Hoover Coke Works surviving coke ovens ca.1990.
(Photo courtesy of Historic American Building Survey / Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

Some of the remaining miners house in the Hoover Mine Coal Company Patch, ca.2001.
(Photo by Chris Dellamea, Mining Historian, courtesy of Chris Dellamea, Mt. Pleasant, PA)

The entrance to the slope mine was located north of the coke oven batteries.  Medium volatile coal was mined on the Hoover property and hauled to the coke works.

James H. Hoover subsequently formed a partnership with Messrs. Harah and Parshall of Uniontown, and upon Hoover's death Harah and Parshall retained the coal mining business.  The Hoover Mine & Coke Works closed in 1922, about the time of the 1922 nationwide bituminous coal miners' strike.

The Hoover Mine & Coke Works remained abandoned until ca.1939, when the Pennsylvania Coal Company, headed by the Noble Brothers, acquired the Hoover property.  This company operated the works until ca.1942.  The slope mine was never reopened, instead the land was strip mined for the coal.  After the Noble Brothers sold the business, the coke works ovens were operated sporadically, finally closing in the early 1950's.  The Hoover Coke Works has been abandoned ever since.

(History and description of Hoover Mine & Coke Works, adapted 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.)

Recollections of the Hoover Mine Coke Works:

The text states that the Hoover Coke batteries closed in the early 1950’s. However, I know those coke works were active beyond that time. My grandparents lived in the Hoover patch and I used to spend much time there as a child in the 1960’s and ‘70’s.

I would estimate that those batteries were active at least through 1966 and maybe as late at ’67 or ’68. During that era I think the ovens used strip-mined coal that came from what was known as Louks Hill (sp?) in Leckrone.

I recall seeing the ovens glow at night from the bedroom window and the Monongahela Railroad working those ovens on their Dunlap Creek Branch that ran right past my grandparent’s house.

Unfortunately I cannot reference any definitive data – only fuzzy memories!

Thanks for such a great website!

Kevin Yackmack

Aliquippa, PA

(formerly of Edenborn, PA – German Township)

The coke ovens at the Hoover Coke Works, ca.2001.
(Photo by Chris Dellamea, Mining Historian, courtesy of Chris Dellamea, Mt. Pleasant, PA)

The coke ovens at the Hoover Coke Works, ca.2001.
(Photo by Chris Dellamea, Mining Historian, courtesy of Chris Dellamea, Mt. Pleasant, PA)

The coke ovens at the Hoover Coke Works, ca.2001.
(Photo by Chris Dellamea, Mining Historian, courtesy of Chris Dellamea, Mt. Pleasant, PA)

or
Go to Top of Page