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| Brownfield Mine & Coke Works (Redstone Mine & Coke Works (ca. 1881-1927 ?), This mine had two slope openings, located along the Pennsylvania Railroad & the B & O Rairoad, on either side of Rt. T 449, west of PA Rt. 857, 1.5 miles south of Hopwood, Brownfield, South Union Twp., Fayette Co., PA [Redstone Coke Works contained 446 coke ovens in ca.1910, ca.1919.] Owners: (ca.1881- ? ), J. W. Moore Coke Company (ca.1885- ? ), Redstone Coke Company, (ca. ? -1889), J. M. Schoonmaker Coke Company, Brownfield, PA (ca.1893- ? ), H.C. Frick Coke Company, Scottdale, PA (ca.1898- ? ), H.C. Frick Coke Company, Scottdale, PA (ca. ? -1927), H. C. Frick Coke Company, Scottdale, PA (ca.1927- ? ), Brownfield Coal & Coke Company, Uniontown, PA |
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| Brownfield, South Union Township, Fayette County, as it
appeared in ca.1910. (Photo courtesy of the Coal & Coke Heritage Center, Penn State University Fayette Campus, Uniontown, PA) |
| DESCRIPTION: This description was written ca.1990 for the Industrial Heritage Survey and some of the details may have changed since then. Brownfield has about thirty-five houses, which comprises approximately 60 percent of its original coal company housing stock, ca.1990. Laid out along both sides of the former Pennsylvania Railroad (Penn Central Railroad) and the B & O Railroad tracks, single and double-family housing remain. A handful of two-story, salt-box style, single family houses with central brick chimneys are located west of the railroad lines. The remainder of Brownfield's coal company housing is the more common four-bay, two story, semi-detached frame housing with two brick chimneys and a full shed-roof porch. The Brownfield Methodist Church is extant at the southwest end of the town. The original structure, resting on a random-coursed foundation with its gable end facing the street, has had a rear addition added on a cast-stone foundation and aluminum siding added. The Brownfield Methodist Church dates to ca.1897. |
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| The entrance to the slope mine at Brownfield
had two openings, the one on the left was for the pit wagons, the other for
the miners to walk to the underground workings. It was called a "Manway".
Above photo taken during the Second World War, ca.1940's.) (Photo courtesy of the USX Resource Managment Division, Uniontown, PA, & John K. Gates' book, "The Beehive Coke Years.") |
| HISTORY: Brownfield coal company patch housing was built over a number of years by J.W. Moore Coke Company, Redstone Coke Company and H.C. Frick Coke Company, to house the miners and employees working at the Brownfield Mine & Coke Works (Redstone Mine & Coke Works). The Brownfield Mine was opened ca.1881 by the J. W. Moore Coke Company. The J. W. Moore Coke Company built three single family houses and seven double family houses in the new coal patch town of Brownfield, near their Brownfield Mine, ca.1882, the coal company added ten double family houses in ca.1884. These coal company owned houses comprised the original Brownfield Patch town. The Brownfield Mine & Coke Works were acquired by the Redstone Coke Company in ca.1885. Sometime after ca.1885 the name of the mine was changed to the Redstone Mine & Coke Works. The greatest number of coal company owned houses were constructed in ca.1887 by the Redstone Coke Company, which built thirty-five double family dwellings that year in Brownfield. In ca.1889 the J. M. Schoonmaker Coke Company, Brownfield, PA acquired the Brownfield Mine & Coke Works and the Redstone Coke Company. The H.C. Frick Coke Company had also acquired a two-thirds interest in the Redstone Coke Company, and the Redstone Slope Mine, which had 2,052 acres of assigned coal land, in ca.1889. By ca.1892 the H.C. Frick Coke Company had assumed full control and ownership of the Brownfield Mine and Coke Works (Redstrone Mine & Coke Works). In ca.1903 the Brownfield Coke Works (Redstone Coke Works) had 445 bee-hive coke ovens arranged in five batteries of rectangular coke ovens. In ca.1903 the Redstone Mine and Coke Works (Brownfield Mine & Coke Works) had 363 employees, 137 of whom were coke workers that operated the coke ovens to manufacture 157,000 tons of coke in ca.1903.
[From the Report of the Department of Mines of Pennsylvania,
1917.] In 1922 Brownfield saw at least one incident of violence during the national coal miners strike, when several of the coal company houses in the Brownfield coal patch were dynamited. The Brownfield Mine & Coke Works (Redstone Mine & Coke Works) were closed and abandoned by the H.C. Frick Coke Company in ca.1927. |
| (History and description of Brownfield, adapted with additional data from "Fayette County, Pennsylvania: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites, 1990," 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.) |
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| Brownfield Mine & Coke Works (Redstone
Mine) Miners Housing. Coal patch double family house with double outhouse in the backyard, in Brownfield, Fayette Co., ca.1880's. Note, the horse in the back yard also the board in the doorway of the house on the left, to keep the chickens out of the house. (Photo courtesy of the USX Resource Managment Division, Uniontown, PA, & John K. Gates' book, "The Beehive Coke Years.") |
Brownfield Methodist Church, ca.1990. |
| "Coal Miners
Memorial, Redstone Mine & Coke Works (Brownfield Mine & Coke Works), Brownfield, South Union Twp., Fayette County, Pennsylvania" |
| Support the Coal & Coke Heritage
Center, a non-profit research center and museum. Want to know more about the women who lived in the coal patch towns? You need this book. One of the few studies done on the women of the coal & coke era. Common lives of Uncommon Strength: The Women of the Coal & Coke Era of Southwestern Pennsylvania 1880-1970 Complied, written and edited by: Evelyn A. Hovanec, PhD Voices of the women tell unique stores of the coal and coke era, plus vintage photographs, documents, maps, and newspaper articles. Hardcover $35.00 Soft cover $25.00 Add $5.00 shipping / handling. Send Check or money order to: Coal & Coke Heritage Center, Penn State University Fayette Campus P.O. Box 519, Uniontown, PA 15401 |
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