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Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

Everything Wilkes-Barre is known for

RoadyGoat plays music like this when you drive through Wilkes-Barre. It's free on iPhone, and full songs play through Apple Music.

Music in Wilkes-Barre

Songs About Wilkes-Barre

Sterling
Strand of Oaks
93%
"I dreamt I stayed in the Sterling / I saw Kennedy, in the Hotel Sterling"

History of Wilkes-Barre

Sugar Notch: Maple Trees, Not Sweets RoadyGoat

1867

Sugar Notch, Pennsylvania, sounds like a candy town, maybe a sugar mill that perfumed the air with something sweet. The reality is greener and a lot grittier. This little borough in the Wyoming Valley sits at a gap, or notch, in Little Mountain, and that gap was thick with sugar maple trees. Notch plus the maples gave the place its name when it incorporated in 1867. The sweetness, such as it was, came from sap, not sugar bowls. And the real economy was anything but gentle. Sugar Notch was a hard anthracite coal town, its mountainside laced with mines and a railroad built in 1869 to haul the coal out. So the name pairs a sweet-sounding word with maple trees and a backbreaking living dug from the rock below.

4.5 mi away

Everything Near Wilkes-Barre

9 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

  • West End Wheelmen's Club · 0.9 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Before cars ruled the road, this unassuming building was a palace for pedal-powered pioneers. The West End Wheelmen's Club, built in 1897, served as a clubhouse for bicycle enthusiasts in Wilkes-Barre during the late…

  • Lion Brewery, Inc. · 1.4 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Quench your thirst for history at one of the few pre-Prohibition breweries still operating in the US. The Lion Brewery was founded in Wilkes-Barre in 1905. It started brewing beer under its own name, Lion Brewery.…

  • Sugar Notch: Maple Trees, Not Sweets · 4.5 mi

    Sugar Notch, Pennsylvania, sounds like a candy town, maybe a sugar mill that perfumed the air with something sweet. The reality is greener and a lot grittier. This little borough in the Wyoming Valley sits at a gap, or…

  • Steamtown National Historic Site · 15.6 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Ever wonder how America moved mountains of coal and steel? You're about to find out. Steamtown National Historic Site isn't just a museum; it's a preserved piece of railroad history, built on the grounds of the…

  • Scranton Iron Furnaces · 15.8 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    These imposing stone structures whisper tales of a time when Scranton was the heart of iron production. In the mid-1840s, the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company built these four blast furnaces. They used anthracite coal,…

  • Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel · 15.9 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Prepare to be amazed! This grand hotel was once a bustling train station, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Station, to be exact.Completed in 1908, it served as a crucial transportation hub, connecting…

  • Terence V. Powderly House · 16.0 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Right here in Scranton, you're near the home of a man who once led one of the largest labor organizations in American history. This is the house where Terence V. Powderly lived for most of his life, and from where he…

  • Scranton Lace Company · 17.0 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    This spot was once home to the Scranton Lace Company, a giant in the textile industry that helped shape Scranton. Founded in 1890, the Scranton Lace Company quickly grew to be one of the largest lace manufacturers in…

  • Eckley Miners' Village · 17.5 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Imagine a hardscrabble life, working in the dark, breathing coal dust. That's what Eckley Miners' Village represents. Founded around 1854 by the Sharpe, Leisenring and Company, Eckley was built to house workers for the…

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