St. Joseph's Church
Hazleton, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Organized in 1882 by the Rev. Ignatius Jascovich, pioneer Slovak Catholic priest, St. Joseph's is the oldest Slovak Roman Catholic parish in the Western Hemisphere.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Organized in 1882 by the Rev. Ignatius Jascovich, a pioneering Slovak Catholic priest, St. Joseph's in Hazleton is recognized as the oldest Slovak Roman Catholic parish in the Western Hemisphere. It rose amid the anthracite coal boom that drew waves of Central and Eastern European immigrants to northeastern Pennsylvania. For those Slovak newcomers, the church was an anchor of faith, language, and community in a new land.
Why it matters
It marks a founding institution of Slovak-American Catholic life, a testament to the immigrant communities that powered Pennsylvania's coal region.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Ignatius Jascovich
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lattimer Massacre
Hazle Township, PA · est. 1972
On September 10, 1897, hundreds of unarmed immigrant coal miners marched near Hazleton to demand fairer wages and working conditions in the anthracite fields. Sheriff's deputies opened fire on the strikers, killing nineteen and wounding dozens more, most of them recent Eastern European immigrants. The bloodshed shocked the nation and became a rallying point for the growing labor movement and the United Mine Workers.
Lattimer Massacre
Hazle Township, PA · est. 1997
On September 10, 1897, a group of unarmed immigrant coal miners—Polish, Slovak, and Lithuanian—marched from Harwood toward Lattimer demanding higher pay and fair treatment. Sheriff's deputies opened fire on the peaceful column, killing nineteen and wounding many more. The dead were laid to rest in the ethnic parish cemeteries around Hazleton, and the massacre became a rallying cry for the growing labor movement in the anthracite fields.
Saints Peter and Paul Lutheran Church
Freeland, PA · est. 1971
As Slovak immigrants poured into the anthracite coal towns of northeastern Pennsylvania in the late 1800s, they carried their Lutheran faith with them. In Freeland in 1883, largely through the efforts of the pioneer Michael Zemany, they organized what is remembered as the first Slovak Evangelical Lutheran congregation in the Western Hemisphere, holding their first service that February. The present church building went up in 1886.
Eckley Miners' Village
Foster Township, PA · est. 2015
Founded in 1854 as Fillmore and soon renamed for mining engineer Eckley Coxe, this village was built to house the workers who dug anthracite coal from the hills of northeastern Pennsylvania. Many were European immigrants, and their tight rows of company houses made Eckley a classic 'coal patch' town of the late 1800s. When the collieries faded by the 1950s the community nearly vanished, only to be preserved after it served as a filming location for the 1970 movie 'The Molly Maguires' and became a state historic site.