SWPA Rural Exploration

Arensburg, PA. The Fayette Side Of The Crucible Ferry. A question.

2012-02-01T11:18:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, Chip and I headed out to scout some new locations and enjoy the mid 60 degree temperatures of the end of January. We hopped the ferry in Fredericktown and headed to the Fayette landing of the Crucible ferry. Chip had it in his head to climb the huge waste piles from the Crucible mine (yea, we know the dangers) and take some pictures. When we got there, via walking north up the railroad tracks, we quickly decided this sounded better in theory then in reality, so we put that entry point on the back burner for now.

Crucible mine slate dumps now

And.......

Then...1938.

It's weird. I've lived my whole adult life in Greene county, but know very little history from right across the river in Fayette county, and that was evident today as we walked the CSX tracks.

About a tenth of a mile north of the ferry landing we ran into these ruins....

Hard to see here, but this old foundation runs to the river and is exceedingly large.

A little further up the tracks we ran into this.....

Obviously, some sort of pumping operation, but for what? I know down the river at Ronco, an old water treatment plant existed years ago, but I think that serviced the town of Ronco. There is really nothing around these old buildings/foundations.

The area in question is shown in this picture, taken in 1938. You can see the Crucible mine on the Greene side w/ all its barges and buildings, but in the questioned area, it doesn't look like there is a whole lot going on.

Bing maps it isn't, but not too bad a shot for 1938, eh?

View of the old Crucible mine site from Fayette

And for you boaters, its basically behind the Omaha Beach area, as pictured here:

So, the question is, what in fact was this place once? Any ideas?

The Hollywood Theater, California, PA.

2012-01-31T16:09:00.002-05:00

From a calender I bought a few years back

So it's January 31st, and 63 degrees in SWPA. This is really unheard of. I'm outside on the deck typing this in, it's still so nice out. Anyway, Chip and I decided to get out in this fantastic weather and scope out future exploration sites. Danielle had to work on this fine specimen of a day and we felt truly bad about this, so we went up to Elco PA and had a nice meal and beer at the always scenic High Point bar to make us feel better.

Wonderful view from the High Point bar

We decided to leave via California, PA and drove through town and noticed something odd. They were in the process of taking down the old Hollywood Theater. Now, I went to Cal U back in the late 80's and early 90's and I have never remembered this theater to have been open. So did a quick internet search of this place. I found this little description in Cinema Treasures

This theater was opened in July 1938 of concrete block construction, and had a 999 seating capacity, all on a stadium plan. Operated into the late-1960’s with the last regular operater being the Friedlander family. Opened several times for concerts or late night showings on an irregular basis during the early-1970’s.

Last opened late-1970’s for a two year stretch or so. Closed in early-1978, and all seats and equipment removed in the 1980’s. Basement housed a bowling alley which was open to the late-1980’s until being flooded. Attached storefront now a florist shop. Marquee still on building."

"Ulu Grossbard’s STRAIGHT TIME starring Dustin Hoffman was the last film to play. "

Borrowed this image from above source, c. 1975

Below are a few pictures of the theater coming down.

Close to 1975 view, but today

So Chip walked on up to the door and peered through a small opening and quickly declared "lets head around back"! What he noticed while I was snapping pictures, was light seeping through the hole.....A clue to what was around back.

Chip noticed the multicolored 1970's era plastic bowling alley seats in the basement (item described not pictured, sold separately) and was very correct as this being used as a bowling alley once

If you plan a visit, I suggest go quickly!

Further reading....here, at the Friends Of The Hollywood Theater FB site, but it's a little to late now....

Hoover Coke Works - Hoover, PA

2012-01-29T17:35:00.001-05:00

The Hoover Coke Works are located near McClellandtown, PA. At its peak, the Hoover Coke works had 196 working ovens. The adjacent patch town of Hoover is quite small – so small, in fact, that it never even had a company store. The coke works were initially owned by the James H. Hoover Company of McClellandtown but were later operated by the Pennsylvania Coal Company. The Hoover Coke Works shut down just short of the 1960s.

What’s left now are the bank ovens – the rest of the ovens have been demolished. The leftover coke ovens are strangely elevated above ground – this is because the area where the workers would normally stand was excavated to make room for vehicles as they reclaimed the slate dump. Towards the end of the ovens, near the remains of the waste pile, is a block room where supplies were likely stored.

