Shenandoah, PA - An Introduction

Produced by Ian Rose and Yotam Dror.

This piece aims to weave together connections between the history of Shenandoah, a small coal mining town in Northeastern PA that went bust in the 1930's, to the current efforts to revitalize the town. In the first piece we see the founder of the Greater Shenandoah Historical Society, who is a native of Brooklyn that moved to Shenandoah in her later years. She fell in love with the town in spite of its desolate and battered facade, and made it her remaining life's work to reclaim the 1-square mile town as a multi-cultural haven. Through this woman, who is able to see the good in remnants of a time she is half a century removed from, we found the hopes and dreams of a not only this town, but all of the supposed 'busted' towns in America. In the second piece we spoke with Sol Sorin, who was raised in the town and later wrote his 1955 Master's Thesis on the town's bleak economic future.