Pittston is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. ZIP codes are 18640, 18643 and 18641.
Based on information from the Luzerne County Association of REALTORS® MLS as of October 29, 2026.
Pittston at a Glance
Source - U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, 2020-2024.
About Pittston
Pittston sits midway between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton in Luzerne County. Settlers tied to the Susquehanna Company of Connecticut reached the area around 1770. It incorporated as a borough on April 11, 1853, and was chartered as a city on December 10, 1894. The name honors William Pitt the Elder, the British statesman.
Anthracite coal built the city. One of the region's first mines opened nearby in the 1770s, and canal and rail links in the 1800s made Pittston a shipping point for hard coal. The work drew Italian, Irish, Polish, and Eastern European families into dense residential blocks. The Twin Shaft disaster killed 58 men on June 28, 1896, in a cave-in at the Newton Coal Company's Twin Shaft Colliery. Deep mining collapsed after the Knox Mine Disaster of January 22, 1959, when the Susquehanna broke through into the workings a few miles downriver.
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Pittston's population peaked at 18,497 in 1920 and stood at 7,591 in 2020. The Pittston Tomato Festival has run every August since 1983, tied to the area's long reputation for tomato growing. Baseball Hall of Famer Hughie Jennings was born here, and insurance magnate John D. MacArthur was born just across the river in West Pittston.
The city covers about 1.7 square miles on the east bank of the Susquehanna River. Downtown Main Street has drawn steady reinvestment, and the housing runs from coal-era rowhomes and frame doubles to single-family houses on the hillsides. As the hub of the Greater Pittston area, it remains an affordable, central market between the two cities.
Current Listings in Pittston
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