What’s In The Name… Gold Star Highway
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - A crossroads sign for the Gold Star Highway is seen at the entrance to the Gold Star Plaza on May 26, 2025.
What’s In The Name? is a new ShenSentinel feature series that endeavors to explore how many facets of our geography in the lower Anthracite got their name, from streets to communities and everything in-between.
SHENANDOAH – Most in northern Schuylkill know the Gold Star Highway. The Gold Star Plaza and Gold Star Beverage take their name from the key artery and locals have assigned the name to the bridge at the south end of Shenandoah (though it’s not officially recognized as the “Gold Star Bridge” by PennDOT).
Memorial Day is, without doubt, the most fitting day to recognize what the name truly means.
Even more fitting — as this reporter was out-and-about for Memorial Day ceremonies, a car with a special Pennsylvania license plate passed by on the Gold Star.
Plate Prefix GSF, the Gold Star Family plate.
The owner of that vehicle shares something in common with the two women who cut the ribbon on the Gold Star Highway at Shenandoah and Maizeville on Nov. 21, 1949.
Often described as an “honor no one wants,” a Gold Star signifies a service member killed in active duty service.
It comes from the tradition of Service flags — designed by a World War I Army captain — which became widespread during World War II, according to the Blue Star Mothers of North America.
Families with service members deployed would hang a banner in their honor with a blue star for each member.
If, God forbid, one of them perished in the war, their star would be covered with a gold star.
The Shenandoah Chamber of Progress, tasked with deciding on a name for the highway, first planned to name it after the youngest Shenandoah Gold Star of World War II, according to the Shenandoah Evening Herald at the time. Worries over selecting that fallen hero and negative impacts on other Gold Star families led to the naming of the highway for all Gold Star families.
When the highway was finished — well, half of what we know today — two Gold Star mothers cut the ribbon at each end. In the Maizeville section of Gilberton, Mrs. Metro Skiratko of Mahanoy Plane cut the ribbon. This would have been roughly at Main Street and Campbell Avenue. The former approach to the highway still exists today, where it created the “Maizeville Bottleneck.” This was before the Gilberton overpass was constructed.
On the Shenandoah side, Shenandoah’s first Gold Star mother, Mrs. John Wardigo, cut the ribbon and opened the highway. Governor James G. Duff was on-hand for the festivities, which included a parade from Girard Park to the then-new bridge.
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