# Dallas, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1960s

> A growing Back Mountain borough and township lived between farms, commuting roads, Catholic college life, weekly news, and fast suburban building.

- Place: Dallas, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (41.336, -75.963)
- Years: 1960 to 1969
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/dallas-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1960s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Dallas%2C%20Luzerne%20County%2C%20Pennsylvania&at=41.3362,-75.9633&year=1965

## Looking around

You stand in the Back Mountain, where Dallas Borough sits inside a wider Dallas Township[1][2] and the road drops toward Wyoming Valley. Around the borough are township neighborhoods growing fast after 1950[3], with older farm country still close enough for feed mills, apples, firewood, tractors, and septic tanks to appear in the weekly classifieds. On Lehman Avenue is The Dallas Post plant[4], issuing a Thursday paper that calls itself a community institution. On Huntsville Road stands the Back Mountain Memorial Library[7], born from a women’s-club drive and a local auction. On the hill is College Misericordia[8][9], still a Catholic women’s college, with new buildings and graduate study. Schoolchildren are tied to Dallas High School, opened in 1961[11]. By 1967 local officials are planning a public sewer authority[5][6], a sign that wells, septic tanks, and scattered houses are giving way to denser suburbia.

## Work: Farms beside suburbs

The classifieds still carry farm machinery, apples, firewood, septic tanks, and used cars[12], but the township is also becoming a suburban community near the borough[3]. Work and trade spill down the road toward Kingston and Wilkes-Barre.

## Faith: Catholic hilltop presence

The most visible religious institution is College Misericordia[8][9], a Sisters of Mercy college on the Dallas hill. In the 1960s it is still an all-women’s Catholic college[9].

## Law & power: Small governments, new systems

Local power sits in borough and township boards, but by 1967 they cooperate to form a municipal authority for public sewer service[5][6]. By 1969 the borough also accepts county-wide planning[14] as growth becomes too large for purely village habits.

## In the air: Women, service, expansion

College Misericordia brings higher education and public questions into a small community: it is large among Catholic women’s colleges[10] and has begun graduate study by the early 1960s. The library drive shows another civic ideal, with local women raising $10,600 to buy a permanent home[7].

## Home & table: Households on septic ground

Before the later treatment plant, household life still depends on wells, septic systems, and local contractors; a 1966 ad offers septic-tank cleaning at $17.50 up to 1,000 gallons[12]. New suburban houses are spreading into what the township later remembered as rural farming country becoming suburban[3].

## Money: Ten-cent paper, used cars

A Dallas Post costs 10 cents for a single copy and $4.00 for a year[4]. A 1966 shopper sees apples at $1.00 per bushel, a 1959 Volkswagen for $500, and a used Oldsmobile for $75[12].

## Who lived here: Back Mountain growth

The place is part of the wider Back Mountain communities[1] rather than an isolated borough. The township’s population rises from 4,410 in 1960 to 5,747 in 1970[3], a sign of incoming households and suburban pressure.

## Roads & news: Thursday paper, local world

News arrives through The Dallas Post, published every Thursday morning on Lehman Avenue[4]. Its pages mix school, church, sports, classifieds, and community disputes for the Back Mountain.

## Year by year

- **1960** (here): College Misericordia began offering graduate study in cooperation with the University of Scranton.[10]
- **1961** (here): Dallas High School opened with classroom technology later remembered as including reel-to-reel tape machines.[11]
- **1962** (here): Howard Risley, long-time editor of The Dallas Post, died.[13]
- **1963** (the country): President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, a national shock that would have filled local papers and radios here.
- **1965** (the country): The Voting Rights Act became federal law, part of the civil-rights conflict that people here would have followed through newspapers and television.
- **1967** (here): The Back Mountain Municipal Authority was incorporated to bring public sewer service to Dallas Borough, Dallas Township, and Kingston Township.[5][6]
- **1968** (nearby): Harveys Lake became a borough in the Back Mountain.[1]
- **1969** (the world): Apollo 11 landed humans on the Moon, an event people here could watch on television in a decade when color TV service was locally advertised.[12]

