racetracks

16 • NORTHEAST PENNSYLVANIA BUSINESS JOURNAL • SEPTEMBER 2003
Sunbury struggles
for revitalization
City’s ‘Happy Days’ feeling part of its charm
By Kathy Ruff
The seat of Northumberland County
boasts international fame with an ‘electric’
history. On July 4, 1883,Thomas Edison
chose Sunbury as the place to demonstrate
his experiments when he illuminated
the first three-wire electric lighting system
in a commercial building at the former
City Hotel, now the Edison Hotel.
Today Northumberland County is known
best for Knoebels Amusement Resort, the
largest free-admission amusement park in
Pennsylvania, which attracted over 1.2 million
visitors last year.
“That’s our greatest asset because you
really have people coming from all over,”
says Tom Kutza, director for the
Northumberland County Tourist
Promotion Agency.“The second biggest
attraction would be the Pennsylvania State
Sportsmen’s Association’s ‘Pennsylvania
State Shoot,’ target shooting.”The annual
event draws shooting enthusiasts from
across the country.
While attractions bring in tourists, economic
and lifestyle factors continue to
create an exodus of residents in the rural
county. Northumberland County realized
a 6 percent decrease in population over
the past two decades, falling from
100,288 in 1980 to 94,556 in 2000
according to census records.
“Sunbury is a really old city,” says Jim
King, executive director of the
Northumberland Industrial Development
Authority.“Being an old city, a lot of the
housing stock is old. So, as people
become more affluent, they want to buy
a plot of land and put a house on it.
They don’t want to live in a city, house
on top of house.”
The declining county population stems
not only from the American dream of a
house with a white picket fence, but also
from the erosion of its traditional industries,
including coal, rail, textiles and manufacturing.
Ironically, the county’s largest
single employer, Butter Krust Baking Co.,
is manufacturing.
Another business anchor since 1912 is
Weis Markets, a supermarket chain that
bases its operations from Sunbury.“The
supermarkets employ lots of people, but
the fact that we have the corporate
headquarters is definitely a plus to
Sunbury,” says King.
Another backbone employer bucks the
countrywide trend of declining manufacturing.
Sunbury Textile Mills, which provides
specialty decorative jacquard upholstery
fabrics for decorators and distributors
throughout the world, employs 260
people and contributes an annual $9 million
payroll to the local economy.
“We’re a little different,” says Henry
“Hank”Treslow, Sr., chairman of Sunbury
Textile Mills Inc.“We make to order only
and we make limited volume.We’re not
completely protected from these unfair
imports, but we’re in a different sort of
business than most of those that have
Northumberland County is best known for Knoebel’s Amusement Resort at Elysburg.
Shown above is an aerial view of Knoebel’s “Twister.”
Keithan’s Blue Bird Gardens, located on a 1.5-acre tract between South Front and
South Second streets in Sunbury, displays rare species of trees with mountains of brilliantly
colored azaleas and rhododendrons.
been affected so far.”
Treslow credits the company’s success to
the area’s quality work force and strong
sense of community.“The demographic is
changing a little, but I still tell people we
live in a 1952 Saturday Evening Post
cover,” he says.“That was the ideal lifestyle
back in the 50s, sort of the ‘Happy Days’
environment. It has changed very little.”
Evidence of little change is reflected in
the abundant mix of Sunbury’s architecture,
where most buildings pre-date 1930
and include Colonial,Victorian, Queen
Anne and Art Deco styles.
“A lot of people that have lived
here their whole lives, born and
raised here, don’t seem to realize the
beauty of the architecture and the
layout of the city,” says Mark Walberg,
restoration specialist and owner of
Walberg Fine Arts and Antiques.
But the city’s business demographics
changed as downtown “mom-and-pop”
businesses succumbed to the lure of the
Susquehanna Valley Mall in nearby
Hummels Wharf.
Retailers continue to struggle while trade
school educational facilities sprout, offering
expertise in business, welding, electrical
wiring and nursing.
“For this area, since the cost of college
degrees and college institutions is so high
now, we’re seeing a trend of trade schools
coming in,” says Walberg.
He feels high-tech, Internet-based businesses
may create the foundation for the
city’s future growth.“Then you don’t
depend on people actually in your community
for your income.”
Diversity may be the county’s ticket, but
others focus on redevelopment.
“The county itself is so diverse that
there’s actually competing interests
within it,” says John Shipman, partner
with Shipman Harpster Anderson,
Selinsgrove, insurance and financial
services.“We’re hard at work on a redevelopment
project to revitalize the
riverfront with an amphitheater and
some other interesting features.”
A city neighborhood rehabilitation project
to identify and address strengths,
weaknesses and opportunities promotes
revitalized neighborhoods.
“It gets the citizenry involved,” says
Shipman.“This is an effort to get a bottom-up
grassroots kind of activism.”
Community groups hope to reverse the
economic setbacks which started in the
1950s when railroads, textiles and manufacturing
declined.“Recently there has
been a real push to rebuild the city, to
revitalize the city,” says Shipman.“Sunbury
is a city on the rise.”
Northumberland County Facts
■ The covered bridge entering Knoebel’s Amusement
Resort campgrounds was built in 1875 over West Creek
near Benton, Pa. Lawrence Knoebel bought it at auction
for $40 in 1936;
■ The Joseph Priestley House (built in 1794) in
Northumberland stands as a testament to the
lifestyle of the famed theologian and scientist who
discovered oxygen and is considered the founder of
modern chemistry; and
■ In the mid 1700s, Fort Augusta was built as a
military fort to resist Indian attacks. The fort was
Susquehanna Valley’s strong hold from the days of
the French and Indian War to the close of the
American Revolution.