Sayre, A Boomtown

Sayre, A Boomtown. . , The hamlet of Sayre began in Athens Township in 1870 near the Susquehanna River and at the junction of three small railroads in back of where you are now standing. Activity at and near the junction, called Southern Central Junction, led to the birth of a community eventually named Sayre which grew with the growing railroad , the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Thirty years later, by 1900, the town had experienced phenomenal growth and had expanded westward to the adjacent farmland including West Sayre, north and west to South Waverly, and to the northeast to include Milltown. The recently incorporated borough saw its population boom to a population of over 5,300 people, (1) all under the watchful eye of Howard Elmer, Sayre's founder, and (2) as a result of the many jobs created by the Lehigh Valley Railroad locating major facilities here of industrial shops, rail yards, stations, and offices. Its reputation as a railroad town was well underway. The panoramic view above (Image No. 1) shows part of Sayre's all-new downtown shortly after 1900. , By this time the 40-room mansion of the late Robert Packer, a railroad executive, civic leader, and philanthropist, already had been donated as a community hospital, especially for railroad workers, resulting in the birth of the six-bed Robert Packer Hospital. It was at the Packer Mansion (Image No. 2) that today's regional medical facility known as Guthrie Healthcare had its start in 1885. While the railroad was the keystone in the rise of Sayre as a community, today it is the medical center that maintains the keystone. Another new building in the boomtown was the Sayre "City Hall" (Image No. 3) erected in 1908 on West Packer Avenue as home to the government of the recently incorporated Borough of Sayre. This Victorian style building served as the headquarters of both the Sayre Police Department and the Sayre Fire Department, provided chambers for the borough council, and space for community meetings. The 1916 fire apparatus, seen in Image No. 3 in front of the "City Hall," was Sayre's first motorized fire truck. The growing population of Sayre and its neighboring communities of Waverly, South Waverly, Athens, and Athens Township led to the construction of a Valley-wide trolley system to serve the Valley towns. Operating 24 hours a day on 12 miles of tracks, the Waverly, Sayre and Athens Traction Company provided efficient and timely transportation until the prevalence of automobiles caused it to end in 1930. Image No. 4 shows a trolley car at the intersection of West Lockhart Street and Desmond Street. Image No. 5 shows a trolley car on Desmond Street beside the Desmond Street Park. , (For the rest of the story visit the Sayre Historical Society Museum.).