Now, as the ovens are slowly decaying into the ground and the bricks that made up the outer facing disintergrate, the ovens are an interesting way to see the construction of a beehive oven. While a beehive oven is still intact, its hard to see why they are referred to as beehive ovens - after all, the just look like long blocks. But as the bricks crumble, you can see the beehive shape of the actual ovens.

Entering Hoover

The Hoover patch

One oven intact, another decaying

The stone wall on one side of the ovens

View through the top of the oven

The elevated ovens

As the brick facing decays and falls, you can see the inner beehive

Another view of the construction of the beehive inside

This one has fallen apart so much there is daylight between facing and oven

An almost intact oven

The brick insides of the oven spilling out

Decaying brick

Another oven in a state of decay

The supply room

What's left of the waste pile

The coke works

Visits: Margaret Mitchell & the Crucible Ferry

2012-01-23T20:07:00.003-05:00

At SWPARE our goal is to record our local history and tell the stories behind the places we show. What's the point in posting a picture of something or somewhere if you don't know the significance behind it? Most of the time we rely on our friends, families, and neighbors to pass down the history of the area. Sometimes, it is left to speculation or a story that isn't 100% accurate. Thats ok, though. We like doing a little detective work and seeing what we can learn. It builds character.

If you have been following the blog for any amount of time, you've heard (or read) me drone on about the Nekoda, aka the Crucible Ferry. I vaugley remember the ferry as a child and am unsure if I ever crossed on it. Recently, after posting some pictures of the ferry provided by the Begovich family, the conversation started as to the current location of the Nekoda. We heard that it was scrapped for metal, removed for restoration and in a museum. We heard the deck was salvaged and being used by the salvage company and we heard it was now a boat launch near Pittsburgh .So, being the inqusitive kids we are...we figured we would go straight to the source...

At one time cable ferries were common on the Monongahela river as everyday passage before the more modern bridges were built. Fortunately, we still have the Fredricktown Ferry to look to and even take a ride on. Many folks still use it to cross the Mon between Washington and Fayette Counties; just a bit to the south was the Crucible ferry. It operated near the Crucible mine carrying the miners back and forth to work. The original ferry was constructed of wood and purchased by the Mitchell family from Crucible mine following its completion. When wooden ferries were phased out,the Mitchell family built the Nekoda, which operated for many years. Several men ran the ferry but the owner/operator who everyone remembers is Margaret Mitchell. A tiny woman who earned her college degree in the 1920s (not so common in those days), Margaret had light hair and what was, as described by one of our readers, "alabaster skin". I've heard many stories about Margaret, most of which revolve around her being a hard worker as well as independent.

I met Margaret in the winter of 93. If you recall, we had a large, seemingly overnight snow which pretty much shut down the entire area. Power was out as well as telephone service. I was a member of Rices Landing Fire Department and we were converging at the firehall to use the trucks to help folks who were snowed in. Chief Murray Kline told me "C'mon kid, we gotta go check on Margaret." "Ok," I thought, "who's Margaret?" We worked our way down the hill and up to the road where Margaret's house was. The snow was up to our waists and it took some doing for me and several of the other firemen to reach the house. The house was dark, even in the day and, needless to say, it was cold. We got to the porch and I followed Murray in to check on Margaret. I remember him loudly calling her name and whispering over his shoulder, "We don't wanna surprise her!" Looks of determination were on our faces as we were fully prepared to sled dog this poor woman to the firehouse until her power was restored. It was not to be.

Sitting in the living room in her shawl and bubushka, Margaret was huddled near a small coal stove, her stockings black from the soot. She had a bucket of coal and seemed unconcerned by the cold and almost amused by our "rescue" attempt. When she refused to go, stating she was fine, we looked at the Chief and said, "Now what?". I remember the smile Murray had on his face when he shrugged his shoulders and said, "She says she's fine". He assured her we would check back on her and off we went back down the driveway. Aparently, those who were familiar with Margaret knew there was little point in arguing with her. My dad told me it was common to see her toting a burlap sack of coal up the steep steps from the landing. Think about that next time you have to get off the couch to bump up the thermostat on your electronic heat pump.

