Dickson City

Dickson City is a borough in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States, 4 miles (6 km) north of Scranton. Coal mining was an important industry in the past. The borough's population peaked at 12,395 in 1930 and was 6,051 at the 2020 census.

Dickson City was once known as Priceburg. It was the newest village in the valley and one of the most progressive. German immigrants then founded the village of Priceville in 1863, in honor of Eli Price. This section of the town developed rapidly after 1880, when John Jermyn sank the shaft which is now known as the Johnson shaft. Here the population had grown from 329 to 841.

In June 1875, Dickson City was incorporated as a borough, including at the time all of the present borough of Throop. Dickson City received its name from Thomas Dickson, founder of the Dickson Manufacturing Company.

Once dominated by coal mines, this borough has in recent times become the center of a thriving retail corridor focused along Business Route 6 and around the Viewmont Mall. Many of the nation's big-box stores and chain restaurants are represented here.

Most of the newer retail complexes are located along Viewmont Drive and Commerce Boulevard, both built by developers to access the borough's vast dormant coal lands. Some of the centers that were built in the 1990s and early 2000s include Dickson City Crossings, Dickson City Commons, Park Center and Commerce Plaza.

After Route 6 (also named the Scranton/Carbondale Highway), Main Street serves as the borough's other major thoroughfare. It features a slightly older stock of stores, bars, professional offices and homes.

One point of major contention in the borough has been a 240-acre (0.97 km2) swath of reclaimed coal-mining land south of Commerce Boulevard that was deeded to the borough for public use after the state government cleaned it up. Plans to build a bond-financed municipal golf course on the land launched during the early 2000s were scuttled after some borough council members campaigned against that form of borrowing and won the majority of seats. The land was seized by a local bank after interim loans went unpaid, but because the state stipulated that it has to remain in the hands of a municipality, neighboring borough Dunmore snapped it up.