East Stroudsburg Photo Tour (Scranton, York: house, established neighborhood, movie theater)

[ScranBarre]

Good morning, everyone! I just returned home from East Stroudsburg, a college town in Monroe County just five minutes from New Jersey, making it popular for daily NYC commuters. Many of you saw my failed attempt at a tour of Stroudsburg, which I gave up on after being panhandled one too many times. Crossing the border into East Stroudsburg was like stepping into paradise for me. The downtown area was quite small yet well-kept with a historic movie theater, costume shop, Caribbean market, and some other unique mom-and-pop shops. Just outside of the Main Street was a small strip retail shopping area with KMart, Wal-Mart Supercenter, and a few other big-box retailers. The campus of East Stroudsburg University was extremely well-groomed and well-kept, even though I wasn't exactly "blown away" by its architecture, which reminded me of some sort of Soviet-era commune with all of the plain high-rise brick residence halls near Smith Street. Nevertheless, this town won me over wholeheartedly with its tree-lined streets, sidewalks, and quaint residential charm.

The town is also home to Pocono Medical Center, as well as a variety of smaller practices nearby, making it the medical hub of Eastern Monroe County. The area continues to grow by leaps and bounds, but I found traffic through town to be quite manageable; I had no difficulty crossing downtown streets or pulling left from side streets onto main arteries. I also found the people of East Stroudsburg to be of a "better" variety than their counterparts in Stroudsburg. While I was panhandled on Main Street in Stroudsburg and didn't have my "Good mornings" returned to me, people in East Stroudsburg were mostly cheery and happy, which left me with a positive impression. I was also happy to see so much racial diversity in town; every other person seemed to be Hispanic, Asian-American, African-American, etc. I hope you enjoy your visit to East Stroudsburg as much as I did!


Welcome to East Stroudsburg, Settled in 1738.

(PHOTOS TO BE CONTINUED BELOW)

[ScranBarre]

East Stroudsburg University.










Some images from Downtown East Stroudsburg. Notice the police car in the bottom photo along Crystal Street. I was quite pleased with the strong presence that the Stroud Regional Police Department had here, as I couldn't walk for more than a few blocks without seeing a cruiser on patrol somewhere. Where were they when I was panhandled over on Main Street in Stroudsburg? LOL!



Some students from either East Stroudsburg Area HS or ESU were here painting a beautiful mural on a downtown wall to the rear of the post office along Crystal Street.


A really, really old looking bridge heading out of town.


East Stroudsburg Municipal Building


Pocono Medical Center


An old rail switch tower on the edge of downtown.



Two scenic shots from around town.




































Some residential scenes from around town.

(END)

[MermanMike]

Very nice, as always! (Though I, for one, miss the tongue-in-cheek commentary!) :-)

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by MermanMike

Very nice, as always! (Though I, for one, miss the tongue-in-cheek commentary!) :-)

Thanks. I know. However, after unintentionally offending people in both my West Pittston and Moscow tours, I figure I might just be better off showing the pictures from now on and not providing anyone with captions. The last thing I want is for one of the tours to be "locked" due to an argument arising or having a moderator hack my commentaries to pieces with red ink. LOL! Humor will have to take a back burner to professionalism. Expect much of the same later on today after I snap my Carbondale tour as well.

[Summering]

You did a great job SWB capturing East Stroudsburg.......
Yes there is one street there out past the Walmart that has a few "why are they still standing" type of homes........but, there are many, many nice ones.
Glad to see you got the clock above the Police station..........I love clocks.
So glad I cleared the town for you of panhandlers.....
Then again.....it was their day off I think.......

[Laredo2007]

This is a fantastic photo essay of East Stroudsburg! I'm applying for a position at the university there and knew very little about the area until I saw this thread. Now I'm quite excited about applying there. Wish me luck!

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by Laredo2007

This is a fantastic photo essay of East Stroudsburg! I'm applying for a position at the university there and knew very little about the area until I saw this thread. Now I'm quite excited about applying there. Wish me luck!

Best of luck to you! Laredo and the Poconos are two completely different environments---are you ready for snow? In my opinion East Stroudsburg is still a nice, liveable place, and Stroudsburg is the town that has begun to go downhill, but some locals say it's the other way around, so I truly don't know. I live about 45 minutes away, so I can only rely on hearsay in that respect. What I can tell you though is that my partner and I enjoyed a very nice dinner a few weeks ago at the Dansbury Depot (restaurant housed in refurbished train station) and walked around the downtown area at night and didn't feel threatened at all; I actually feel more threatened walking around my own hometown of Pittston at night after a violent murder in the street about a month ago. The Stroud Regional Police Force, as I stated earlier, seems to do a pretty good job patrolling the town's streets.

Have you ever been to New York City? Visiting NYC, which is only about 90 minutes away from "Eastburg", is sort of like a ritual. You'll enjoy it.

[Laredo2007]

ScrantonWilkesBarre--
Well, I don't think I'm ready for snow but I could quickly become ready :-) My desire to move on from Laredo is quite strong.

I see some things in these photos that look very pleasant, features that James Howard Kunstler laments the loss of in so many places around the country: traditional neighborhoods, and a downtown that's easy to walk to.

Plus, I've never been to NYC, so that would be a real plus for that location. I'm a jazz musician (part-time), so the proximity to NYC and NJ would be great. Obviously as an urban geographer (my main gig), proximity to NYC and its NJ suburbs would be wonderful.

[karen_s]

Laredo, I think you will love East Stroudsburg. The house my brother rents is a half double - a huge Victorian style like you see in those beautiful pictures.

As far as the jazz, well you don't even have to go to the city. There is quite an active jazz community right here in the Poconos. The Deer Head Inn is where we go to hear the jazz locally: The Deer Head Inn - Bed and Breakfast, Delaware Water Gap, Pocono Mountains, Poconos, B and B, Jazz, Food, Lodging

Bob Dorough (of Schoolhouse Rock fame) is one of my favorite performers and he plays there regularly. Welcome to Bob Dorough's Official Website

If you live in the older established neighborhood of homes near the University, it isn't a long walk at all to most of the action. I love walking around up there with my brother.

The only sad thing I have to report is that the beautiful little cinema in the pictures just closed. It was a great place to see indy and foreign films and will be sorely missed! I heard they may file for a nonprofit status to try to preserve it and I hope they do.

[Liftie]

Karen_s, Just to let you know the Pocono Cinema is back up and running. The owners of the building and previous owners of the cinema, the Yetter's, decided it was too good a thing top let close. They opened an a limited basis the day before Thanksgiving. They are still wishing that a not-for-profit group will take it over. I live in East Burg and can walk there in less than 10 min. Go there alot.