It probably shouldn't surprise you to know Margaret is alive and well. At 101 years young, she now resides in a nearby nursing home. I called the other night to arrange a visit. I soon recieved a phone call from Margaret's newphew, Jerry, who was not only kind enough to ok the visit but share some of the story with us. We plan to meet with Jerry soon and learn much more about his Aunt and the Nekoda...so enjoy our short video and photos. We plan to update this post with more photos and info as we can. If you know Margaret and have a story to share, PLEASE do!!!

A little about the video: Margaret's hearing is very poor and we wrote notes to ask her questions. She was thrilled with the photos of the ferry we brought and studied them closely. She is soft spoken, so listen closely. At the tail end of the video, I asked her about the time someone attempted to rob her on the ferry. I shook my fist and asked if she "gave em some of this". Her smile answered my question just fine.

Shoaf Coke Works. Last of the beehive coke ovens. Shoaf, PA Fayette County

2012-01-20T11:16:00.000-05:00

Larry cars left on top of the oven banks

A few days ago, Danielle and myself took a drive from Greene County, PA, over the river to the Shoaf Coke Works in Fayette County. As you look at our blog posts, coke ovens are really nothing out of the ordinary in SW PA. We even have one in Greene County at the Poland Coke Works.

The larry cars today....

....and then. (photo courtesy Lost Monongahela)

What makes the Shoaf Coke Works unique is the fact that it was the last operating, profitable beehive coke oven in the United States. Shoaf started out as a coal mine and ceased mining in 1951, but remained coking until 1972.

Menallen Coke Co. bought the Shoaf mines

from H.C. Frick Coke Co., who built the operation and patch town in 1904.

Oven banks now

...and from the 1930's (photo courtesy coalcampusa.com)

The old mine (from Coalcampusa.com)

Shoaf could not meet the new clean air standards being imposed upon the country. Pollution control devices were installed and worked, but the rules kept changing. Even though profitable, it was forced to shut down.

It was once said that this is the best preserved coke ovens in the nation, as they basically walked away from the operation, leaving everything as it was, but 40 years of abandonment are taking their toll. Another business has moved into part of the location and the area is now heavily posted, except around the point we went in.

The historical video below shows Shoaf, probably in the 1950's, operating at full steam

What I find interesting about this video is that at around the 40 second mark, we stood under the bridges where the larry cars were crossing and took the following picture, albeit 50 some years later....

I have heard that this place is on the historic register from some people, but I have also read that the current owners plan on razing the whole thing to strip mine the coal below the site. So I guess its future is undecided.

Below are some images we took on our walk around this massive site, that grey, wet day. Click on any photo to enlarge.

Inside of the tipple

tipple machinery

Look at the cart in this shot from 2 years ago....

...and it was gone this visit.

The tipple in the background was brought in from the anthracite coal fields in the early 1960's and reassembled here.

The early bagger, or pollution control device on the left

You can see this old extractor in operation on the video above

The old coke extractor sits rusting away near the ovens.

Larry car elevated tracks

Tipple

More old equipment, just left behind.

Railroad car dated from the 1930's

Ladders to the larry car tracks

I see these Garfield bricks at a lot of oven locations.

These pipes collected the smoke and ran it to the bagger pollution control area. I heard it worked, but the EPA changed the rules after they saw that it functioned.

Coke extractor machinery.

Bags of graphite.

Tipple control box.

2012-01-18T15:29:00.000-05:00

1-18-2012. Please visit Google.com today and sign the petition against PIPA and SOPA.These acts could take away sites like SWPARE.Thank You.

Rices Landing Rails To Trails Gateway Mine Ruins. Now and Then. Greene County, PA Greene River Rails to Trails.

2012-01-13T23:48:00.009-05:00

Every other day or so, when I'm not working or getting a pizza and a beer or two at Caputos in Dry Tavern,

Chip, Evan and Danielle suggest the calzone and hot pepper cheese balls. And copious amounts of beers at Caputos

I find myself on the Greene River rails to trail in Rices Landing, either biking or running.

