This information was taken from the 1917 telephone directory for Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Carbondale, Hawley, Hazleton, Honesdale, Pittston and nearby places, published by The Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania. When compared with the listing of businesses in the city directory for 1921-1922 that's also posted on this website, this 1917 list is less extensive. That doesn't necessarily mean there were that many fewer businesses in Freeland in 1917, as this is the listing of business proprietors and professionals WHO HAD TELEPHONES listed in the Bell Telephone directory in 1917. So, for example, Belezza's shoe store is listed in city directories in 1900-1901 and 1921-1922, but not in 1917. Presumably, Belezza's had not yet installed a telephone in 1917.

This 1917 telephone directory comes from Pa-Genealogy, a company that makes copies of research resources on Pennsylvania history, biography and genealogy available at very reasonable prices. They kindly gave me permission to post these business listings here. If anyone is looking for other individuals from that period and would like me to check the 1917 telephone directory for them, just send e-mail and I'll be glad to oblige. And if you know of other directories containing Freeland information, I'd be grateful to know about them. Thanks.