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| Alverton No. 1 Mine & Coke Works (Donnelly No. 1 Mine & Coke Works) (ca.1878-1924), Located on the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad (it later became a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad), PA Rt. 981, southeast of the Village of Alverton, Donnelly / Alverton, East Huntingdon Twp., Westmoreland Co., PA [Alverton No. 1 Mine, was originally called Donnelly No. 1 Mine, was renamed (ca.1895) Alverton No. 1 Mine by H.C. Frick Coke Company] [Alverton No. 1 Coke Works contained 252 bee-hive coke ovens ca.1901.] Owners: (ca.1878-1880) The first Donnelly Mine was opened by Donnelly and Dillinger Company (ca.1880-1895) McClure Coke Company (ca.1880's-1895) a second Donnelly Mine was opened by McClure Coke Company (ca.1895-1924) H.C. Frick Coke Company, Scottdale, PA Company Store: Union Supply Company (ca.1950-1983) Alverton Coke Company, Alverton, PA |
| Alverton No. 2 Mine & Coke Works (Donnelly No. 2 Mine & Coke Works) (ca.1880's-1924), Located on the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad (it later became a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad), PA Rt. 981, southeast of the Village of Alverton, Donnelly / Alverton, East Huntingdon Twp., Westmoreland Co. , PA [Alverton No. 2 Mine, was originally called Donnelly No. 2 Mine, was renamed (ca.1895) Alverton No. 2 Mine by H.C. Frick Coke Company] [Alverton No. 2 Coke Works contained 104 bee-hive coke ovens ca.1901.] Owners: (ca.1880's-1895) McClure Coke Company (ca.1895-1924) H. C. Frick Coke Company, Scottdale, PA Company Store: Union Supply Company (ca.1950-1983) Alverton Coke Company, Alverton, PA |
| Alverton No. 3 Mine Coke Works (Mayfield Mine & Coke Works (ca.1880's-1924), Located on the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad (it later became a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad), PA Rt. 981, west of the Village of Alverton, Mayfield / Alverton, East Huntingdon Twp., Westmoreland Co., PA [Alverton No. 3 Mine, was originally called the Mayfield Mine, was renamed (ca.1895) by H.C. Frick Coke Company] Owners: (ca.1880's-1895) McClure Coke Company [opened the original Mayfield Mine ] (ca.1895-1924) H.C. Frick Coke Company, Scottdale, PA Company Store: Union Supply Company (ca.1950-1983) Alverton Coke Company, Alverton, PA |
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| A portion of the 15min. Connellsville, PA
ca.1902 topo map showing the Alverton, Donnelly and Mayfield coke works.
(Map courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C.) |
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Location of Alverton |
| DESCRIPTION: The Village of Alverton straddles PA Rt. 981 and the extant coke ovens are located along the former Pennsylvania Railroad line, in the extreme southeast section of the town. The coke works includes a few of the early bee-hive bank coke ovens, and eight single by-pass bee-hive ovens constructed in ca.1974 & 1977 by the Alverton Coke Company. The coke works also contains a tipple, conveyor, and a coal screening plant, dating from as early as ca.1940. Some of the coal used at this coke works was obtained from strip mines to the north and east of the coke ovens. The three extant bank bee-hive ovens are severely deteriorated and have brick fronts and stone retaining walls. The bee-hive ovens built ca.1977 are of concrete-block, steel-frame, and yellow refractory-brick construction. A pair of ovens shares one yellow-brick chimney stack. Each oven is 9' wide and 15' long. These ovens were charged from the top and unloaded through the fronts. The steel-frame screening plant and tipple probably date from the 1940's. |
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| The tipple of the Alverton Mine, with the
new "MacDonald Smokeless Sole-Heated Non-Recovery Coke Ovens"in the
background. (Photo by Jet Lowe, courtesy of HABS/HAER, National Park Service, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.) |
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| Alverton Coke Works Alverton Mine Coke Works, Alverton, East Huntingdon Twp., PA. The early bee-hive bank coke ovens are to the right and the later by-pass coke ovens are on the left. The later coke ovens are the new "MacDonald Smokeless Sole-Heated Non-Recovery Coke Ovens" built ca.1974 & 1977. These new coke ovens were in-blast only a short time. (Photo by Jet Lowe, courtesy of HABS/HAER, National Park Service, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)
The top of the new "MacDonald Smokeless Sole-Heated Non-Recovery
Coke Ovens" built ca.1974 & 1977. |
| In addition to the beehive coke ovens, coal
tipple, and conveyors the minng site includes a building once used as an
office. This one-and-one-half story building contains common-bond red-brick
walls, a gable roof, a small gable roof dormer, and two front doors (one
of which is covered over); the former office has been remodeled for residential
use.
