Dorranceton High School when it was dedicated on Feb. 22, 1911. Picture published in the Wilkes-Barre Record Feb. 23, 1911.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Dorranceton High School ‘Class of 1922’ was the last graduating class of the high school. Picture published in the Times Leader June 7, 1922.
Col. Charles Dorrance, Ancestry.com photo
Kingston Borough and Kingston Township looked a little different in the late 1800s when the Borough of Dorranceton was incorporated by a grand jury on June 20, 1887.
Plans to form the tiny borough consisting of 40 residents on 1,100 acres, mostly farmland, began when a legal advertisement appeared in the Evening Leader and Union Leader newspapers in March 1887.
“To all whom it may concern, incorporation of Dorranceton Borough. Notice is hearby given to all parties interested that an application will be made to the Court of Quarter Sessions of Luzerne County on Monday, March 28, 1887,” the advertisements stated.
Dorranceton was to be carved out of Kingston Township and extend from the Kingston boundary along the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad line to the Susquehanna River, and from Plymouth to Forty Fort.
Dorranceton was named after the Dorrance family, early pioneers who relocated to the Wyoming Valley prior to the Revolutionary War. A family namesake, Col. George Dorrance, was killed during the Battle of Wyoming. His great-grandson, Col. Charles Dorrance, born Jan. 4, 1804, was a community leader, bank president and farmer who died Jan. 18, 1892.
After Dorranceton was incorporated, a special election was held July 6, 1887, with only 23 votes cast. Charles Dorrance was elected to the borough’s first council with five other men. School directors, a tax collector, a justice of the peace and a burgess were also elected, the Evening News reported July 7, 1887.
Council handled matters to include land surveys, fixing and raising roads along the flats adjacent to the Susquehanna River, repairing stone arch bridges crossing several ponds along current-day Market Street and constructing a jail.
Dorranceton Dairy, founded in 1830, was a popular farm that provided ice cream and most of the milk consumed in the Wyoming Valley. The farm was located on Pierce Street near the current-day Veterans Memorial Bridge and expanded to Wyoming Avenue.
Dorranceton High School was built in 1910 at Rutter Avenue and Dorrance Street and opened with an American flag presentation on Feb. 22, 1911.
“The building itself is substantial and commodious. It contains six school rooms, principal’s office and reception room, directors’ room, an auditorium with a seating capacity of 500 and cloak rooms,” the Wilkes-Barre Record newspaper reported Feb. 23, 1911.
With mounting municipal debt, plans to consolidate Dorranceton with Kingston or Wilkes-Barre began to grow in 1920. Campaigns were ignited with those favoring the other as the Chamber of Commerce pushed for Wilkes-Barre to annex Dorranceton believing a population of 100,000 would help attract more businesses and manufacturers to the region.
“Following a strenuous campaign marked by vigorous newspaper publicity, voters of Kingston and Dorranceton will go to the pools today to decide whether the two towns shall consolidate,” reported the Wilkes-Barre Record July 19, 1921.
Voters favored Dorranceton to be annexed by Kingston.
Dorranceton voters casted 1,031 in favor and 939 against while the votes in Kingston were 1,210 in favor and 283 against.
“The new borough, with a population of 15,286, will be known as Kingston and will begin to function as a separate borough as soon as the two councils can certify the vote,” the Wilkes-Barre Record reported July 20, 1911.
Another attempt was made in 1926 for Wilkes-Barre to annex Kingston, including the East Side areas of Plains Township, Parsons and Miners Mills.
Wilkes-Barre residents heavily favored annexing the towns but the attempt was defeated days later when votes were counted from precincts in Kingston, Plains and Miners Mills. Votes in Parsons favored the consolidation, reported the Times Leader on Nov. 4, 1926.
Twenty-seven seniors were the last class to graduate from Dorranceton High School in 1922 as students residing in the borough began attending Kingston High School in the 1922-1923 academic year.
Dorranceton High School was renamed the Rutter Avenue Grade School and later the Rutter Avenue Elementary School. The building closed in 1984 and was razed in 2005.