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Home Of The Friendless   Located In Section 5 K On Tour Map. . . See Section 5

Home Of The Friendless

Home Of The Friendless

     In 1871, William D. Mossman, a local missionary whose primary focus was to aid the poor, put out a call to the women of the city to provide quarters for "friendless women and children."  In the late 1800's, there was no such thing as Social Security or life insurance and widowed women and their children, often lost everything.

     A house was rented at Linden Street and Franklin Avenue and seven women and nine children were invited to live there.  By 1873, the organization was formally organized as the Society for the Home of the Friendless Women and Children of the City of Scranton.  It was founded as a shelter for city women who were widowed and homeless and their children.

     In 1874, the Society completed construction of its first home on a site donated by the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company on Adams Avenue.   By 1894, the organization had outgrown its Adams Avenue site.  The Pennsylvania Coal Co. offered to donate a plot of land in Dunmore, north of Electric Street as a site for a new home, which was dedicated in 1898.

     In 1945, the name was changed to the Friendship House.

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Dunmore Cemetery
Cemetery Association Of Dunmore

400 Church Street, P.O. Box 15
Dunmore, PA 18512

Phone: (570) 343-8536 | Fax: (570) 343-3799
Email:  dunmorecemetery@verizon.net