Commodore No. 2 Mine (ca.1920-   ?   ),
Located on the New York Central Railroad, at Commodore, Green Twp., Indiana Co., PA
[A New Mine ca.1920.]
Owners: (ca.1920-1950's), Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corporation, Indiana / Clymer, Indiana Co., PA         (A subsidiary of the New York Central Railroad.)
                                           Company Store - Clearfield Supply Company.

Houses in the community are primarily built of pressed hollow clay tile block, made on location in the coal companies brick plant.  The two-story single-family dwellings are constructed on concrete block foundations and are topped by front-gable shingle roofs.  Many of the houses have cellars.  Shed porches run across the front, and small frame shed sections are located to one side of the rear, with shed porch extensions to the others.  Interior brick chimneys are located at the rear.  These houses are built on the same general plan as those at Barr Slope and Clymer, but are occasionally somewhat larger and are often set on bigger lots.

The Commodore Mine complex has been almost completely dismantled, though rubble, the abandoned railroad beds, and several large boney piles [slate dumps] mark the site.  One structure survives, which appears to have been a mine car repair shop;  like most of the houses in the town, the one-story structure is of pressed-clay block construction.  It has been severely altered and now, ca.1993, serves as a repair shop for trucks.

Coal production from the deep mines at Commodore slowed after World War II, and production ceased during the 1950's, though some surface strip mining continued for a while.  Even though no deep mines are now operating in the community, the town has survived nearly intact, and many of the houses are still occupied by retired miners who had worked in the local mines or by their families.  The vacant Clearfield Supply Company building was purchased from the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corp., by the Green Township Community Action Center in 1970 and remodeled the following year to serve as Commodore's Community Center.

(History and description of Commodore Mines, adapted from "Indiana County, Pennsylvania: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites, 1993,"  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.)

Today's old photo pictures the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corp.'s annual first aid training, held at the Commodore mine June 15, 1932. Commodore in 1919 was the fourth mining community developed in Indiana County by the coal corporation. The others were Clymer and Barr Slope in 1905 and Rossiter in 1900. Today's old photograph and information were provided by John Busovicki of Clymer.

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