About the town » Duryea, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States

Duryea is a borough in the Greater Pittston area of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States, 9 miles (14 km) south of Scranton situated along the east bank of the Susquehanna, extending up the Lackawanna River from its confluence between the two. Duryea was incorporated as a borough in 1891, and had an import switching rail yard, the Duryea yard (or Muller yard) connecting the central Wyoming Valley to destinations in both east and west lower New York State and down-state Pennsylvania to Harrisburg and the via the Lehigh Valley (Reading Allentown, Philadelphia, et al.). Coal mining and the manufacture of silk were the chief industries in the early years of its existence. The population numbered 7,487 in 1910 in the heyday of Anthracite mining and 8,275 in 1940. The population was 4,917 at the 2010 census.In 2011, the borough received national attention for its role in the landmark Supreme Court case Borough of Duryea v. Guarnieri, in which the court stated that "a government employer's allegedly retaliatory actions against an employee do not give rise to liability under the Petition Clause unless the employee's petition relates to a matter of public concern."