## What the sources say

- Dallas Borough and Dallas Township were separate municipalities in Luzerne County, and the map point lies in the Back Mountain region rather than in the city of Wilkes-Barre. (from the sources)[1][2]
- Dallas Township grew from 3,181 people in 1950 to 4,410 in 1960 and 5,747 in 1970. (from the sources)[3]
- A 2015 township plan describes Dallas Township’s postwar change from rural farming origins toward a suburban community, with denser urban-like development near Dallas Borough. (from the sources)[3]
- The Back Mountain was commonly understood as including Dallas, Franklin, Jackson, Kingston, Lake, and Lehman townships, with Dallas and Harveys Lake as boroughs. (from the sources)[1]
- The Dallas Post was a weekly newspaper published Thursday mornings from its plant on Lehman Avenue, Dallas; in 1960 a yearly subscription cost $4.00 and a single copy cost 10 cents. (from the sources)[4]
- The Back Mountain Municipal Authority was incorporated in March 1967 by Kingston Township, Dallas Township, and Dallas Borough to provide public sewer service. (from the sources)[5][6]
- The authority’s name was changed in March 1969 to Dallas Area Municipal Authority, but construction of the treatment plant lasted until 1972, after this decade. (inferred)[5]
- The Back Mountain Memorial Library was organized after the Dallas Women’s Club fund drive raised $10,600 to buy the Ryman home, and its collection reached 30,000 volumes within a year. (inferred)[7]
- College Misericordia in Dallas was founded by the Religious Sisters of Mercy in 1924 as Luzerne County’s first four-year institution of higher learning. (from the sources)[8][9]
- College Misericordia remained an all-women’s Catholic college in the 1960s and did not become coeducational until 1979. (from the sources)[9]
- By 1962 College Misericordia had 1,103 students including extension students, making it the sixth largest Catholic women’s college in the United States, according to a Congressional Record tribute. (from the sources)[10]
- Dallas High School opened in 1961, and later reminiscence noted reel-to-reel tape machines as part of its early classroom technology. (from the sources)[11]
- A 1966 Dallas Post classifieds page shows everyday local commerce: mobile homes on Memorial Highway, farm machinery, apples at $1.00 per bushel, a 1959 Volkswagen for $500, and septic-tank cleaning at $17.50 up to 1,000 gallons. (from the sources)[12]
- The same 1966 page advertised color television service, curb service at the Y in Dallas, fried chicken, French fries, beef burgers, and shakes. (from the sources)[12]
- Dallas Post editor Howard Risley died in 1962; his widow Myra Risley sold the newspaper in 1968 to Henry Null of Clarks Summit. (from the sources)[13]
- The Back Mountain Memorial Library Auction, begun by local library supporters, was still tied to the Risley barn on Lehman Avenue into the 1960s. (from the sources)[13]
- Harveys Lake, a nearby Back Mountain resort community, was incorporated as a borough in 1968. (from the sources)[1]
- Dallas Borough in 1969 delegated planning responsibilities under Pennsylvania Act 241 to Luzerne County for county-wide planning. (from the sources)[14]
- The exact 1960 population of Dallas Borough is not readily visible in the opened online sources, although the surrounding township’s decade growth is documented. (not known)
- No opened source gives a street-by-street description of Dallas houses in the 1960s. (not known)

## Sources

1. Back Mountain. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_Mountain
2. Dallas, Pennsylvania. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas%2C_Pennsylvania
3. Dallas Township Comprehensive Plan, Population Profile. Dallas Township, 2015. https://www.dallastwp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CompPlanFULLTEXT2015.pdf
4. The Dallas Post, March 24, 1960, page 2. Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive, 1960. https://panewsarchive.k8s.libraries.psu.edu/lccn/sn87080317/1960-03-24/ed-1/seq-2/ocr/
5. History. Dallas Area Municipal Authority. https://damaonline.org/history/
6. Township of Dallas Code, Chapter 5: Authorities, Municipal. eCode360 / Township of Dallas. https://ecode360.com/8782452
7. History. Back Mountain Memorial Library. https://backmt.luzernelibraries.org/history/
8. History of the Presidency. Misericordia University. https://www.misericordia.edu/about/office-of-the-president/history-of-the-presidency
9. History of Misericordia University, 1924–2016. Misericordia University, 2016. https://www.misericordia.edu/uploaded/documents/offices/marketing/mu_research_brochure_15_16.pdf
10. Congressional Record — Senate, 1962. U.S. Government Publishing Office, 1962. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1962-pt14/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1962-pt14-10-3.pdf
11. ‘Beauty’ Greets Students. Times Leader Archive, 2008. https://archive.timesleader.com/article/1177144/beauty-greets-students
12. The Dallas Post, March 10, 1966, page 8. Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive, 1966. https://panewsarchive.k8s.libraries.psu.edu/lccn/sn87080317/1966-03-10/ed-1/seq-8/ocr/
13. Still going strong at 125. Times Leader Archive, 2015. https://archive.timesleader.com/article/393342/news-news-1246216-still-going-strong-at-125
14. Dallas Borough Code, Appendix D: Governmental and Intergovernmental Affairs. American Legal Publishing / Dallas Borough. https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/dallasborough/latest/dallasb_pa/0-0-0-6263

## The same place in other decades

- [Dallas in the 1950s](https://yorehistory.com/place/dallas-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1950s/md)

## Nearby, about the same time

- [Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1950s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wilkes-barre-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1950s/md) (12 km)
- [Scranton, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania in the 1940s](https://yorehistory.com/place/scranton-lackawanna-pennsylvania/1940s/md) (26 km)
- [Lancaster, Pennsylvania in the 1960s](https://yorehistory.com/place/lancaster-pennsylvania/1960s/md) (147 km)
- [Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1950s](https://yorehistory.com/place/newtown-bucks-county-pennsylvania/1950s/md) (150 km)
- [Fanwood, Union County, New Jersey in the 1960s](https://yorehistory.com/place/fanwood-union-county-new-jersey/1960s/md) (153 km)
- [Princeton, New Jersey in the 1930s](https://yorehistory.com/place/princeton-new-jersey/1930s/md) (155 km)

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Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-11 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Dallas, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1960s", https://yorehistory.com/place/dallas-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1960s