The Rails to Trails, opened for business in the mid 2000's, is a nice little trail that for the moment covers about 5 miles up from the old Crucible mine to the Greene Cove in Millsboro, PA. I did a short video of the trail here, AND, as an added bonus, a Winter Walk here, so you too can vicariously enjoy this trail in all the summer and winter splendor, but I digress. Park in Rices Landing and head towards Millsboro, and you will notice this carved into the hillside.....

(If you only come here in the summer, you might not even see it),

So, If you're like me, you wonder just what that was.

What you look at is the remains of the former Gateway mine.

Gateway, formerly Edward and Emerald, first opened in 1921. It was renamed Gateway in 1963 by a subsidiary of the companies that used its output. The Morgan Township mine closed in 1989.

I never realized that it operated that long, and I drove by it every day commuting to Cal U. it just goes to show that sometimes you take things for granted when they are here.

Anyway.....

I have always wondered just what this looked like

while it was up and running and tonight I found out.

Thanks to the Ten Mile Creek Country blog,

I found a picture that puts my wondering mind at ease.

Once upon a time, we cared about history and heritage and while we biked and ran and walked our dogs on the trail, we passed this....

This was the old barge load out. I admit, when the trail was being developed, there were stairs still in place up into this, and you could climb up and look at the long wooden hallway slope to the river. So I did and was just amazed looking down that long wooden slope towards the river. Of course, I didn't have a camera that day, but I will always remember that day climbing up there. Next couple times I went back, the stairs were gone and the structure, fenced in. And it sat that way for about 6 or 7 years. Then heritage and history (who needs that), took a back seat to public safety, and while biking almost two years ago I came across this....

Resulting in this.....

Scenic, eh?

So, next time you make your way down the trail from Rices Landing, look to your left at the 1.3 mile marker and realize this.....

You can see where the load out was along the rivers bend.

Beautiful in winter

....and whats under the above picture....pretty neat.

And this.......

Looking from the sealed portal to the load out

The sealed area where the coal came out....

And this......

and this.....

Was once this.......

Pretty cool, eh?

History.

It's fun.

Abandoned Mather PA Mine Railroad Bridge

2012-01-11T18:00:00.001-05:00

Even though Chip, Danielle and myself have lived in this are for most of our lives, sometimes we find something close by, but "new" to us all. This Bridge was one of those finds. While I was doing some reading on the Ten Mile Creek Country blog concerning the Jefferson/Mather railroad station, I noticed he mentioned a branch of the then Monongahela RR crossing the creek into the Mather mine. I had never seen and/or heard about this before so I looked at the Bing maps, hoping to see at the very least the remains of the bridge, but to my surprise, the bridge was still erect. Well, most of it.

It being a overcast, rainy day and all, Chip and I set out to find our bridge. Now the Mather Mine is a blog in itself, and we will cover that in the future, but quickly, the Mather mine was a huge mine built in 1917 and operating into 1964. Say "Mather" to anyone in our generation, and they will respond w/ something to do w/ the waste pile. The waste pile was, and still is huge. Some said it was one of the few man made objects that could be seen from outer space. Through the years, they have reclaimed some of it, but its size is still looming as one stands under it.

A rather terrible picture depicting just how big the waste pile is. Trust us, it's large.

Bing image of Mather and the pile. The fallen bridge can be seen upper left.

But back to the bridge...

A rambling video discussing Mather, trains, waste piles, bridges, Van Halen, chicks and whatnot. If you just wanna see the bridge, head past the 4 minute mark

We just had to walk a short distance to the bridge and found it as we were told about it, with a section fallen. It seems that the two end abutments were both concrete and wood, while the center was purely concrete. From our best guess, the timbers on one side simply failed, or we noticed some fire damage to the top, causing the one section to collapse.

Chip explaining his "falling bridge theory" or telling me why I should go to Van Halen w/ him

The top of the wood supports was burnt. Maybe this is how it fell?

I'm sure one of you out there can clue us in to some more history of this bridge, and we welcome your comments!

Clean up on Aisle 2! Dunbar, PA's famous Pechin's!

2011-11-27T22:26:00.036-05:00

Danielle, Evan and I decided to do some shopping and the Laurel Mall flea market didn't disappoint. D found some sweet new exploration footwear as well as some Spuds McKenzie glasses. Evan scored a Stoney's tray and just wait 'till you see the gnarly purple carpet I'm getting for the Shaggin' Wagon!

