Scranton, Pennsylvania (January 2025)
More Than Dunder Mifflin
Scranton was a city I knew before I ever really saw it. As a child, my father would drive us through on the way to visit my grandparents in Waverly, New York, and Scranton was something you passed through, a glimpse of something old and substantial before the highway carried you north. I had been there once for business, but never with time to stop. This January weekend finally gave me that chance.
What I found felt familiar in a way I did not fully expect. Scranton has the same feel as the factory towns of upstate New York that I remembered from those childhood trips. Stone buildings built to outlast everyone who ever worked in them. Streets that carry the memory of an industrial era that shaped this entire region. A downtown that still holds its bones together with real dignity. Fans of The Office will recognize the name, but the real Scranton has a depth and character that no television show could fully capture.
I focused on downtown and the University of Scranton campus, where the architecture alone makes a strong case for slowing down and looking up. The snow helped. It always does in a city like this.
