The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Pittston

PITTSTON, a borough of Luzerne co., Pennsylvania, on the E. bank of the Susquehanna, just below the mouth of the Lackawanna, and on the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg, the Lehigh and Susquehanna, and the Lehigh Valley railroads, 7 m. N. E. of Wilkesbarre, 10 m. S. W. of Scranton, and 105 N. by W. of Philadelphia; pop. in 1870, 6,760; in 1875, about 15,000, including West Pittston and immediate vicinity. It is in the heart of the Wyoming anthracite region, and is the seat of the Pennsylvania coal company's operations, the shipments amounting to from 2,500,000 to 3,000,000 tons a year. It has an important trade, and the abundance and cheapness of coal give it admirable facilities for manufactures. The principal establishments are a knitting mill, a foundery and machine shop, two planing mills, pottery and terra cotta works, water works, gas works, and extensive stove works. The borough is connected with West Pittston, on the opposite bank, by two fine bridges, and has a street railroad, an opera house, three banks with an aggregate capital of $900,000, good schools, two weekly newspapers, a public library, and 12 churches, embracing nearly all denominations.