Living Along Race Street

Not every building in Jim Thorpe needs to have been the home of someone famous to tell us something about old Mauch Chunk. Walking along Race Street, I was just as interested in the ordinary houses and storefronts that have survived alongside the town’s better-known landmarks.

Here, tall brick houses with decorative window surrounds stand beside smaller frame buildings with porches almost touching the sidewalk. There is little uniformity. Buildings of different sizes, materials and periods sit shoulder to shoulder, reflecting the way the neighborhood changed and grew over generations.

Race Street was never a grand boulevard. Space was limited by the mountain rising behind it, and buildings were fitted wherever the terrain permitted. Houses were narrow, lots were small, and front doors opened only a few steps from the street.

What makes the view particularly appealing today is that these buildings are still being used. Porches, shops, signs, benches and open doorways remind us that this is not a preserved museum street. People have continued to adapt these old buildings to new purposes while retaining much of the scale and appearance of the neighborhood.

We had already seen the mansions, churches and imposing public buildings that tell the story of Mauch Chunk’s wealth and importance. But streets like this tell another part of its history: the everyday places where people lived, worked, shopped and knew their neighbors. Sometimes the best way to understand an old town is simply to walk down one of its streets and imagine all the lives that have passed through the same doors.