Foot of Wallenpaupack Falls, Hawley In 1890 John S. O'Connor erected this bluestone building for the purpose of manufacturing cut glass using Dorflinger blanks. The electricity used was generated from the Wallenpaupack Falls located directly behind the building. A 300-candle power dynamo was housed in the basement. The office, roughing and stockrooms were on the first floor; the second and third floors held the designing, smoothing and polishing departments. The factory was a well-orchestrated assembly-line operation. The "Brilliant Period" in glass cutting was between 1880 and 1905. and J.S. O'Connor designed many highly collectible patterns, such as Parisian, Florentine, and Princess. He also designed special cutting wheels for circular cuts, a vacuum device that prevented glasscutters from inhaling the ground glass, and a hardwood polisher. John S. O'Connor was born in Ireland in 1831 and came to America as a child. In his youth he was an apprentice in cut-glass factories in New York City. After serving in the Civil War, he was employed by Christian Dorflinger at White Mills. He received first prize for his cut-glass submission to the Paris Exposition. In 1900 J.S. O'Connor opened a second factory in Goshen, New York. He died at his Hawley home in 1916 at the age of 85. The Country Inn at the Old Mill Stream presently occupies this bluestone building.
From 1993 through 2008 the Honesdale National Bank published an annual wall calendar, each featured 13 historic sites. The sites were chosen and researched by a committee of the historical society and artwork was commissioned to Judy Hunt and William Amptman by the bank.
This page was one month of the calendar and was made possible through the Wayne County Commissioners and a Tourism Promotion Committee’s Tourism Grant.