{"id":146080,"date":"2026-03-23T16:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T16:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/146080\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T16:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T16:34:09","slug":"heres-how-scranton-became-known-as-electric-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/146080\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s how Scranton became known as “Electric City”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u201cElectric City\u201d moniker is thanks to an electrical innovation Scranton was among the first to adopt.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve seen it on signs and T-shirts and heard it\u00a0sung by the dulcet tones<\/a>\u00a0of Steve Carell and Rainn Wilson on \u201cThe Office.\u201d But why is Scranton called the \u201cElectric City\u201d? Do people, as Michael Scott raps, \u201ccall it that because of the electri-city\u201d? Not exactly.<\/p>\n

The nickname isn\u2019t because of electricity in general. It traces back to the late 1800s, when Scranton became an early adopter of electric technologies, particularly electric streetcars\u2014a cutting-edge innovation that ignited civic pride and transformed how people moved through the city.<\/p>\n

Read on to learn more about how Scranton earned its Electric City nickname\u2014and why it\u2019s stuck even more than a century later.<\/p>\n

The electric streetcar in Scranton<\/p>\n

Before buses and cars populated the roads of Scranton, the streets were revolutionized with the introduction of the electric streetcar. After all, before the streetcar, people either walked or used horse-drawn trolleys or carriages to get around. That meant that people spent their daily lives within a relatively small radius, working and shopping close to home.<\/p>\n

In November 1886, new company Scranton Suburban Electric Railway tested its electric streetcars in Scranton for the first time\u2014making Scranton the first city in Pennsylvania to introduce electric streetcars, and the first in the country that ran entirely on electricity. The streetcars were powered by overhead electric wires connected to wheeled devices called \u201ctrollers\u201d that collected the current\u2014hence the name \u201ctrolley\u201d for streetcars. The first fares were five cents.<\/p>\n

Life changed with the adoption of the streetcar. As people became more mobile, cities reshaped the urban map, building up \u201cstreetcar suburbs\u201d\u2014like\u00a0Scranton\u2019s Green Ridge<\/a>\u2014since the streetcar enabled residents to live farther from their jobs.<\/p>\n

\"Here'sA trolley that once traveled along Erie Avenue is displayed at the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton. (Dorevabelfiore\/CC BY-SA 4.0)
\nThe rise of the Electric City nickname<\/p>\n

Even before the streetcar, Scranton had embraced electricity. In 1880, the Dickson Manufacturing Company in Scranton installed electric lighting in the early days of the technology\u2014inventor Thomas Edison had only tested it for the first time in 1879. By 1883, electricity was lighting up some residential homes in the city.<\/p>\n

So, when the electric streetcar came onto the scene in Scranton, the city\u2019s modern reputation was only reinforced. Not long after, the pastor of the local Penn Avenue Baptist Church, David Spencer,\u00a0began to call<\/a>\u00a0Scranton the \u201cElectric City.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nickname made even more sense as electric companies and power plants popped up in Scranton, soon consolidating under the Scranton Electric Company. Lackawanna Avenue, lit up with incandescent bulbs at night, started to be known as the \u201cGreat White Way<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The landmark sign<\/p>\n

In 1913, the famous sign proclaiming \u201cScranton The Electric City\u201d\u00a0made its debut<\/a>\u00a0atop what would eventually become the Scranton Electric Company building. The sign had 1,200 incandescent bulbs in shades of red, green, and white. It lit up downtown Scranton until it was eventually turned off in the middle of the century, going dark for decades. A community effort\u00a0brought the sign back<\/a>\u00a0in all its electric glory in 2004.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Office\u201d and the nickname today<\/p>\n

The success of \u201cThe Office\u201d pushed Scranton firmly into the pop culture zeitgeist and brought more attention to its Electric City nickname, particularly when the characters\u2019 video for the \u201cLazy Scranton\u201d rap included a shot of the iconic Electric City sign.<\/p>\n

As Scranton leans into tourism associated with \u201cThe Office,\u201d its Electric City branding doesn\u2019t just nod at its industrial history, but also its connection to the popular show. T-shirts and merch bearing the Electric City name are common at local gift shops, alongside gear inspired by \u201cThe Office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more at the Electric City Trolley Museum<\/p>\n

Scranton\u2019s\u00a0Electric City Trolley Museum<\/a>, located on the grounds of the railroad-focused\u00a0Steamtown National Historic Site<\/a>, showcases eastern Pennsylvania\u2019s electric railway history by way of engaging exhibits featuring a number of real, vintage trolleys. In addition to the interpretive exhibits that, for example, explain how electricity powered trolleys, the museum also operates restored trolleys for excursions.<\/p>\n

\"Here'sA trolley display at the Electric City Trolley Museum. (LHOON\/CC BY-SA 2.0)<\/p>\n

While the museum is open year-round, trolley rides are available April through October, departing from a passenger platform at Steamtown. The five-and-a-half-mile journey includes a mile-long tunnel and takes place aboard an antique trolley that\u2019s roughly a century old. It tours part of the historic \u201cLaurel Line<\/a>,\u201d an interurban streetcar line that connected Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.<\/p>\n

On some summer Sundays, you can also book a trolley ride to PNC Field to catch a Minor League Baseball game featuring the area\u2019s\u00a0Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Here'sAn antique Philadelphia suburban transportation trolley located at the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania. (Wangkun Jia\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The \u201cElectric City\u201d moniker is thanks to an electrical innovation Scranton was among the first to adopt. You\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-146080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}