WAVERLY TWP. — New materials from the heyday of the Scranton Lace Co. complete a collection detailing the history of what was once a major employer in the city.
The Waverly Community House received the remaining Scranton Lace Co. archival materials from the Lackawanna Historical Society last week. The boards of both entities approved the transfer earlier this year.
The seven boxes include treasury reports, meeting minutes, Department of Defense contracts and blueprints, which Delayne DePietro, the community house’s archive coordinator, has been sorting through.
She said many of the items are records the center didn’t have in its archives of the company, such as meeting minutes from the 1960s.
Established in 1891 as the Scranton Lace Curtain Manufacturing Co., the company, located on Meylert and Albright avenues, was the largest manufacturer of Nottingham lace in the country. In addition to lace, other products made there included tablecloths, napkins, valances and shower curtains. It closed in 2002.
The former factory, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is now Lace Village, a mixed-use residential and commercial complex.
The Waverly Community House, which was created in 1919 by the family of Henry Belin Jr., one of the company’s early leaders, began acquiring company records and archives in 2012.
Gia Tugend, the center’s director of advancement and digital marketing, said the organization has received calls from people whose relatives worked at the company, as personnel files are among the collection. Among the names listed in the materials is Hugh Rodham, father of former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was briefly employed by the company.