Anyway, while we were checking out the Star Wars toys and digging on the vintage vibe of Laurel Mall, we decided to pay homage to a local shopping mecca. A place everyone has memories of, both good and,well.... Eating in the cafeteria was a rite of passage. Feed your family for about $5...really. This was a place where you could buy groceries, shoes, golf clubs, a gun and beer all in one place...way before Wal-Mart!

I'm of course speaking of the legendary Pechin's Shopping Village. Located in Dunbar, Pa. near the Fayette County Fairgrounds, Pechin's was not just a store, it was an adventure! Founded in 1947 as Pechin Grocery by Sullivan "Sully" D'Amico in a former train depot, the place was a staple for Moms and Grandmas in the tri-state area. Pechins was famous for low prices and infamous for being janky as hell! But thats what made it great! There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the location of goods in the grocery store. I think they just dropped a pallet where there was room. Maybe it was a brilliant way to make shoppers roll the entire wooden floor in search of what they needed, picking up items as they went? Nah, probably not. Evan recalls "old timers" telling how you could see the creek through the holes in the floor. The buggies look as if they were patched together from different stores and you NEVER, I MEAN NEVER, went to Pechins on the first of the month!

Every year, we would head to 7-Springs and stop at Pechins for beer. The challenge was to eat $5 worth of food in the cafeteria. Keep in mind...hamburgers were 20 cents, cheeseburgers 25 cents. I never even came close...The food was actually pretty good. If I remember... those prices lived on until the end of the original plaza.

Following the death of Mr. D'Amico in 2005, Pechins moved to the afore mentioned Laurel Mall. Occupying the former Montgomery Wards. The store lives on, but with much less character. A salvage company moved into the original site not long after and began the process of clearing out the shelves, cases and fixtures. Then, on June 6th, 2006, a fire swept through the former shopping plaza destroying most of the buildings and nearby trucks and equipment. We grabbed some pix of whats left, which isn't much. Share your Pechins story...cuz we know you got one!!

Abandoned A. Overholt Distillery, Broad Ford, PA

2011-11-27T17:00:00.182-05:00

This past Saturday was on of those rare days that Chip, Danielle and myself were off on the same day and this time it was warm. In the past posts, we've been hitting Greene County pretty hard , so we decided to go see what Fayette County had to offer. I never knew this distillery even existed less then a year ago.While researching something else, this popped up.We took advantage of the unseasonable warmth and went on over. As we headed into Broad Ford, we caught glimpse first of the grain elevators and stack towering over the rest of the buildings. To our dismay, the large barrel storage ware house I had seen on the Bing maps was no more. We received permission to park in a local guys lot (nice guy), who gave us a brief run down of the property. This site is heavily posted, but we took the risks anyway. Once inside, we were struck w/ a sense of awe on how cool the location was, and just how much of the original wooden equipment was still intact. We should have stayed longer but we had some more locations to hit and it began to rain.We called it a day at the Overholt plant. We shall return soon, as we think there is plenty more to see.

_________________________________________________________________

Old Overholt is a long produced American rye whiskey distilled by A. Overholt & Co, currently a subsidiary of Beam Inc., at the Jim Beam distillery in Clermont, Kentucky. Old Overholt was originally distilled in Broad Ford, Pennsylvania, 35 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. It is one of the few straight rye whiskies available at most liquor stores in the United States. The company claims to have been established in 1810, and the bottle states that at 80 proof (40% alcohol), this is a four year aged whiskey. (Thanx wiki!)

We are unsure when this plant became idle, as references on this seem to overlook this. Feel free to jump in and comment if you have any information.

What we do know is that when this plant closed, production moved to Large, PA and Overholt was produced there until 1958 or so, pictures of this follow at the bottom of the post.

A few fun facts about the Old Overholt label. The whiskey is named for Abraham Overholt, a farmer and distiller and later, grandfather of the American Industrialist Henry Clay Frick, and we have researched that this was the rye whiskey of choice of Doc Holliday. Also, the song "American Pie" by Don McLean, the line goes "...and good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye", a reference to rye whiskey....Old Overholt perhaps, distilled locally? Quite possibly!

________________________________________________________________________________

View from Bing maps. The red building w/ the poor roof on the left is collapsed and a pile of rubble now.

