Glenna Lang - Jane Jacobss First City: Learning from Scranton, Pennsylvania

Few would dispute that Jane Jacobs has changed the way generations see and experience cities. But no one before Glenna Lang has probed so fully where Jacobs herself gained that vision. In this beautifully composed, deeply researched, and fascinating twin portrait of Jacobs and her hometown of Scranton, Lang reveals how this medium-size city built on anthracite coal shaped an urban ideal that would ultimately reverberate worldwide.

Lizabeth Cohen, Harvard University; author of Bancroft Prize-winning Saving Americas Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age

Jane Jacobss First City is a brilliant work of scholarship that convincingly shows how Jane Jacobss canonical works developed in the historic, mid-sized city of Scranton. It is clearly a labor of love, of great dedication, and filled with appreciation for all of its subjects, not only Jane Butzner [Jacobs]. The overwhelmingly new material, brilliantly contextualized, will have a lasting impact.

Peter Laurence, Associate Professor of Architecture, Clemson University; author of Becoming Jane Jacobs

A fascinating and wonderfully written book that shows how Scranton played an enormous role in shaping Jane Jacobss thinking about urban life. It reframes not only who Jacobs was, but also what Scranton was in the early 20th century.

Mark Hirsch, Senior Historian, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution

In your hands is a cornucopia of discoveries, one excavation after another, about how and what Jane Jacobs came to know about the connection between cities and the people who live in them. Heres a snapshot of five-year-old Jane in her fathers open-air car, in ScrantonJane in a car for goodness sakeon the street where she grew up, or a description of teenager Jane at the top of the stairs, listening to her father with his medical colleagues in the living room below, discussing the new ideas of Dr. Freud. These were secrets until Glenna Lang dug them out. What luck!

Max Allen, Jane Jacobss producer for the Massey Lectures on CBC Radio and editor of Ideas That Matter: The Worlds of Jane Jacobs

This book is well written and wise. I felt a nostalgic yearning for a Scranton of this era, which is the America that produced my mothers side of the family. It restores and presents Scranton in all its subdued glory with ordinary men, women, and children going about their daily business, creating, as though Muybridge had photographed it, the mosaic of Scranton life, with its resplendent color and texture, so deeply American. We need to think about what this means to us, especially at the present moment.

Chandos Brown, Professor of History and American Studies, College of William and Mary

Glenna Lang paints a compelling picture of Scrantons rich history and community-centered way of life, and how these molded Jane Jacobss influential ideas and writing about cities. Jane Jacobss First City illustrates Scranton as an attractive place to raise a family, make an impact in the community, and develop lifelong relationshipsall of which remain true to this day, and which we continue to foster and embrace.

Paige Gebhardt Cognetti, Mayor, City of Scranton

Learning from Scranton, Pennsylvania

GLENNA LANG

NEW VILLAGE PRESS NEW YORK

Copyright 2021 Glenna Lang

All rights reserved. Except for brief portions quoted for purposes of review, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, or utilized in any medium now known or hereafter invented without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by New Village Press

www.newvillagepress.org

New Village Press is a public-benefit, nonprofit publisher

Distributed by NYU Press

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-61332-139-3

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-61332-138-6

EBook ISBN: 978-1-61332-140-9

EBook Institutional ISBN: 978-1-61332-141-6

Publication Date: May 2021

First Edition

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Lang, Glenna, author.

Title: Jane Jacobss first city : learning from Scranton, Pennsylvania / Glenna Lang.

Description: First edition. I New York : New Village Press, 2021. I Includes bibliographical references and index. I Summary: The late urbanist and author Jane Jacobss canonical work on the life and planning of great cities and on city and national economies grew from social and ethical foundations formed in her home city, Scranton, Pennsylvania. The book is a detailed portrait of Janes early life and of the city she grew up in. It shows the development of Janes acute observational abilities from childhood through her desire in early adulthood to understand and write about what she saw. The seeds of her ideas developed in Scranton - once the thriving anthracite-mining capital of the world - that shared many qualities with other medium-size, industrial cities of the early twentieth century. It was a place of great diversity. Small businesses flourished and a wide variety of ethnic groups, including African Americans, lived cheek by jowl. Even recent immigrants could save enough to buy a house. Quality public education was cherished and supported by all. Opposing political parties joined forces to tackle problems, newspapers gathered and reported information with a sense of civic purpose and responsibility, and citizens worked together for the public good. The book demonstrates why, at the end of Jacobss life, her thoughts and conversations increasingly turned to Scranton and the potential for cohesion and inclusiveness held by contemporary medium-size citiesProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020043451 (print) I LCCN 2020043452 (ebook) I ISBN 9781613321393 (hardcover) I ISBN 9781613321386 (paperback) I ISBN 9781613321409 (ebook) I ISBN 9781613321416 (ebook other)

Subjects: LCSH: Jacobs, Jane, 19162006. I Scranton (Pa.)History. I Women authors, American20th centuryBiography.

Classification: LCC F159.S4 L36 2021 (print) I LCC F159.S4 (ebook) I DDC 307.1/216092 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020043451

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020043452

Front cover photo, top: Scranton, looking south from YMCA building, 19051920. Courtesy of Springfield College Archives and Special Collections. Front cover photo, center: Jane Butzner, c. winter 19251926. Estate of Jane Jacobs. Back jacket flap photo: Esm von Hoffman

Illustration p. viii-ix: Panoramic View of Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1890. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. Endpapers: City of Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1929, central city streets, by Nathan Nirenstein, Springfield, Massachusetts. Courtesy of Susan Carter White Pieroth, Lackawanna County, PAGenWeb: lackawannapagenweb.com

Cover design: Lynne Elizabeth. Interior design and composition: Leigh McLellan Design

In memory of my guides and inspirations who were not able to finish this journey with me

Im telling you all this because I dont want to take it with me.
Marie Van Bergen Mansuy (19152012)

Mary Catharine Kay Schoen Butzner (19202013)

Jane Butzner Henderson (19462016)

Gladys Engel Lang (19192016)

Kurt Lang (19242019)