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View Full Version : Schuylkill Haven, PA

xzmattzx
Dec 4, 2006, 10:01 PM
Schuylkill Haven is a town in Schuylkill County along State Routes 61 and 443. It's a few miles south of Pottsville, on the other side of a mountain. The population of Schuylkill Haven is around 5500. Schuylkill Haven's motto is "The little town that could."

Schuylkill Haven is up the road from Pine Grove, the even smaller town where my dad grew up.

Schuylkill Haven seems like the quintessential Pennsylvania town: gritty, ugly, dirty, forgotten, and industrial.

So if grass and trees are overrated to you, then this is your kind of town. You'll find front porches less than a yard away from the street, and dirty alleyways lined with rusting belongings tucked away between houses. And don't worry, there's enough olive green paint for everyone.


Looking down at part of Schuylkill Haven from the town high school.

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Houses on Main Street at Avenue D.

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Houses on Main Street.

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A variety of houses on the north side of Main Street.

http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/4384/dscf6365scz5.jpg

More houses on Main Street, with a Methodist Church at the left.

http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/9409/dscf6366sdo5.jpg

Houses on the south side of Main Street east of downtown.

http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/2610/dscf6367srv9.jpg

Houses on Dock Street.

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Some houses and a church on Dock Street.

http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/6128/dscf6369srs1.jpg

Looking west down Main Street in downtown Schuylkill Haven.

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Businesses in Schuylkill Haven.

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Businesses on the corner of Main and St. Peter Streets.

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/4595/dscf6372svi0.jpg

More houses on Main Street, east of downtown.

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Rowhouses on Becker Street.

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Looking north up Haven Street.

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Houses on Jackson Street.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/2296/dscf6377ssd3.jpg

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/1145/dscf6378sbx1.jpg

Houses on Avenue A.

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/8275/dscf6379sul5.jpg

Rowhouses on Main Street.

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/801/dscf6380smy0.jpg

Looking south down Parkway, west of downtown.

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/971/dscf6381sil7.jpg


If you ask me, Schuylkill Haven is the epitome of the Pennsylvania mountain town.
Wheelingman04
Dec 4, 2006, 10:30 PM
Cool photos. It is another town I have never seen before.
Evergrey
Dec 4, 2006, 11:01 PM
what a fascinating city... Schuylkill County is one of the few PA counties I have yet to visit.
Sacto
Dec 5, 2006, 12:38 AM
Thanks for the tour!
TheMeltyMan
Dec 5, 2006, 12:48 AM
what a fascinating city... Schuylkill County is one of the few PA counties I have yet to visit.


Whenever I got the wanderlust back in Reading, i'd ALWAYS drive to the north-west. Schuylkill County is just over the Blue Mountain, but its always seemed so bizarre, so foreign and strange. I might have been less than an hour away from where I grew up but I always felt worlds away.

There are so many strange little dirty towns up there but i'd suggest visiting Tamaqua if you want the most quintessential and strange town of Schuylkill County.
flar
Dec 7, 2006, 1:09 AM
That is a strange looking little town
Sekkle
Dec 7, 2006, 5:41 AM
Sad... but in a good way. Thanks for the photos. How do you pronounce "Schuylkill"?
xzmattzx
Dec 8, 2006, 4:22 AM
Sad... but in a good way. Thanks for the photos. How do you pronounce "Schuylkill"?

Using a Mid-Atlantic accent, it's pronounced "Skoo-kull".
BigKidD
Dec 8, 2006, 6:25 AM
There are so many strange little dirty towns up there but i'd suggest visiting Tamaqua if you want the most quintessential and strange town of Schuylkill County.
Interesting that you mention Tamaqua, the town that my Dad was born in and raised. I visited that town in the mid-1990s when I was little and remember attending a town festival where I rode a fire truck through the city. Also, I remember walking over mounds of the product that's left when they mine coal. Furthermore, I remember how the trains run practically near the center of the town and playing in a playground that was near the railroad tracks. My Dad has so many interesting stories revolving that town and the different jobs he worked while living there.
Traveling out there was an interesting experience not many Californians are able to go through.
Paintballer1708
Dec 8, 2006, 2:55 PM
Another small Pennsylvania town. Nice photos.
boden
Dec 9, 2006, 3:26 AM
Vaguely unsettling in a pleasant kind of a way. Sure isn't a crowded town is it?
TheMeltyMan
Dec 9, 2006, 6:07 AM
Its got a reasonable amount of traffic, as its located on the main highway (61) between Reading and Pottsville. I've lived 30 minutes from the town and I only stopped there a couple times for some lunch and for my Penndot Driver's Test.

It would be considered a 'burb of Pottsville (of Yuengling fame) but its separated by a few desolate ridges.

Spooky place.
giovanni sasso
Dec 10, 2006, 10:13 PM
what a fascinating city... Schuylkill County is one of the few PA counties I have yet to visit.

i'm surprised that you of all people have never been to centralia.

nice pictures, xzmattzx. i got no beef with schuylkill haven.
Evergrey
Dec 10, 2006, 10:58 PM
i'm surprised that you of all people have never been to centralia.

nice pictures, xzmattzx. i got no beef with schuylkill haven.

Centralia is in Columbia County.
giovanni sasso
Dec 11, 2006, 12:43 AM
i stand corrected. (and i am sitting under a PA map; you'd think i'd look first.) still, it's like two miles away over 61.

I LIKE YOUR AVATAR.
mrherodotus
Dec 12, 2006, 3:58 PM
Very Pennsylvanian.
LSyd
Dec 12, 2006, 4:50 PM
nice tour. looks stuck in time.

-
olga
Jan 6, 2009, 10:08 PM
Looks pretty nice. :)
stormkingfan
Jan 6, 2009, 11:54 PM
Right next to Schuylkill Haven, up the tracks, is a sister town, Cressona. Here, the railroad yard is actually located on a grade. That would keep the crews busy setting the brakes on the cars. The Alcoa company has plant in the middle of town.

Ashland is up the mtn, off Rt. 54. Its main drag is long and wide, and is on a grade. Gritty, too. Considering it's a small town, it's like the buildings are too small for the street's width. It actually reminds me of being in a town in western Mexico.

I've been to SH once. Found it to be a relaxing town. There's a 12-storey assisted-living there.