Wayne County Historical Society - Honesdale, PA
Welcome to the Wayne County Historical Society, home of the full-size replica of the Stourbridge Lion, the first locomotive to run on commercial track in the United States.
Our main museum and museum shop are housed in a building built in 1860 as headquarters of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company. The D & H Gravity Railroad, which carried anthracite coal from the mines of Lackawanna County to Honesdale, met the D & H Canal directly behind the building. The canal carried the coal from Honesdale to Rondout, New York, on the Hudson River.
The Marjorie Smith Gallery connects the 1860 building with the Jason Torrey land office, headquarters of one of the county's earliest entrepreneurs. Four additions built to house our expanding collections and research library complete the 810 Main Street complex in Honesdale.....continue reading.
Our Museums
D & H Canal Park at Lock 31
The D&H Canal Park at Lock 31 has 16 beautiful acres to explore. The site…
The D & H Canal Park at Lock 31
According to Phineas Goodrich in his 1880 book, History of Wayne County, Pennsylvania, “about [1815], Jason Torrey, Abisha Woodward, and Moses Kellam bought the place afterwards called the Daniels farm, built a frame house, called it New Castle, and carried on lumbering on a large scale there for many years, and then sold out the premises to Joseph Atkinson who in his turn, sold to Russell Daniels from Connecticut. [Daniels] became a noted lumberman, and for many years kept a public house…The lumber manufactured at New Castle was always in demand at Philadelphia.”
News and Events
Oct 8, 2023, 10:00 AM
Date: Saturday, October 7, 2023
Start Time: 9:15am
Start Location: Bethany Presbyterian Church, 431…
Oct 8, 2023, 10:00 AM
WCHS will sponsor a guided walking history tour of Lock 31 on October 7th at 10am. Cost is $10 with…
Oct 21, 2023, 2:00 PM
Please join us to honor and celebrate the 6 award winners who have demonstrated their dedication to…
Oct 31, 2023, 6:00 AM
The WCHS is a 501(c)(3) organization, so your donations to the Society qualify as tax-deductible…