1940's era

Present era

In the first building we were greeted by a set of heavily altered stairs that we preceded to climb. We don't recommend this to anyone. We shot a quick, quiet video on the second floor as we returned back downstairs.

A short video introduction.....

As always, click on the pictures to view full size!

D going up!

Adding machines were scattered all about.

Very cool!

Yeast hopper

Under the grain silo area.

"Downtown" Chippy G!

Cold storage

Note the missing steps.

Interesting sidebar to this story, for years I've driven north on the "new" toll road 43 to where it terminates in Large , PA right at 51 and I have always seen this:

Apparently, this is the remains of the Large Distillery that was sold to the National Distillery Company, who quit manufacturing the Large brand whiskey and began producing Old Overholt. From what I have read, production stopped at around 1958 here, but unlike the Broad Ford distillery, this ones buildings seem to still be in use, and you can see some of the original buildings have been added on to.

Nemacolin Mine Fire: March 1971

2011-11-18T21:56:00.001-05:00

A little bit of history dug out from the Sokol attic - pictures taken by my grandfather during the Nemacolin Mine fire and the rescue operations in 1971. (these photos are scans of slides)

Some history on the Nemacolin Mine Fire... At about 10am on March 26, 1971, a fire occurred in the Nemacolin Mine in the 118 Straight Mains section. Out of the 125 people underground at tthe time, there were 11 working in 118, 9 of which escaped. In total, 3 people died - the 2 underground at the time and 1 death occuring on April 16 in conjunction with fighting the fire. If you're interested in learning more about the fire and to see many mre pictures, check out Nemacolin Mine Fire - March 26, 1971 & Memories of the Mine, the People by Lonnie Miller.

Abandoned Crago House, Carmichaels, PA

2011-11-16T15:58:00.005-05:00

Sometimes, old places are right off a well traveled path without you even knowing it. This house is one of those cases. Acting on a tip from my neighbor, Jennifer Kerr Turco, we went and visited this old brick house in Stringtown, Pa. I have lived out this road for over 10 years and never knew of its existence less then 100 yards off the road. A quick call to the current property owner granted us admission to go on back.

From what we were told of this house, one of the oldest citizens of Carmichaels, Thomas Crago, had owned this property and was passed down over the years. We have no clear cut date on the houses construction, but we did find out when it was the McMinn property, the house was abandoned in approximately 1964 (according to our online resources). Almost 40 years of abandonment have not been kind to this house, and it's age is showing. The bricks that were made on locally are tumbling in in places, and the roof is falling and letting rain in and damaging the rest of the structure. Sections of hard wood floor are missing, exposing some of the largest floor joists I have ever seen. This place was built to last. Sadly,it has been left neglected and it seems beyond repair at this point.

As always, click on the pictures to enlarge!

This place was super cool to visit but it is in the process of "going back to nature", so to speak.It was somewhat scary walking through this house.As Chip said in the Video accompanying these pictures, "I feel scared in here, not like a monsters gonna get me but like this place just might fall down on us". Oh, that Chip!Yes, the rain was heavy that day and it wasn't the brightest of ideas to explore that day.If you are going to do something like this, take caution and get permission. Danielle and I went back today w/ junior explorer Remy.We got some more good photos.The quality pictures are Danielle's.

Some video from mine and Chips rainy visit into the house...

Nemacolin Mine Video tour from 2010. Nemacolin, PA.

2011-11-13T09:18:00.000-05:00

These following videos were all shot last year and were each individual blogs. We thought we'd just pull them all together in on video blog of the Nemacolin mine here.

We have another picture rich blog on the mine here.

Allison Mine & Coke Works. Allison, PA, Fayette County.

2011-11-07T21:14:00.002-05:00

The Allison #1 Mine & Coke Works began operation circa 1904. Built by the W.J. Rainey Coke Company, there were approximitely 400-500 coke ovens. The Allison #2 ovens were built circa 1905 by the same company and had at its maximum 150-200 operating coke ovens. At its peak the Allison Coke Works had about 550-700 rectangular coke ovens in production. In the mid-1950s the Allison Mine & Coke Works were operated by the Emerald Coal & Coke Company.

