Luzerne County Historical Society

The LCHS was founded on February 11, 1858, 168 years ago today! That makes us the oldest county historical society in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania! 

On that night, a group of local leading men met at the Old Fell Tavern in Wilkes-Barre to celebrate what was then the fiftieth anniversary of the first known successful burning of anthracite coal in an open grate by Judge Jesse Fell. During this ceremony, General Edmund L. Dana suggested the founding of a historical society. A resolution was passed unanimously, and the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society was born. 

Later, in 1882, Isaac Osterhout directed that a permanent space for the Society be included in the plans for the free library that was to be established under the terms of his will. The Osterhout Free Library trustees voted to erect a separate building behind the library to house the collections of the Society. The money was appropriated, and the building eventually opened in 1893, where the Society’s museum remains to this day.

Further growth occurred six decades later when the Swetland Homestead in Wyoming was “purchased” from Dorothy Dickson Darte (a direct descendant of the Swetland Family) for one dollar. The Victorian Home was opened for tours in 1958 and remains a popular local attraction. 

In 1972, the decision was made to expand again, this time to separate the Society’s museum collection from the research facilities in order to create a better environment for housing the collection and allow for space for further growth. With those aims, the Society purchased the Bishop Memorial Library in downtown Wilkes-Barre in April of 1972, just two months before the Agnes Flood.

In the year 2000, in order to better reflect our mission, the WHGS changed its name to the Luzerne County Historical Society. And it was under this new name that the Society reached its current size in the 21st when we took over ownership of the Nathan Denison House in 2008 and the former St. Celica’s Church in Exeter in 2025.