Throughout his long public and political life, Scranton has served as something of a North Star for former President Joe Biden.
Born Nov. 20, 1942, at St. Mary’s Hospital on Hickory Street in South Side, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. spent roughly the first 10 years of his life in the city, where he grew up at 2446 N. Washington Ave. in Green Ridge before his father moved the family to Delaware for work. It was a formative upbringing rich with boyhood friendships and experiences that helped shape the future 46th president of the United States — one he’s invoked over and over again in public speeches and private conversations during his decadeslong climb to the zenith of American politics.
The national ripple
Biden, 83, is out of the spotlight now after one polarizing term as commander in chief, his 2024 reelection campaign having ended after doubts among national Democrats about his age and acuity fueled pronounced intraparty pressure for him to withdraw from the race.
Working-class family values and traditions are themes Biden frequently returns to when speaking in or about Scranton, where he lauded the city during a 2019 campaign visit as a source of his values and a place that “climbs into your heart and occupies you,” no matter how long one lives here.
A longtime Democratic stalwart in the U.S. Senate, where he represented Delaware for 36 years, Biden served as vice president during former President Barack Obama’s historic tenure. Speaking in Scranton in August 2013, five years to the day after introducing Biden as his running mate, Obama said he loved the city in part because “if it weren’t for Scranton, I wouldn’t have Joe Biden.”
Biden’s loyalty and closeness to Obama bolstered his bona fides among Democrats in the party’s 2020 presidential primaries. He ultimately secured the nomination and went on to defeat incumbent President Donald Trump in 2020, taking office on Jan. 20, 2021.
His presidency featured a number of successes and major legislative achievements, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the American Rescue Plan Act pandemic-relief package that delivered $68.7 million in federal funds to Scranton. But it was also bedeviled by high inflation, affordability challenges, a border crisis and backlash to the human toll of Israel’s war in Gaza, all of which dampened Democratic enthusiasm before and after Biden dropped out of the race in July 2024, acquiescing to mounting Democratic pressure.
Living legacy
His complicated and largely unpopular tenure notwithstanding, Biden’s ascent to the presidency made Scranton one of the relatively few American cities that can claim the honor of being birthplace to a president.
It’s a connection city leaders were quick to honor even before Biden took office, with Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti and others unveiling a sign in November 2020 designating an area of North Washington Avenue outside his childhood home as “Joe Biden Way.” City leaders followed that up in 2021, by officially renaming the Central Scranton Expressway and Spruce Street downtown in honor of Biden. His childhood home at 2446 N. Washington Ave., meanwhile, remains a feature of the Green Ridge neighborhood he fondly remembers and frequently recalls.
Sidelight
Biden, who formed a close friendship with the late homeowner Anne Kearns, regularly visited her and his boyhood home during trips to Scranton. He did so in April 2024, following Kearns’ death the December prior, fulfilling a pre-election promise to return if he won the White House.
The day he made that promise, Nov. 3, 2020, Biden visited the home and wrote a message on the wall: “From this house to the White House with the Grace of God, Joe Biden, 11-3-2020.”
About the series
No. 8: As the nation approaches America250, we are counting down ways NEPA has powered American history. Missed a day? Read the full countdown as it unfolds at citizensvoice.com.