The Terence V. Powderly House is a historic house at 614 North Main Avenue in

Scranton Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 U.S. census, Scranton is the largest city in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Wyoming Vall ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

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. It was the home of

Terence V. Powderly Terence Vincent Powderly (January 22, 1849 – June 24, 1924) was an American labor union leader, politician and attorney, best known as head of the Knights of Labor in the late 1880s. Born in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, he was later elected mayo ...

(1849-1924) from his early life until 1921. During this time he led the

Knights of Labor Knights of Labor (K of L), officially Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, was an American labor federation active in the late 19th century, especially the 1880s. It operated in the United States as well in Canada, and had chapters also ...

, an early but unsuccessful attempt to establish a broad-based labor union. He also served as

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as ...

of Scranton for several terms. It was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1966. It has remained a private residence and is not open to the public.

Description and history

The Terence V. Powderly House stands on the east side of North Main Avenue. It is a two-story wood-frame structure, built as a single-family residence in a

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

, with a cross-gabled roof on a busy street in a residential neighborhood in an area slightly west of downtown Scranton, looking towards it over the

Lackawanna River The Lackawanna River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 8, 2011 tributary of the Susquehanna River in Northeastern Pennsylvania. It flows through a region of the ...

. The house has one architecturally noteworthy feature, a glass anteentrance to keep out cold weather, not common at that time. Since Powderly's death the house has gone through other owners but has not been substantially altered, other than the conversion of the second floor to an apartment and the addition of a

picture window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent mater ...

to that unit. Terence Powderly was a union man from a young age, apprenticing as a machinist. He joined the Machinist and Blacksmiths Union in 1871, and rapidly rose to become its president. As such, he was among the first to lose is job during the economic downturn of the

Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an depression (economics), economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in United Kingdom, Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two ...

. Powderly broadened his organizing base, and became a leading figure in the secretive

, which arose in the early 1880s to become one of the largest labor unions of the period. Powderly emphasized non-violent means to gain improvements in working conditions and pay, and the union was also socially progressive for the period, admitting both women and African Americans. In 1886 it effectively collapsed after Powderly refused to support an eight-hour workday, and opposed the more confrontational tactics of one of his ultimately more successful rivals,

Samuel Gompers Samuel Gompers (; January 27, 1850December 13, 1924) was a British-born American cigar maker, trade union, labor union leader and a key figure in labor history of the United States, American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Powderly, Terence V., House Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania Buildings and structures in Scranton, Pennsylvania Houses in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania

Description and history

See also

References