Introduction

The Borough of Bear Creek Village is a special place with a rich and varied history. The Borough's story is compelling enough, in fact, that a large part of the community has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places - our nation's official list of sites and places which are important to the national heritage - as the Bear Creek Village National Historic District.

According to the National Register of Historic Places, the Bear Creek Village National Historic District derives its significance from several criteria:

First, the Village contains what is, in essence, an intact company town associated with the lumbering and ice industries. It also displays the evolution of summer resort development in the Pocono Mountain region of Pennsylvania.

The Village is significant for its association with entrepreneur Albert Lewis (1840-1923), who developed the lumbering industry, the ice industry, the company town, and seasonal resort activities at Bear Creek. Through his career, Lewis created business partnerships and arranged land deals that gave him the title of "Lumber and Ice King of Luzerne County." Operating from his Bear Creek base, Albert Lewis' influence extended throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania. He was a partner in the Glen Summit Hotel with the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and was instrumental in the founding of the lumbering and ice-producing towns of Noxen, Alderson, Stull, and Harvey's Lake. Lewis is unique among many of his contemporaries because he chose to live and work in the company town he created, instead of joining the area's other elites in downtown Wilkes-Barre.

Finally, the Village's grouping of high style and vernacular buildings associated with two different aspects of the community's history - its turn-of-the-century role as Albert Lewis' proprietary village, and its role as a rustic mountain getaway for the well-to-do of the Wyoming Valley - invest it with historic architectural significance.

This summary, exerpted directly from the narrative sections of the Bear Creek Village National Register registration form, is intended to provide the citizens of the Borough of Bear Creek Village with an overview of their community's rich history.

1. Bear Creek Village: The Lumbering Years
2. The Rise of the Ice Harvesting Industry
3. The Logistics of Ice Harvesting
4. The End of the Ice Industry
5. Bear Creek as a Seasonal Resort
6. The Architectural Evolution of Bear Creek Village
7. MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES