The inside of Grablick’s Dairy, Church St., Pittston, where sundaes were 25¢ in the middle of the last century.
Photo courtsey of Mary Portelli.
All of the structures have been razed over the year from the former church to the right, including the last to fall, the former Grablick’s Dairy. The City of Pittston Mayor Michael Lombardo is looking to develop the area making private parking for residents and adding additional housing.
Photo courtsey of Mary Portelli.
The demolition crew razed the former Pittston Grablick’s Dairy Bar at the end of Feb. New housing and parking is slated for the property.
Anthony Marranca photo
PITTSTON – What stood as a longtime popular spot for ice cream on Church Street is no longer. The original and former Grablick’s Dairy Bar has been razed to make way for parking and housing.
Paul Grablick created Grablick’s Farmer’s Dairy in 1915 on Church Street until 1924. The name was eventually changed to Grablick’s Dairy.
In 1924, Grablick sold the dairy business where it was renamed Pittston Dairy.
Eventually, Paul’s son Sylvester C., along with his brother-in-law Stanley Romane opened Diamond Bottling in Pittston bottling soda. The duo closed the business and went back to producing milk in 1930.
The partners constructed the modern dairy on Church Street. Both Paul and his son, Sylvester C., had separate businesses operating under the Grablick’s Dairy name. Sylvester C. and Stanley incorporated as a new business venture and trademarked the Grablick’s Dairy name in 1935.
In 1936, the ice cream store was opened on Church Street followed by a store in West Pittston in 1937.
Upon Stanley Romane’s death in 1943, Sylvester C. was the sole proprietor until his son; Sylvester J. Grablick joined the business in the late 1950s.
Angelo Portelli, Sylvester C.’s son-in-law, joined the business in 1948 when they developed the popular Grablick’s ice cream recipe; it was a rich premium ice cream made only with the highest quality ingredients.
In 1951, Grablick’s replaced the old West Pittston store with a larger building on the corner of Wyoming and Delaware Avenues. An addition was added in 1960.
With the death of Sylvester C. in 1965, Sylvester J. took over until his death in 1976. Angelo Portelli became president and served until both stores closed in Dec. 1985.
According to Mary Portelli, daughter of late Angelo and Lorraine Grablick Portelli, after many owners of the building in West Pittston, Miller Rosentel Associates Inc., an architectural firm now owns the structure.
“When the property came up for sale, a few months ago, we decided to pursuit it,” Mayor Michael Lombardo said on behalf the City of Pittston. “We made a huge investment with Steeple View (apartment complex) across the street, so we were paying attention to the Grablick’s property.”
The city purchased the land and immediately demolished the condemned former ice cream bar and apartment above.
“The objective on the property is in two phases,” Lombardo continued. “We are going to create the first prototype municipal residential parking lot and it will be very affordable for residents. It will be under $50 a year to have a protected parking spot reserved with security cameras and lighting.”
The second phase would be exploration of the existing former dairy milk/ice cream plant to turn it into residential.
“That’s the plan as of now,” Lombardo added. “We will historically restore the Grablick’s sign and we are going to do an historical marker to Grablick’s. That’s the plan to clean up that area and we think we can get some housing units on it and we will look into engineering and architectural services to give us a proposal to see what we can do with the building.”
Lombardo said the building is bigger than it looks and feels there is great potential for housing.
He also said, if the building is sound, he would like to see a second floor added to the building.
“The Grablicks project, I think, would be a really good project, it continues the idea of adding more residential and we are on year 15 with no tax increase,” Lombardo said. “That’s because we have growth, we have growth in residential downtown, and we just flipped a house on Butler St., and the proceeds from that project will go into another one.”
Lombardo said he considers the Grablick’s property a crucial project that will be used as a model for future development.
