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| Oliphant Mine & Coke Works
(ca.1873-1926), Located on the Hopwood - Fairchance Road, on the South West Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, west of PA Rt 857, about 4 miles south of Uniontown, near Oliphant Furnace, Georges Twp., Fayette Co., PA. [Oliphant Coke Works contained 251 coke ovens ca.1910.] Owners: (ca.1873- ? ), Oliphant Furnace Company, Olihant Furnace, PA (ca.1870's- ? ), Fayette Coke & Furnace Company (ca.1889- ? ), Fayette Furnace Company, (ca.1894- ? ), H. C. Frick Coke Company, Scottdale, PA (ca.1898- ? ), H. C. Frick Coke Company, Scottdale, PA (ca.1899- ? ), H. C. Frick Coke Company, Scottdale, PA (ca.1910-1926), H .C. Frick Coke Company, Scottdale, PA |
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| A portion of the Uniontown, Pa U.S.G.S. 15min quad map
ca.1900 of the area around Oliphant Furnace, showing the various coke plant
in that section of Fayette County. (Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C.) |
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| A portion of the Uniontown, Pa U.S.G.S. 15min quad map
ca.1939 of the area around Oliphant Furnace, showing the many changes that
took place in 30 some years. (Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C.) |
| DESCRIPTION: The coal company town, Oliphant Furnace, has about forty coal company built houses, which comprise about 60 percent of its original workers housing. The town is laid out along three parallel streets. All of the extant houses are gable-ended, semi-detached wood-frame two-family dwellings. Four-bay, with full front shed-roofed porches and central brick chimneys, these houses are the salt-box type with the rear roof sloping down further than the front and meeting the roofline of a single-story rear shed addition. These salt-box house were the most common type of coal company built houses in the Connellsville Coke region. A large, three-story, comon-bond red brick building, rectangular in plan, with a flat roof stands at the north end of the town. This may have been the coal company store; in ca.1990 it was being used as a church. |
| HISTORY: The Oliphant Mine facility was placed into operation by the Fayette Coke & Furnace Company in ca.1873. The Oliphant Furnace Company constructed a steel jacketed blast furnace and associated buildings on Muddy Run north of Fairchance, Fayette County, Pennsylvania in ca.1873. The coke furnace was 50 feet x 11 feet and was put into blast in ca.1876. In the early 1880's the Oliphant Furnace Company was purchased by the Fayette Coke & Furnace Company, and between 1881 and 1883 a new mine was opened and 130 bee-hive coke ovens in two banks were were added to the complex. Durig this period, the Fayette Coke & Furnace Company also constructed ten single dwellings and twenty-five semi-detached houses. The iron works operated under this company until ca.1899, when it was purchased by the H.C. Frick Coke Company. The Oliphant Mine & Coke Works was then operated by the H.C. Frick Coke Company, by ca.1903 the Oliphant Mine & Coke Works had 252 bee-hive coke ovens and 241 employees, sixty-five of whom were engaged in the production of coke. In ca.1903, the Oliphant Mine produced 146,433 tons of coal and the coke works produced 92,000 tons of coke.
[from the Report of the Department of Mines of Pennsylvania,
1906.] A well constructed frame dwelling, modern in design, was built for the use of the Superintendent. Two coke drawing machines will be installed at this mine during the year. By ca.1912 employment had increased slightly; with 262 workers, the operation mined 239,229 tons of coal and made 153,890 tons of coke. The H. C. Frick Coke Company closed the Oliphant Mine in ca.1926. (History and description of Oliphant Mine & Coke Works, adapted with additional information 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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| A back alley in the Oliphant patch, with
its drainage ditch and outhouses. Good drainage was essential as most
of the strrets and alleys in the coal patches were dirt, and were vulnerable
to mud and wash out by rain and snow. (Photo courtesy of the USX Resource Managment Division, Uniontown, PA, & John K. Gates' book, "The Beehive Coke Years.") |
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| Remains of the Oliphant Coke Works bee-hive coke ovens,
now overgrown with trees and cattails. (Photo by Chris Dellamea, courtesy www.coalcampuse.com.) |
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| Remains of the bee-hive coke ovens and the coke yard walls
at the Oliphant Coke Works. (Photo by Chris Dellamea, courtesy www.coalcampuse.com.) |
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| A few of the surviving salt-box type of double coal company
houses at Oliphant Furnace, Fayette Co., PA. (Photo by Chris Dellamea, courtesy www.coalcampuse.com.) |
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| More of the double coal company built houses at Oliphant
Furnace. These house may have been built after the H.C. frick Coke
Company purchased the Oliphant Mine & Coke Works. (Photo by Chris Dellamea, courtesy www.coalcampuse.com.) |
| Coal Miners
Memorial Oliphant Mine & Coke Works, Oliphant, Georges Twp., Fayette Co., PA |
| 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 227 pages. 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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