SCRANTON — The city’s Historical Architecture Review Board disliked and did not approve Lackawanna College’s design to replace two signs on Vine Street.
The board on March 12 tabled the college’s application to replace signs at Adams and Wyoming avenues. The college wanted to install two identical, internally illuminated signs displaying the college name and an updated college logo, the falcon mascot in a large L.
Each of the existing signs has two pyramid-topped columns constructed of stone blocks similar in appearance to those of Lackawanna College’s main building at 501 Vine St., the former Scranton Central High School. The columns support a vertical slab that holds plaques with the college name, logo and the Sept. 3, 1894, date of the founding of the college. Another plaque states that the signs were gifts from Penn Security Bank and Trust Co. The sign at Vine Street and Adams Avenue also has a plaque that says, “Rededicated, September 3, 2001.” The sign at Vine Street at Wyoming Avenue has a plaque that says “Dedicated October 15, 2004.”
Wendy Kern of Bartush Signs of Orwigsburg presented to HARB a proposal to remove the existing signs and install a new one at each location. The two new signs would be identical, with each having an aluminum face sitting atop a base of cultured stone.
A Lackawanna College sign at Vine Street and Adams Avenue in Scranton on April 1, 2026. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
“They’re going to replace the signs that are there now to match their logo and their design that they’ve been using at all of their campuses,” Kern told HARB, according to an Electric City Television video of the meeting posted on YouTube.
But HARB members gave a collective thumbs-down on the designs for new signs.
“I’m troubled by this,” HARB member Katie Gilmartin said. “I would prefer to see it incorporate some of the original design of the (existing) sign. I think something erected out of real stone should be adapted. I can certainly understand wanting to accommodate a more updated logo, but I don’t care for this. And I don’t know if simply not caring for it is the best way to convey what I’m trying to say here.”
HARB member Katie Kearney noted that a sign having the new design and composition erected at Vine Street and Adams Avenue would clash visually with the architecture of the former high school building.
“It doesn’t match, particularly the one right in front of what was the high school originally,” Kearney said. “What is there (now) really took into account the building and this (new sign design) does not, in my opinion.”
Gilmartin continued: “I understand that there’s a branding issue here as well. I think even if it were this (new logo) image inserted into this existing structure, that might marry a little better to the building, while still allowing for the more updated branding of the college.”
HARB Chairman Michael Muller suggested that the college consider keeping the columns in place or somehow repurposing them.
“I don’t mind it being lit if you kept the pillars,” Muller said. “I didn’t mind the new design. I think the cultured stone looks a little underwhelming compared to what’s there. So I’m in favor of either using new stone or keeping the structure, but I have no concern about the illuminated sign itself.”
In tabling the application, the board suggested the college come back to HARB with a different design that would be more in keeping with the style of the existing signs, while also incorporating the college’s new logo.
HARB met Thursday, but Lackawanna College was not on the agenda. On Monday, college Chief Operating Officer T.J. Eltringham declined to comment on what the college might do next, in terms of whether it would pursue a new design to present to HARB or just stick with the old signs.
A Lackawanna College sign at Vine Street and Adams Avenue in Scranton on April 1, 2026. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
A rendering of a design for a new sign that Lackawanna College wanted to install at two locations on Vine Street, at the corners of Adams and Wyoming avenues, to replace a pair of identical signs at those locations. (SCREENSHOT FROM VIDEO / HARB VIA ELECTRIC CITY TELEVISION)
A Lackawanna College sign at Vine Street and Wyoming Avenue in Scranton on April 1, 2026. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
A Lackawanna College sign at Vine Street and Wyoming Avenue in Scranton on April 1, 2026. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
A Lackawanna College sign at Vine Street and Wyoming Avenue in Scranton on April 1, 2026. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
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A Lackawanna College sign at Vine Street and Adams Avenue in Scranton on April 1, 2026. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)