412 Welwood Avenue, Hawley John S. Atkinson's family was among the early Hawley settlers. In 1810 his father Joseph Atkinson. Sr. came to Palmyra Township, and started a lumbering business. In 1813 Joseph Atkinson, Sr. purchased six hundred acres and founded the Atkinson Box and Lumber Co. In 1831 he purchased an eight-hundred-ten-acre tract, known as "Little Manor," (most of today's Hawley Borough) as well as a water-power saw mill located at the Eddy. John S. Atkinson was born in 1812. (There were eighteen children in the Atkinson family.) It is believed he was the first non-Indian child born in the area. He worked with his father in their Promised Land lumbering company until it was sold to the D & H Canal Company. (His father died in 1852.) John S. Atkinson was elected Wayne County Commissioner in 1845, but had to resign when he moved to Pike County. He built this house about 1869, but according to census records he lived there for only a short period. His son Asher and later his two sisters resided at this address. He was seventy-seven when he died in 1889. This two-storied front gabled house has a shingled exterior, with a wing and single-story front porch attached. The double-hung windows have simple decorative wooden molding. Original hard-wood floors are part of the interior. There have been several owners throughout the years. At one time it was a funeral home and during another period an apartment house. John and Cheryl Swaney purchased the house in 1999 and did much restoration to bring it back to its original beauty.

From 1993 through 2008 the Honesdale National Bank published an annual wall calendar, each featured 13 historic sites. The sites were chosen and researched by a committee of the historical society and artwork was commissioned to Judy Hunt and William Amptman by the bank.

This page was one month of the calendar and was made possible through the Wayne County Commissioners and a Tourism Promotion Committee’s Tourism Grant.