What's left of the various mine buildings is spread out... The tipple and the decaying remains of two bulidings stand below Allison and are on Allison Custom Fab's property. The coke ovens are set between ACF and a water treatment plant, and the main mine buildings are across the road. The former company store is still currently used but the rest of the buildings are collapsing.

Much of the coke ovens have fallen into disrepair and seem to even been dozed in places. Along one side are stacks of mine cars. These mine cars are scattered across the entire area.

Older picture of the coke ovens

View of the tipple from the ovens

View of the tipple from the slate dump

Hartley Shaft - Part of the Robena Mine, Carmichaels, PA.

2011-11-06T21:17:00.008-05:00

The remains of the Hartley Shaft of Robena Mine are located right off the side of Ceylon Road. The groundclearing for this shaft begain around 1943 and all buildings were completed around 1948/1949. The offices and bath house were located on the left. Attached to the bath house by a shed-type roof was waiting arean and enclosed elevated walkway that led to the elevator. The two buildings to the right housed 2 MG sets (in the left side) and the other housed the switch gear for incoming AC power.

The building on the right, now.

Inside the bath house

Grafitti in the bath house

Where the fan funneled air

What's left of where the elevator was

How the air rounded the bend from the fan

The Bath House

Collapsed elevator on left

Elevator remains (center), w/ the ramp leading to it on the left

A local inhabitant

Before...Elevator from above pictures standing tall and new (thanks to Lonnie Miller's Robena book for the photo)

And now.

Old Ironsides Baptist Church Cemetery

2011-10-20T00:31:00.001-04:00

In keeping with my old and/or abandoned cemetery theme this month, here's another from Kirby, PA. This one was spotted by my father and suggested to me. A very nice find.

This cemetery seems to have been a small plot located on the hillside of Kirby, not too far from 19. It appears almost entirely abandoned, but yet someone attempts to keep it slightly navigable by clearing main paths. Tombstones have fallen over and are buried under foot high grass and brambles have overtaken many of the graves. Most graves have small gravestones, a few have slightly more intricate designs, and at the top of the hill stands a massively tall monument with a few graves and the remains of a fence.

Bing Maps - Kirby graveyard

School's Out...Forever. The end of the Dry Tavern Elementary School.

2011-10-19T16:14:00.096-04:00

I figure it is fairly common to visit your old school. Maybe your kids go there. Maybe you hit a reunion every few years. Maybe you teach there. Most schools have seen remodels at least a few times since your days of roaming the halls. Maybe the school was re-purposed and its an apartment building, community center or a church. Maybe your school is long gone, replaced by a modern version wired with the latest tech.

Not my school.

My school is facing her final days. The years have been cruel to the school (sorry...couldn't resist). Dry Tavern Elementary School was built in 1930 and used as part of the Jefferson-Morgan school district until 1979. The kids from Rices Landing and Dry Tavern areas went there first through sixth grade. Except the last few years when the sixth graders were bussed to the recently demolished Pitt Gas school, (I still don't know why they did that). Today, Evan and I stopped back and got a rare opportunity to check out the school one last time...from the classrooms we had not seen in 30+ years. In the process of demolition, theres not much left to see,but the memories flooded back as I poked my head in the classrooms.

Imagine someone taking a place you spent a large portion of your childhood and locking the door. Then you get a peek...at the same,virtually untouched room 32 years later. No remodel...no computers..no WI-FI. The schools were Lippencott, which is now a church. Central School,which was in Jefferson where the football Field is. Pitt Gas was a rest home before meeting the iron blade and I'm still fuzzy on Mather. I thought there was a school there, but it wasn't the red brick type the others were.Or did the Mather kids go to Central? Dry Tavern (I believe) was the only one of the schools that had a gym. I remember hearing a rumor that there was a swimming pool beneath the floor that was never used. I find it difficult to believe that made the 1930 budget! The gym was used for auctions in the 90's and the first grade room was briefly a video store.Other than storage, the other rooms were left untouched. Auctions were held long ago and the desks and other items were sold off. I believe some of the projectors now reside in my grandfather's house. You remember filmstrips, right?

I'm a video! Play me!

