# Scranton, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania in the 1940s

> A coal-and-rail city, still crowded and working, but already feeling anthracite’s long decline.

- Place: Scranton, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania (41.409, -75.662)
- Years: 1940 to 1949
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/scranton-lackawanna-pennsylvania/1940s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Scranton%2C%20Lackawanna%2C%20Pennsylvania%2C%20USA&at=41.4090,-75.6624&year=1945

## Looking around

You stand in a city of about 140,000 people at the decade’s opening[6], with the Lackawanna River and railroad lines[7] fixing the shape of the valley. Around the center are DL&W, Erie, and Lehigh Valley railroads[7], and beyond it the built-up city runs toward Dunmore and the Moosic Mountains[7]. Work still points underground: anthracite mining has only a wartime bounce-back[1], and soldiers and sailors are being shown the mines[4] as part of war production. Street movement is electric: Scranton Transit cars from 1929[5] still make up the backbone of trolley service. Church names mark neighborhoods, from First Welsh Baptist[2] to First Russian Ukrainian Baptist[2] and Bethel African Methodist Episcopal[2]. In Green Ridge, Scranton Lace makes lace, bedspreads, and wartime parachute work.

## Work: Coal, rail, lace, war

The city’s old base is still visible in coal-region rail lines[7] and anthracite work[1], but the industry is no longer expanding. Factory work matters too: Scranton Lace turns to parachute production during the war.

## Faith: Churches by neighborhood

The directory shows a city divided and connected by congregations: Welsh Baptist[2], Russian Ukrainian Baptist[2], African Methodist Episcopal[2], Jehovah’s Witness, Salvation Army, Catholic, Protestant, and other churches.

## Law & power: Union power underground

Mine operators, rail companies, city officials, and unions all matter, but in coal work the decisive organized force is the United Mine Workers of America[1]. Voting is broad by law, though race and gender still shape power in daily life.

## In the air: Production as patriotism

In 1942 the war effort is made local when soldiers and sailors go underground with anthracite miners[4]. The message is that coal work is part of the fighting front.

## What people feared: Mine danger remembered

Mining safety had improved, but anthracite work carried a long record of death and injury: 581 miners died in the 1917 anthracite industry[1]. In the 1940s, families also live with war service and casualty news.

## Home & table: Crowded but declining

Scranton begins the decade as a substantial city of about 140,000 residents[6], but by 1950 it is down to 125,536 people[3]. The opened sources do not give a solid local table of rents or grocery prices.

## Who lived here: Immigrant city memory

Scranton’s church list preserves immigrant identities in plain sight, including Welsh[2] and Russian Ukrainian[2] congregations. Across the anthracite region, mining had long drawn families to places near mines and breakers[1].

## Roads & news: Rails and trolleys

News, strangers, goods, and soldiers move through a dense transport web: DL&W, Erie, and Lehigh Valley railroads[7] and Scranton Transit trolleys[5]. The city’s shape follows the Lackawanna River and rail corridors[7].

## Year by year

- **1940** (here): Scranton opened the decade with about 140,000 residents, still one of the hundred largest cities in the United States.[6]
- **1941** (here): Scranton Lace entered the war years as a diversified textile employer and operated wartime parachute work through its Victory Parachute Division.
- **1941** (the country): Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, and the United States entered World War II.
- **1942** (here): Anthracite war-production rallies brought soldiers and sailors underground with miners at Scranton and other coal cities.[4]
- **1944** (the world): The D-Day landings in Normandy opened the western Allied invasion of German-occupied Europe, news followed closely in American industrial cities.
- **1945** (the country): World War II ended in Europe in May and in the Pacific in August, changing war work, military absence, and home-front routines.
- **1947** (nearby): Anthracite’s postwar future looked weaker as the small wartime revival gave way to the older decline caused by oil and gas competition.[1]
- **1950** (here): Scranton’s census count fell to 125,536, confirming population loss across the decade.[3]

## What the sources say

- Scranton had about 140,000 residents in 1940 and ranked 63rd among United States cities by population. (from the sources)[6]
- By 1950 the city’s population had fallen to 125,536, showing that the 1940s were not a growth decade for Scranton. (from the sources)[3]
- A 1943 map description places Scranton in the industrial heart of northeastern Pennsylvania’s coal region, along the Lackawanna River and a dense rail network. (from the sources)[7]
- Anthracite mining had been declining since World War I because of oil and gas competition, with only a small bounce-back during World War II. (from the sources)[1]
- The United Mine Workers of America, formed in 1890, had become a powerful force in the anthracite coal fields before the 1940s. (from the sources)[1]
- From September 28 to October 1, 1942, anthracite war-production rallies were held at Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton, and Mount Carmel, where soldiers and sailors went underground with miners. (from the sources)[4]
- Scranton Lace Company diversified in the 1920s and 1930s, and during World War II operated a Victory Parachute Division. (inferred)
- From 1941 into the 1970s, Scranton Lace was described as the largest maker of Nottingham lace products in the Lackawanna Valley and in Pennsylvania. (inferred)
- Scranton Transit had ten 1929 Osgood Bradley streetcars, including car 505, which became the backbone of the trolley fleet in the system’s last years. (inferred)[5]
- The 1942–43 Scranton City Directory listed First Welsh Baptist Church at 215 South Main Avenue. (from the sources)[2]
- The 1942–43 Scranton City Directory listed First Russian Ukrainian Baptist Church at 913 West Lackawanna Avenue. (from the sources)[2]
- The 1942–43 Scranton City Directory listed Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church at 714 Washington Avenue. (from the sources)[2]
- The 1942–43 directory also listed a Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall in room 320 at 316 Washington Avenue and two Salvation Army locations. (from the sources)[2]
- The 1943 map description names the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, Erie, and Lehigh Valley railroads as part of Scranton’s transport infrastructure. (from the sources)[7]
- In the early 1940s, Scranton’s urban sprawl ran into Dunmore and then into the Moosic Mountains and Wyoming Mountain landscape. (from the sources)[7]
- The anthracite mine workplace was still remembered as dangerous: in 1917, 581 deaths occurred across Pennsylvania anthracite mining despite safety improvements. (from the sources)[1]
- As across the anthracite counties, many older mining families remembered patch-town life near mines and breakers, even when Scranton itself was a large city. (from the sources)[1]
- Local online sources do not give a reliable 1940s Scranton house-rent, grocery-price, or miner-wage table in the material opened here. (not known)
- During the 1940s, wartime rationing, military service, bond drives, and casualty news would have reached Scranton as they did other United States cities. (inferred)
- Pennsylvania women could vote in the 1940s under the Nineteenth Amendment, while Black Scrantonians still faced the wider northern patterns of housing, job, and social discrimination. (inferred)

## Sources

1. Scranton, Pennsylvania. Mining History Association, 2005. https://www.mininghistoryassociation.org/ScrantonHistory.htm
2. Churches from 1942-43 Scranton City Directory. Lackawanna County PAGenWeb. https://www.lackawannapagenweb.com/churches/church2.html
3. 1950 Census of Population: Pennsylvania Advance Report. United States Bureau of the Census, 1950. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1950/pc-08/pc-8-37.pdf
4. War Production Drive: Anthracite Rallies. Library of Congress / Office of War Information, 1942. https://loc.getarchive.net/media/war-production-drive-anthracite-rallies-soldiers-and-sailors-went-underground
5. Trolley Cars. Electric City Trolley Museum Association. https://ectma.org/museum/trolley-cars/
6. Scranton, Pennsylvania—Population by Nativity, Foreign-Born Population by World Region of Birth, and Ten Leading Countries of Birth: 1860 to 2020. Campbell Gibson, 2024. https://irp.cdn-website.com/681145af/files/uploaded/Scranton.pdf
7. 1943 Map of Scranton, PA. Pastmaps, 1943. https://pastmaps.com/map/scranton-luzerne-county-pa-usgs-topo-1943

## The same place in other decades

- [Scranton in the 1980s](https://yorehistory.com/place/scranton-lackawanna-pennsylvania/1980s/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) (26 km)
- [Dallas, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1950s](https://yorehistory.com/place/dallas-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1950s/md) (26 km)
- [Fanwood, Union County, New Jersey in the 1960s](https://yorehistory.com/place/fanwood-union-county-new-jersey/1960s/md) (137 km)
- [Montclair, Essex County, New Jersey in the 1920s](https://yorehistory.com/place/montclair-essex-county-new-jersey/1920s/md) (138 km)
- [Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1950s](https://yorehistory.com/place/newtown-bucks-county-pennsylvania/1950s/md) (145 km)
- [Princeton, New Jersey in the 1930s](https://yorehistory.com/place/princeton-new-jersey/1930s/md) (145 km)
- [New York in the 1930s](https://yorehistory.com/place/new-york-new-york-county-new-york/1930s/md) (159 km)

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Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-12 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, "Scranton, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania in the 1940s", https://yorehistory.com/place/scranton-lackawanna-pennsylvania/1940s