at The Diamond and the Alton on Alter Street, the Family at Broad and Wyoming and the Key in West Hazleton. The only theater remaining today from that group is the Key, known as the Cinema and Drafthouse.

01/06/2026

Sears anchored the Hazleton Shopping Center for decades. Today only a handful of Sears stores remain.

12/25/2025

12/18/2025

We’ve seen many photos of the iconic Van Wickle Gate at Brown University in recent days. The gates were funded through a bequest from Brown graduate Augustus Van Wickle, a coal baron and co-founder of Hazleton National Bank. Van Wickle, who was married to Ario Pardee’s daughter, was killed in 1898 in a hunting accident in Hazleton. Somehow, his shotgun accidentally discharged into his chest.