Elissa Marsden was the Main Street Manager in Jim Thorpe in the early 1980s. After the program and the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor developed, she joined and is currently the Development Manager.She recently edited The Stne Coal Way.

JeffersonSign

Elissa Marsden helps in development of the Mount Jefferson Barney Pit for the Switchback Gravity Railroad Foundation. The Foundation was started in 1986 to work on restoration of the Switchback. Left to right are: Elissa Marsden, David Horvath – Mauch Chunk Lake Park Director, John Drury – executive director SGRRF, Levio Grosso – president SGRRF and Bob Gormley – historian of the SGRRF and property owner. 

Dugans and the Four Seasons were two of the shops in Jim Thorpe that had weathered the economic downturn. Elissa Marsden worked with them to improve their signage and facades at a time when others had had just about lost hope in the town.

Part 9 – Main Street Manager

Today, Jim Thorpe, the county seat of Carbon County, is a tourist destination. Nestled in a valley flanked by mountains on three sides, a pristine river dividing its major communities and a sparkling creek cascading through a stone archway beneath the downtown, this Victorian town, among the largest listed on the National Historic Register is—well, frankly, romantic. 

After Bruce Conrad had the downtown section of Jim Thorpe placed on the National Register as the Old Mauch Chunk Historic District, and a study by Venturi & Rauch recommended that the town be preserved, Jim Thorpe was chosen as a pilot location for the Main Street Program at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. 

Mary Means, the vice-president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, had created and tested this program of using Main Street Managers for historic preservation in three towns in the Midwest. The program was considered a success and Pennsylvania was chosen as one of the states to further test the program. Within Pennsylvania, the smallest entry, Jim Thorpe, was among the chosen. 

Elissa Marsden was completing her degree in Planning at Penn State University when she heard of the grant. “I’m fresh out of college, I’m green, and I really want to do this,” said Marsden. “I was really excited. I put my resume out and was hired by the Redevelopment Authority.” 

“I saw great architecture and a great setting, said Marsden. “But no money. There was no one walking downtown and perhaps four cars parked on Broadway. You could hear a pin drop.” 

After completing training in Washington D.C., she began by working with the surviving businesses in Jim Thorpe such as Dugan’s and Four Seasons Sporting Goods. She helped them get new signs. 

As a Main Street Manager, Marsden was trained to organize the people who wanted to see a revitalization, to promote the town, to help restructure the economy, and to promote the use of good design on the buildings. She wanted changes to the town to be authentic and historically accurate. 

She was coming on-board when two newly arrived shop owners-to-be—Tom and Betty Lou McBride arrived. They had purchased the Fraternal Order of Eagles Building (now, the Treasure Shop) and the Vathis Building (now, Ann’s Early Attic.) 

When the McBrides took over the Eagles Building, according to Marsden, “It was a horrendous pink color.” In the mid 1960s, Jim Thorpe had been transformed into a film set for the movie “The Mollie Maguires.” The art director had the buildings painted pink—and many remained that way. Marsden recommended that the building be repainted in a Victorian color scheme. 

Marsden began working with Agnes McCartney to plan local festivals and encourage tourism in Jim Thorpe. There was a Laurel Blossom Festival and a Christmas Festival. In the 1980s, no other town in the Lehigh Valley was offering a Christmas program. It drew people at an otherwise slow time of the year to listen to caroling, sip hot chocolate and for free tours of the Asa Packer Mansion. 

The Main Streets Program was funded for three years. It came at a time when business people were willing to invest in the downtown but needed some guidance in historic preservation and assurance that other businesses would similarly restore their properties in a historically consistent manner. 

In 1984, Marj Reppert opened Rosemary Remembrances II. In 1988, John Drury purchased the New American Hotel—transforming it into the Inn at Jim Thorpe, and purchased the former St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal—transforming it into the Mauch Chunk Museum. Soon, a number of historic properties were transformed into Bed & Breakfasts and gift shops. By 1990, Jim Thorpe had become a heritage-tourist destination. 

When the grant was completed, Marsden helped with marketing at Pocono Whitewater and then she and her former husband, Tom Marsden, opened Blue Mountain Sports in Jim Thorpe. 

Elissa Marsden was an early advocate for preservation of the corridor between Philadelphia and Wilkes-Barre that brought anthracite – Stone Coal to market and helped fuel the American Industrial Revolution. She joined the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Commission and continues to work on projects that affect Jim Thorpe as the D&L’s Development Manager. 

Marsden recently edited The Stone Coal Way, an introduction to the geology, history, natural beauty and industrialization along the Delaware and Lehigh Corridor that once served as the link between Philadelphia and the Carbon County and Wyoming Valley coalfields. 

A New Life – A New Vision

In 185 years, the town of Jim Thorpe has gone from its early days as Mauch Chunk - a frontier coal river port, to a major coal transportation hub serving a canal and railroads, to a economically challenged post-industrial community. 

Although the name change to Jim Thorpe, per se had minimal positive effect, the consolidation of the towns of East Mauch Chunk and Mauch Chunk  helped provide the new borough with the resources for a turnaround. A new council was elected and with the appointment of Charlie Wildoner as the new Borough Secretary, the town began rebuilding it infrastructure. 

The Army Corps of Engineers built the Francis E. Walter Dam and Beltzville Dam and, under the leadership of Agnes McCartney, the Mach Chunk Creek was dammed forming what would become Carbon County’s Mauch Chunk Lake Park. What were once sources of flooding became sources of recreation. 

McCartney, as Carbon County Planning Commission executive director, Tourist Promotion Agency president, and co-director of the Carbon-Schuylkill Manpower Agency began the process of renovation and publicizing the downtown section of Jim Thorpe. 

Bruce Conrad, an early investor in the downtown historic area of Jim Thorpe became Planning Director. He succeeded in listing 350 properties on the National Historic Register and creating the Old Mauch Chunk Historic District. 

At the same time, Conrad had a study competed that created both a plan for the development of the downtown and linked it to the creation of what would later become the Delaware & Lehigh Heritage Corridor. 

Finally, Elissa Marsden, serving as Main Street Manager, helped the historic district businesses develop into an architecturally authentic community. She continues her work helping other communities along the Stone Coal Way to restore their heritage. 

Thanks to these visionaries and many dozens like them who saw a promise, had a vision and invested their time and resources, Jim Thorpe has reincarnated itself. Surely the work is far from complete. But a process of believing is in place and this process is spreading. 

Jim Thorpe has become a model for environmental clean-up, architectural restoration, historic pride, urban sprawl reversal, and of how a community cooperation. 

Now that Jim Thorpe is in its third century, it continues to struggle with limited space, increasing traffic, rising property values and the benefits and compromises inherent in a tourism-based economy. 

Through this resurrection, Jim Thorpe once again is being called the Switzerland of America. With canals to explore, rivers to raft and fish, trails to bike, buildings to admire, art to enjoy and a warm small town of people to get to know, no wonder Jim Thorpe an eco-tourism and heritage tourism destination.