John M. Hart Jr. | The Dunmorean

By Steve Svetovich

Larger than Life. Solid words to describe this scribe’s friend, confidante and fellow newsman for the past nearly four decades.

He is none other than John Hart, the owner/publisher of The Dunmorean newspaper and other sister newspapers for the past 34 years.

The veteran newsman, who had a big appetite for almost anything, died late last month at 70.

He was a local Barnum and Bailey, a man with big ideas who was not afraid to pursue them in full force.

He was a great family man, newsman, businessman, collector of pipes, toy soldiers, die-cast cars, and model trains, history buff and storyteller.

At one time, I believe he owned 14 antique cars.

Being an active part of Civil War living history in Gettysburg became his forte and he dressed the part.

He was often referred to as “King John” or “The General” and he played the part well.

John’s passion for food was well noted. I remember sitting in the Mid Valley News office in Olyphant once with him and late Scranton Mayor James Barrett McNulty. Both said they were hungry and ordered pizza. They left the office and came back later with not one or two, but four large trays of pizza just for the two of them. And the broad smile on their faces will never be forgotten by this scribe.

He commanded respect. This was easily witnessed when he entered a store. He would get immediate attention from sales persons, checkers, and cashiers. It was not uncommon for John to be granted easy access to the front of the line.

He was proud of his Hart Free Library situated near his home and where books were freely shared.

This scribe came to know John Hart in the mid 1980’s as a young reporter entering The Scrantonian Tribune while he John was exiting to become deeply involved in a community effort to establish the world’s largest steam railroading museum in Scranton – Steamtown. He joined the museum’s board of trustees and later rose to the position of chief operating officer.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed the Steamtown National Historic Park Act into law, allocating $88-million to establish Steamtown as the nation’s newest historic site.

The National Park Service honored John Hart as the linchpin in the establishment of the historic site.

After his tenure at Steamtown, he ventured into the commercial printing business and rekindled his interest in journalism, creating several community newspapers, including The Dunmorean in 1989.

And that is when this scribe reconnected with John Hart, the newsman.

After serving as a general assignment reporter and later Dunmore correspondent for the Scrantonian Tribune until the newspaper folded in 1989, this scribe went on to cover general news features, sports and the Dunmore beat for The Sunday Sun.

When The Sunday Sun folded, it was only natural to join John Hart and his late partner Bob McCarthy at The Dunmorean covering meetings, feature stories, sports and writing a human interest column.

Soon this scribe was covering just about everything and writing the Doin’ Dunmore human interest column, Dunmorean of the Month, Athlete of the Month, Police Blotter and sports column, Dishin’ Dirt. This is all thanks to the freedom allotted to me by John Hart.

He was soon to name this scribe sports editor, allowing for more freedom to write about the student-athletes at Dunmore and Holy Cross High Schools.

John Hart was always thinking though. His mind worked that way. He always looked for a new venture or business opportunity. Eventually his partner McCarthy left, but John ventured on.

There were other newspapers he started or took over such as Active Senior, The Paper, The Mid Valley News, and The Scranton Weekly. This scribe wrote for all of them. If John had an idea, he always ended up with me as his reporter.

His first wife of 26 years, the former Mary Margaret (Meg) Holland, a former Scranton School District teacher, died in 2005. The couple had two children: Elizabeth Mary McDonald, a clinical dietician, and Atty. John M. Hart III, the owner of Hart Law and solicitor for the City of Scranton. John was very proud of them. He was most proud of his three grandchildren: Padraig Liam McDonald, John Martin Hart IV and Jameson Maxim Hart.

His second wife of 16 years, the former Maureen Garcia-Pons is the faithful editor of The Dunmorean, the one newspaper creation of John that has withstood 34 years and still counting.

As the years working together mounted, this scribe and John also developed a personal friendship and kinship beyond the journalistic world we both knew so well. John often invited me for a beer or two to his guest room or front porch and he would share stories of his various life adventures, traveling and countless comical stories about his fellow newsroom employees at the defunct Scrantonian Tribune and political friends and foes. He was a tremendous story teller.

We often spoke that there were few surviving members left of the old Scrantonian Tribune. At last count, there were about 15 left. Now there is one less and a big one at that.

John wrote his own obituary and planned part of his own funeral which was filled with dignitaries and many of his friends dressed in Civil War garb. His funeral ended with his son and daughter playing a taped recording of John telling a story about how he met and had breakfast with Frank Sinatra. Only John Hart could do that.

Then they played a tape of their dad singing his trademark song, “Baby Face.”

Bagpipers playing Irish music and funeral goers filled the streets as they marched from Saint Clare’s Church to the Hart home on North Washington Avenue home after the funeral concluded. They played “Going Home.” It was only fitting for the man with the huge appetite who enjoyed life to the fullest.

“Only John could pull off a grand funeral like that,” said his close friend Thomas Jordan, retired former principal at Robert Morris Elementary School. “It was most definitely fitting to go off in grand style like that.”

John Hart provided this scribe with the forum to write hundreds of columns over the past 34 years and I am forever grateful .

There will be a void felt by many with his passing.

Rest in peace, my friend. Along with your family, I will keep my promise to you to help keep The Dunmorean alive in your memory.

