{"id":42232,"date":"2025-07-21T07:02:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T11:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=42232"},"modified":"2025-07-20T21:08:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T01:08:16","slug":"murchison-masterpiece-dlw-station-scranton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/murchison-masterpiece-dlw-station-scranton\/","title":{"rendered":"Murchison Masterpiece\u2014DL&W Station Scranton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last week, Kris and I stayed at the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel in Scranton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember when this architectural masterpiece was but a forlorn ruin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, it is a testimony to the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western and architect Kenneth Murchison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve previously written about this station in my book Depots, Stations & Terminals, published by Voyageur Press ten years ago. Below is an excerpt:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Murchison, was a respected New York architect who earned several important commissions for railroad stations in the early twentieth century. Murchison had studied in Paris and made prominent use of the Beaux-Arts style in his railway architecture. Among his significant early projects was Delaware, Lackawanna & Western\u2019s new Hoboken Terminal on the west shore of the Hudson River across from New York City. This elaborate station complex replaced an earlier facility that had succumbed to fire and made prominent use of copper sheathing believed to be left over from the erection of the Statue of Liberty in nearby Upper New York Harbor.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Murchison followed up his success with Hoboken with an impressive five-story station for the DL&W at Scranton, Pennsylvania, constructed in 1908 . . . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

. . .The importance of Scranton to Lackawanna, and to the competition from a host of other railroads here, mandated magnificence on the part of DL&W\u2019s new Scranton station. Murchison was the right man for the job. Working in French-Renaissance style characteristic of the Beaux Arts movement, Murchison imparted Continental elegance on this Pennsylvania coal capital. He used massive colonnades on both the street and track sides of the station, and maintained classic symmetry. At the center of the roofline an enormous clock was flanked by stone eagles. The building was faced with Indiana limestone. An unusually deep hanging canopy encircled the structure to protect passengers when arriving and boarding trains, while Bush-style smokeless sheds, originally designed by DL&W chief engineer Lincoln Bush for Hoboken, were installed trackside. In the 1920s an additional story was added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It was in this 1920s addition that we stayed on our recent visit. Our room was immediately behind the fifth story clock that faces the parking lot. (See below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photos exposed in July 2025 using my Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, Kris and I stayed at the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel in Scranton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10],"tags":[6699,6700,8370,6128,6986],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Radisson_Lackawanna-Station_Hotel_interior_detail_DSC_4917.jpg?fit=2048%2C1365&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-aZa","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42232"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42232"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42243,"href":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42232\/revisions\/42243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}