Uniquely Slatington

Every small town has its Main Street. It may not be called Main Street but it is still the main street.  Every small town has its parks and its library. Every small town has its collection of churches and its collection of bars. Every small town has its doctors and its lawyers. I write about my home town, Slatington, a lot. So I tried to think, other than the fact that I grew up there, what makes Slatington unique among small towns?

I came up with three answers. If you can think of others, please leave a comment.

First there is our Hundred Steps. Here is a picture.

The Hundred Steps were built decades ago, and before my time. They connect Uptown Slatington with Downtown Slatington. I don’t know how often they get used but they are still maintained by the borough. My older brothers tell stories of them running up the stairs at school lunchtime, from the Roosevelt Elementary building all the way to the end of West Franklin Street, just to eat lunch at home. My good friend Christy Haydt, an expert on Slatington history, told me there are not actually a hundred steps, but it is somewhere in the 90s.

The second unique thing about Slatington is the fish hatchery. Here is a picture.

How many towns can lay claim to having a fish hatchery on Main Street?  It was the first town reservoir. I am not sure when it was no longer the reservoir but it is still a fish hatchery to this day. It was a fish hatchery when  I was a little kid. Most of the fish raised here end up in Trout Creek, which flows through the middle of town.

The final unique thing about Slatington is Bedbug Cave. Sorry, no picture. It’s not really a cave. It is a tunnel that contains slate quarries. The tunnel burrows under homes in the middle of town. It was a fun, and scary, place to hang out in my youth, very warm in the winter and cool and refreshing in the summer.  It got its name, Bedbug, because it was right next to a mattress factory. The ruins of the mattress factory are still there as is a little bit of the entrance to the cave. For safety reasons, it is supposed to be off limits to today’s youth.  Not many towns have tunnel quarries underneath them.

A lot of today’s Slatington residents don’t even know about the Hundred Steps nor Bedbug Cave. The fish hatchery is right on Main Street so people see it all the time but may not know what it is.  What makes your town unique?  I know what is unique about today…it’s the first day of winter and it’s 60 degrees!