Showing posts with label Jim Thorpe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jim Thorpe. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Our World Tuesday

Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.
Travel Tuesday
Our World Tuesday
Image-in-ing
My Corner of the World



August 2009 - Jim Thorpe PA

We didn't do the jail tour, but I think it would be very interesting.

The Molly Maguires were an Irish 19th-century secret society active in Ireland, Liverpool and parts of the Eastern United States, best known for their activism among Irish-American and Irish immigrant coal miners in Pennsylvania. After a series of often violent conflicts, twenty suspected members of the Molly Maguires were convicted of murder and other crimes and were executed by hanging in 1877 and 1878. This history remains part of local Pennsylvania lore.

On the wall of the old county jail in what was then Mauch Chunk (today's Jim Thorpe), Pennsylvania, is a handprint that, according to folklore, was made by Alex Campbell, one of four members of an Irish labor organization called the Molly Maguires, executed on June 21, 1877. Insisting he was innocent, Campbell declared that "this is proof of my words. That mark will never be wiped out." And it never has.
Were the Mollies terrorists, working-class heroes, or something in between? To this day, the guilt of the twenty Mollies executed between 1877 and 1879 is hard to discover. Nearly all of the evidence that led to their convictions was provided by James McParland, a Pinkerton detective who infiltrated them. What is not in doubt, however, is the dangerous precedent in the history of Pennsylvania law enforcement that the convictions and execution of these Irish coal miners initiated.








Containing approximately 72 rooms, this magnificent structure shouts to all "Be good"!
The building has 27 cells, plus basement dungeon cells used as solitary confinement until 1980, women's cells on the 2nd floor, and the warden's living quarters across the front of the building. The warden's apartment has a large living room, dining room, 2 bedrooms, and a sitting room. The kitchen for the prisoners was the same kitchen used by the warden's family. In fact, for many years the warden's wife did the cooking not only for her family but also for the prisoners using the same kitchen for both.









And of course there is a pub in town called the Molly Mcguires.





Saturday, May 2, 2020

Sculpture Saturday

Sculpture Saturday


August 2009 - Jim Thorpe PA

More Jim Thorpe here.
Designed by Kenrick N. Higa, the "Spirit of Thunder and Lightning" honors Jim Thorpe, who is buried in the tomb just north of here.

Jim Thorpe's Native American Name means is "Wa-tho-huck" which means "Path lit up at night by a bolt of Lightning."

This sculpture was constructed by students from the nearby Vo-Tech School.





Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Tuesday Treasures Around the World

August 2009 - Jim Thorpe PA


This visit was before I started blogging.

What made me look at these photos? A question on Jeopardy and I knew the answer!!
Pennsylvania problems: The players missed three clues about the commonwealth, including ones about its nickname, the Keystone State, and the town named after a 1912 Olympian, Jim Thorpe.

The town changed its name in 1954 from Mauch Chunk to Jim Thorpe, a story that has to rank as one of the most unusual in American history. (Mauch Chunk means Bear Place in the native Munsee-Lenape Native American language).



Reading (like the railroad in Monopoly) Blue Mountain and Northern.

The Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad is a regional railroad operating in eastern Pennsylvania, with headquarters located in Port Clinton. In addition to freight service, passenger excursions also run along the RBMN system. The Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway (LGSR) is a tourist railroad that operates passenger excursions along the RBMN between Jim Thorpe and Lehigh Gorge State Park. The RBMN also operates passenger excursions from Reading and Port Clinton to Jim Thorpe.


It was designed by Wilson Brothers & Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and built in 1888 by the Central Railroad of New Jersey. It is a 1 1/2-story, five bay, red brick building in the Queen Anne style. It features a 3 1/2-story, cylindrical corner tower with a cylindrical roof. It is owned by the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway and served as a visitor center.

The station was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 1, 1976.








First fire company in Carbon County PA.
Volunteer department, established 1866.
Present building built 1885.
Now a bar, the Marion Hose Co. No. 1., located next to the Opera House.



The Mauch Chunk Opera House also called the Capitol Theater at one time. The theatre was built in 1881 by architect Addison Hutton. Officially opening in 1882 and located in what was known as millionaires row in old Mauch Chunk, as the town was then called.




Asa Packer Mansion
Built in 1861, this Italianate mansion was the crown jewel of the Packer family and home to Asa Packer. This 20-room mansion has an ornate interior with original furnishings. It stands elevated above Broadway and is a reminder of the wealth that the city had during the 19th century. During that time it is said 19 of the country's 26 millionaires had homes in Mauch Chunk.

Asa Packer founded the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and like many wealthy robber-barons of this age, went on to become a philanthropist. He also founded Lehigh University in 1865.


Jim Thorpe is also known as the Switzerland of Pennsylvania. 
Established in 1830 the Hotel Switzerland is the oldest commercial building operating in Jim Thorpe.







The Old Mauch Chunk Historic District (National Register of Historic Places) contains an incredible blend of public and private buildings of exceptional architectural merit, scattered among a background of typical 19th Century commercial and residential structures; all located in spectacular natural setting.



"Stone Row" — This range of 16 houses was built by Asa Packer for the engineers and foreman working on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The exact date is not known but the predate was the 1849 fire.






And the town's relationship to Jim Thorpe?
Who was he?

An Olympic hero controversially stripped of his medals is buried in a town he never visited, that took his name after his death.



 
Our old car!


NO OTHER ATHLETE HAS COME close to Jim Thorpe in all-around versatility. Born in 1887 in Prague, Oklahoma, Thorpe grew up in the Sac and Fox Nation and suffered the loss of his twin brother and both his parents early in life. His incredible skill with every sport he tried propelled him beyond his humble origins and the racial prejudice he faced as an American Indian to a legendary status as one of the 20th century’s most notable athletes.

As a student at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, he was an All-American in football, playing halfback, defender, punter, and place-kicker. He mastered nearly every sport offered at Carlisle, including basketball, lacrosse, tennis, handball, bowling, golf, swimming, hockey, boxing, and gymnastics. He even won a ballroom dancing contest. However, it was in track and field where he really excelled.



At the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, Thorpe won both the pentathlon and the decathlon, and finished tied in fourth for the high jump and seventh in the long jump. King Gustav V of Sweden congratulated Thorpe by saying “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.” To which Thorpe replied: “Thanks, King.”




Impoverished at his death, his third wife struck an agreement with two Pennsylvania towns desperate for tourism to create a memorial and bury his remains. Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk merged under the new town name of “Jim Thorpe,” and the athlete’s body now rests under a monument in a landscape he never saw, in a town he never visited.