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August 1940. "Old houses on Race Street in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania." Photo by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Had I not seen the caption, I would have assumed this to be some small corner of Europe.
The photo contains a small piece of the current town's naming history, that of Jim Thorpe, PA. Those wooden stairs lower left lead to the longtime headquarters of the Times-News, who's whose editor in the 1950s led the campaign to raise money and bring the remains of the legendary Jim Thorpe to Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk, with subsequent renaming of the towns. It's now a bed-and-breakfast along the Stone Row.
If you ever read W.E.B. Griffin's "Brotherhood of War" series you'll see Mauch Chunk referenced a lot.
The town changed its name in 1954 from Mauch Chunk to Jim Thorpe, a story that has to rank as one of the most unusual in American history. (Mauch Chunk means Bear Place in the native Munsee-Lenape Native American language.
four-door, either a Special or a Deluxe in front. Looks like a '36 Ford Tudor sedan behind it.
The stone row at 25-55 Race Street in Jim Thorpe appears very similar today, though there's no Google Street View.
In 1954, Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk merged to become the Borough of Jim Thorpe.
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