The fellows working at the school were kind of tentative on letting us in,understandably so,as the place is very dangerous, (So PLEASE...don't go up there!) After explaining our purpose,they were cool enough to escort us through for a final glance.The roof is collapsing and daylight is visible in many spots. It was sort of sad. But soon our attention focused on the remaining items that triggered the memories of the past.Days of Six Million Dollar Man lunch boxes, recess on the monkey bars and all of life's little dramas. Days when bad behavior got you a crack on the ass ,not a trip to the magistrate. But i digress...
The chalk boards are still there (may be for sale,stop by and ask). There was still writing on the corners of the board in the fourth grade room. Back when you had to erase the board,sometimes you missed a spot.Pieces left over from a 30 year old lesson. Wonder who wrote it? I could go on all day re-living stories from this school but I'll let the pictures and video do the talking. The school will be gone soon...enjoy the memories and please comment with yours.

Pollocks Mill Bridge, Jefferson, PA, Old Iron Bridge in Stringtown, PA and the Pump Station Road Bridge, Near Clarksville, PA

2011-10-18T00:56:00.003-04:00

This weekend was a weekend of iron bridge explorations around our Greene County, PA area.
We hope you enjoy the pictures.

Decaying iron bridge remains near Stringtown and over Muddy Creek.

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Pollocks Mill Bridge, located on Pollocks Mill Road, was constructed in 1878 by the Massillon Iron Bridge Company of Massillon, Ohio.

After visiting the two bridges above, I ran down to the Pump Station Road bridge, outside Clarksville, PA. This bridge was built in 1902. The bridge has been shut down for a few years now, and is decaying away, buried in the woods. At one time, there was a mill above the bridge and after that, mining activity. The following information is provided from Historic Bridges.org...

"This bridge is a noteworthy structure as a rare surviving example of a pin-connected Pennsylvania through truss bridge, and in addition as a larger example of a bridge built by noteworthy regional bridge builder Nelson and Buchanan (former agents for Pittsburgh Bridge Company).

The bridge's bottom chord has an unusual attachment to the hip vertical.

This bridge has recently been closed to traffic and will likely be demolished. The bridge is in extremely poor condition with extensive pack rust and section loss. The bottom chord connections, typical trouble spots on any truss, have a very large amount of pack rust."

Laurel Point Cemetery, Carmichaels, PA

2011-10-09T11:47:00.002-04:00

Laurel Point Cemetery, located in Carmichaels, PA behind the Greene Academy has recorded burials from 1834 and is still an active cemetery today. The pictures below are from the older part of the cemetery.

Photos - King Coal Show 2010/2011

2011-10-03T20:38:00.000-04:00

2010

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2011

Nemacolin, PA - Old Family Pics from Around the Patch

2011-09-27T09:23:00.000-04:00

Other Nemacolin blogs with old pictures:

More Classic Nemacolin,Pa from Patricia Ogden

Nemacolin Ferry 1940s from Patricia Ogden

Vintage Nemacolin Mine,Nemacolin, PA. From Patricia Ogden.Part 1

Set 4/4 from Patricia Ogden

Shepherd's Cemetery, Greene County, PA

2011-09-26T20:13:00.001-04:00

Shepherd's Cemetery, established in 1805, is located between Carmichaels and Crucible, on Airshaft Road. It was restored in 1989 by Troop 1168 and then again in April 2004 by Greene County 4H Goat Club. A list of people interred there can be found here. And a link to an aerial view on Bing maps.

Carmichaels & White Covered Bridge Festival

2011-09-25T17:01:00.000-04:00

The Covered Bridge Festival, held the third week of September every year in Greene and Washington counties is one of the many great fall festivals held locally. This year, the 41st annual festival was held on September 17th and 18th. Each bridge had its own unique celebration, but at all of them you could find local artisans, arts & crafts, great homemade foods, live entertainment, demonstrations, horse-drawn wagon rides, and even a Civil War re-enactment or two.

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Carmichaels' Covered Bridge Festival

Greene Academy, Carmichaels, PA

The Carmichaels' Covered Bridge, located over Muddy Creek, is one of seven left standing in Greene County. The bridge was built in 1889 and then later restored in 1987.

Horse-drawn Wagon Rides

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White Covered Bridge Festival

Garards Fort, PA

The White Covered Bridge is also one of seven left standing in Greene County. The bridge was built arpund the early 1900s and then later restored in 2008.