The Village of Alverton retains seven coal company-built houses. The coal company store and other houses either burned or were demolished. The surviving coal company-built houses are situated along a curving road on the north side of PA Rt. 981. These residents are two-story wood-frame buildings that may date from the 1880's. Each is a double house with a gable roof and central brick chimney, and rests on a rubble stone foundation. These houses are considerably narrower than other double houses in the region's coal patch towns. Each measures about 20' x 12'. These houses have been altered with asphaltic or metal siding replacing the original clapboard siding, and many of the original two-over-two-light double-hung sash windows have been replaced. The most architecturally impressive building in the Village of Alverton is the Alverton Hotel. Located on PA Rt.981, it is one of the few buildings of its kind in the region's numerous small coal patches. The two-story building measures 58' x 24' and was built ca.1900. It has common-bond red-brick walls, a hipped roof covered with asphalt, a brick chimney,and a stone foundation. The building appears to have had two bays added to the north of the original five bays. A number of changes have been made to the building since it was coverted to an apartment building in the 1930's. The bar from the first floor was removed and the front porch was taken off, however, it retains its arched windows with double brick voussiors and stone sills; new windows have also been installed. |
| HISTORY: The village of Alverton, about 2 miles west of Mount Pleasant, witnessed the opening of two mines and beehive oven coke works in 1878. One of these operations, called Donnelly Mine, was established on the southeast side of town. The firm of Donnelly and Dillinger probably began this operation; however, it was soon acquired by the McClure Coke Company, which opened the second of Alverton's mines and coke works, called Mayfield Mine, located west of town. The McClure Coke Company, led by J.P.Brennan, opened Donnelly No. 2 Mine by the early 1880's. By the late 1880's the two Donnelly Mines were annually producing over 112,000 tons of coal and 75,000 tons of coke, with 200 bee-hive coke ovens in operation. About 160 men and boys were employed at Donnelly No. 1 Mine and Donnelly No. 2 Mine. At the same time the Mayfield Mine was producing about 35,000 tons of coal, while its coke works, containing fifty-five bee-hive coke ovens, was producing over 20,000 tons of coke. About forty persons were employed at the Mayfield Mine and Coke Works. During the bitter coal miners strike of 1894, the inhabitants of the "tranquil little village" of Alverton were "aroused from peaceful slumber" by a middle of the night dynamite blast which blew up the pump house of the McClure Coke Company. Coke drawers at the Donnelly Mine near Alverton were attacked by 60 Hungarian women. One man was fatally injured. All of these properties were acquired by the H.C. Frick Coke Company in ca.1895. Frick renamed the Donnelly operations Alverton No. 1 Mine & Coke Works and Alverton No. 2 Mine & Coke Works, and the Mayfield Mine was renamed Alverton No. 3 Mine & Coke Works. Frick's Alverton No. 1 Mine continued as the larger of the three mines and coke works; its production figures in 1900 amounted to more than 100,000 tons of coal extracted and 72,000 tons of coke produced from 252 bee-hive ovens. Frick employed 224 persons at Alverton No. 1 Mine & Alverton No. 2 Mine. Alverton No. 3 Mine, produced only 35,000 tons of coal and 23,000 tons of coke, from 104 coke ovens, in 1900. Alverton No. 3 Mine and coke works employed 100 men and boys. About a decade-and-a-half later Frick Closed Alverton No. 3 Mine. At this time there were about 400 people living in the coal company-owned houses at Alverton.
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Alverton Coke Company, East Huntingdon Twp.
owned by O.J. Painter. One of the last bee-hive coke oven operations in the
United States. The front-end loader is charging an oven from the top,
with fine coal that will be baked into coke. Ordinarily the oven door would
be bricked up before charging the oven, but the crew was a man short when
this picture was taken. The worker on the right is leveling the coal charge
in the oven that was just charged with coal. (Photo ca.1980, courtesy of Arthur R. Howard and Model Railroader Magazine, June 1981). |
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| The Coke Oven on the left contains a batch
of coke that is being quenched with a perforated pipe mounted on the tri-pod
attached to a water hose. In the next oven, to the right, the coke
has just been quenched and is ready to be pulled, the third oven is in the
process of being pulled (emptied of the coke) by a mechanical coke drawer
arm attached to the bulldozer. The bulldozer does the job once done by hand
with a long rack like pole. The worker on the right is bricking up
the fourth oven door and getting it ready to be charged with fine
coal. (Photo ca.1980, courtesy of Arthur R. Howard and Model Railroader Magazine, June, 1981.) |
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| A disassembled Alverton larry car at the
Alverton Coke Works, of the Alverton Coke Company. The larry car rode on
rails along the top of the coke ovens and was used to charge the bee-hive
coke ovens with a fine coal through the trunnel head in the top of the oven,
of the Alverton Coke Works. (Photo by Jet Lowe, courtesy of HABS/HAER, National Park Service, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)
(History and description of the Alverton Mines & Coke Works, adapted from "Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites, 1994," America's Industrial Heitage Project, National Park Service, Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record, U.S. Department of the Interior, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.) |
| "Coal Miners
Memorial, Alverton Mines & Coke Works, Alverton, East Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania" |
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