Wednesday, June 1, 2011

About the Cover

My blog headers usually celebrate happy, beautiful things.  I wish that streak continued this month.

The June header features the cupola atop the old train station at Market Street and Wilkes-Barre Boulevard.

After the train station closed, the building became a beautiful restaurant and nightclub complex, with an adjacent hotel.  The rooms were actually converted box cars. 

The hotel closed.  Bums turned the box cars into their headquarters.  The restaurant closed, and it became exclusively a nightclub.  There were several renters and themes over the years.  They all failed.

Luzerne County now owns the property.  The plan, for years, was to turn this into a visitors center and a passenger station, if passenger rail ever returns to the area.  The county is broke.  The building has been vandalized repeatedly and its rotting away.  I fear we'll have another Hotel Sterling on our hands-- a building too far gone to repair.  Demolition might become the only option, and that would be a tragedy.