By John M. Hart III, Esq.

Picture yourself walking down an English street almost a century ago and you want to get in touch with a friend. You wouldn’t reach into your pocket and pull out a phone, rather you’d walk to the nearest red telephone kiosk, topped with a dome made of segmented curves, a national icon that anyone can quickly identify with Great Britain.

While the famous British Phone Booth we picture today isn’t the original design, it has been the main design, for the better part of its iterations, since the early 1920s, after Sir Giles Gilbert Scott submitted his winning design for an architecture competition. The phone booth remained in service for decades until the need for phone booths dwindled due to technological advancements.

It’s clear that English phone booths were stylish, particularly compared to the ones I remember here in the States when I was growing up. But they also served a bigger purpose besides the convenience of placing a call when you were nowhere near a “landline” in a building. They also provided privacy.

The newest version of the Hart Free Library is in the offices of Hart Law, East Grove Street, Dunmore.

The telephone booth is a particularly interesting, yet overlooked, device in our society. It even came up in a landmark case while I was studying in law school. In Katz v. United States, 389 US 347 (1967), a gentleman was using a phone booth that federal agents had previously planted an eavesdropping device to the outside of… without a warrant.

Based on his phone conversations, the agents charged him with several counts of illegal transmission of wagering to various cities across the country and he was found guilty based upon that evidence. He appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court, arguing that he was entitled to Fourth Amendment protection and that the wiretap on the phone booth was an unreasonable search and seizure. He won.

The need for a phone booth was even taken into consideration with the design of our footwear. Did you ever wonder why they call them “penny loafers”? I did, so I looked it up. In the 1930s, a phone call at a phone booth cost two cents. The penny loafer was designed specifically with just enough space to fit a penny in each shoe, so whenever you were out and about town, you could always place an emergency phone call. (https://magazine.brooksbrothers.com/penny-thoughts/)

Speaking of the cost of a phone call, have you ever heard the phrase “drop a dime”? At some point in the phone booth’s history, a phone call cost 10 cents. And due to the anonymity of using a phone booth, if someone wanted to “snitch” or “rat” on someone, they’d drop a dime in the phone, and call in to the police to report a crime.

But much like the passage of time, the intended use of the phone booth, and its interesting idioms that came with them, has come and gone. Yet while the intended uses are no more, those landmark monuments remain, particularly the British-styled booths, and we are left to repurpose them because we can’t get over their nostalgic charm. And because of that iconic charm, we don’t just repurpose them, but even replicate them. I know, because we did.

For those that don’t know, Maureen Hart, (the editor/publisher of the Dunmorean), is an avid book reader. And when she learned of an organization called littlefreelibrary.org, a nonprofit organization in St. Paul, Minnesota, whose vision is to have a little free library in every community and a book for every reader, she wanted in.

So, she set to planning to build one in the Green Ridge neighborhood of Scranton. The typical style of a library for this program is small–think breadbox on a mailbox post–and can hold maybe a dozen books at most. The idea is that anyone can walk by, drop off a book, pick up a book, swap a book, whatever they want to do. The goal is to just promote reading and make books accessible to all.

*John Hart Jr. poses with the Hart Free Library prior to the ribbon-cutting on Sept. 28, 2013.*

But when Maureen discussed the plans with her husband, she didn’t get a bread box. Her husband, the founder of the Dunmorean, and my father, John M. Hart, Jr., doesn’t do anything small. Everything he does requires a parade, a ribbon-cutting ceremony, or a speech.

For this scheme, a ribbon-cutting ceremony, a few speeches, and a couple of past mayors were added for good measure. Instead of a 12-book library, he envisioned a British-style phone booth. At first, he wanted an official, decommissioned British phone booth, as discussed in detail above. But the cost would have been astronomical to ship, let alone purchase. So, he had a replica designed and built to house the new neighborhood book collection.

When I learned of this endeavor, I was a skeptic. I figured it would attract vandalism, among other things. But it still stands to this day, albeit it’s seen better days. I was amazed to see the community’s reception. People of all ages visit the library round the clock. Children come with their parents to pick out a book, teens come to get books or even get their photos taken near it, or in it. Elderly come often and treasure the ease of access to books. And people periodically drop off books for a new owner to discover.

Sure, some of those donors tend to treat it like a book dumpster, and leave cardboard boxes outside, (which we aren’t keen about) but for the most part, it’s a wonderful place and an incredible landmark in our neighborhood.

The “little” free library is still in service today and can be seen and used at 1175 Morel Street, Scranton, PA 18509. It’s located near Park Gardens, in Green Ridge, just a block away from Marywood University.

As mentioned earlier, it’s getting a little worse for wear, but it is now a registered non-profit, and has a GoFundMe account. (Scan the QR Code to donate!) If you get a chance to check it out, please do, and consider contributing.

And if that location is a bit out of the way for you, we’d like to welcome you to stop by Hart Law, (134 E. Grove Street, Dunmore, PA 18510) where we started up our own Little Free Library. It may not be as grandiose as our British Phone Booth location, but it’s convenient, and we welcome anyone to stop by for a visit and talk about their favorite book!