Nuangola celebrates turning 100 years old

NUANGOLA – Nuangola is launching its centennial celebration this week.

At 6 p.m. today, Jesse Teitelbaum, executive director of the Luzerne County Historical Society, will present the borough centennial committee with a plaque commemorating its creation in 1908.

That kicks off what officials hope will be a yearlong series of events that comes to a head during the weekend of Aug. 14-16, 2009.

The long period for festivities should give everyone in the 1.1-square-mile municipality a chance to get involved in some aspect of the celebration, council President Regina Plodwick said.

Mayor Norman Rule, Councilwoman Shari Andes and Plodwick are borough representatives to the centennial planning committee, which also includes representatives of other groups such as the library, volunteer fire company and planning commission. The committee expects more groups will join the effort and provide ideas for possibly monthly celebrations. Some ideas already proposed included T-shirts and sweatshirts, hats and flags, and wood and ceramic memorabilia.

The group has also talked about selling engraved bricks in order to build a path to the main entrance of the borough building.

The traditional two-story building erected in 1909 was originally a schoolhouse. Even today, with one room used as the municipal office and the other as the library, it remains substantially unchanged from the days when it was filled with students and desks.

In the brief time the society has been providing the plaques to signify historic buildings, this is the first time a municipality has applied, he said. Some have gone to business buildings, but the bulk has been requested by residential owners.

The school was handed over to the borough in the late 1950s, after work was performed by a group of residents, including the father of the current mayor.

The committee hopes to gather as many people as possible who attended the school and invites temporary residents – those who are live elsewhere and generally use their properties during the summer – to get involved in the celebration events.

Setting the commemoration weekend in August 2009 should give part-time residents an opportunity to arrange a visit then.

The theme of the centennial will be “100 years of preserving the past, present and future.”

About the borough

Nuangola was incorporated in 1908 but did not receive its articles of incorporation until 1909.

It was separated from Wright Township and was originally known as Three Cornered Pond, then Triangular Lake, with the name Nuangola being assigned by the U.S. Postal Service when it placed a building in the borough.

According to some reports, the name comes from a local legend of an Indian princess who drowned herself over a lost love. It may also mean “Triangular Lake” or “People of the North.”

Around 1890, there were 21 cottages and summer homes around the 99-acre lake; now there are 120 lakefront properties, out of a total of 415 buildings in the borough.