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| Fulton Run Mine
(ca.1906-1960's), Located off of PA Rt. 954, on the Fulton Run spur line of the Ridge Branch of the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railroad, on Fulton Run, Fulton Run, White Twp., Indiana Co., PA [USGS 7 1/2 min Quad: Ernest, PA UTM: E. 17 651900 - N. 4502750.] Owners: (ca.1906-1960's), Jefferson & Clearfield Coal & Iron Company, [A subsidiary of the Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal & Iron Company, Indiana, PA.] |
A section of the U.S.G.S. 7 1/2 Min. Indiana, PA Quad map
showing a portion of White Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania and the
Village of Fulton Run. |
| DESCRIPTION: There are no road signs marking the site of the former Town of Fulton Run, only to few miners houses that remain give evidence that a town existed on the site. The Fulton Run Mine complex consists of an abandoned mine office building, the former coal company store, a few ruins of the coal mine processing complex, located behind the company office building, and sections of the abandoned roadbed of the Fulton Run Branch of the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railroad that served the Fulton Run Mine complex. About twelve of the original coal company built miners houses mark the site of the Village of Fulton Run ca.1993, a coal company patch town of the Jefferson & Clearfield Coal & Iron Company, a subsidiary of the Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal & Iron Company. The mine site itself was marked by a large boney pile (slate dump), and reinforced concrete foundations of some of the original mine structures, most of the mine area has been reclaimed as of ca.2006, and very little remains of the mine dump and mine buildings. Located southeast of the mine ruins are the mine office building, company store building, and the miners coal company built houses. The building that was apparently the Fulton Run Mine office housed the Fulton Run Holiness Mission ca.1993. The small structure is built of common-bond brick, resting on a stone foundation, and is covered by a hipped roof. The windows are double-hung with 6/6 lights, set in segmental-arched openings with arch radiating brick voussoirs and stone sills. The building has been somewhat altered by the sealing of several of the original windows and the old doors, and by construction of a new entry vestibule. In ca.2006 the building looks to be abandoned, with only a bullet riddled sign, "Fulton Run Holiness Mission." |
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| Fulton Run Mine office building ca.2006,
in the foreground, built by the Jefferson & Clearfield Coal & Iron
Company, is now in a total state of disrepair, and is not being used anymore
by the Fulton Run Holiness Mission. The former Fulton Run coal company
store building is in the background. (Photo by Raymond A. Washlaski, 2006.) |
| Just to the west of the old mine office building is the former Fulton Run Coal Company Store building. This is a large structure, also topped by a hipped metal roof, replacing the original slate roof. This structure has a large shed section, possibly original, joined to its northeast side. The windows are for the most part sealed and some of the openings filled with concrete blocks, and a full-length porch across the northeast side of the building has collapsed. In ca.2008 the shed section and porch had been removed. |
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| A ca.1910 photo of the Fulton Run Coal Company
Store when the mines at Fulton Run were active, located on PA Rt. 954, in
Fulton Run, White Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. (Photo courtesy of the Special Collections Section, Library, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Source Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal Company Media Collection, MG 94: Series III, Box 10 Photographs, P-497.)
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| Fulton Run company store building
ca.2006, built by the Jefferson & Clearfield Coal & Iron Company,
is now in a total state of disrepair. (Photo by Raymond A. Washlaski, 2006.) |
| The typical coal company built house in Fulton Run is
of balloon-frame construction, two stories in height, and built on a T-plan
with a nearly full-length one-story shed porch. The front entry door
is off-center. The sides are devoid of windows, but in some cases decorated
with pedimented or return cornices. Stubby two-story gabled sections
project from the rear center, providing extra living space. Most of
the houses are larger than those usually found in Rochester & Pittsburgh
Coal & Iron Company coal patch towns. Smaller houses are interspersed,
and a good number of the original houses have been razed.
Originally a whole row of miners houses sat across the Fulton Run creek from the surviving group of houses. A few of the larger houses may be hold-overs from the earlier phase of settlement, before the coal boom. |
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| Two of the remaining miner's house in the
Village of Fulton Run. Showing some of the various changes made over
the years, since the coal company sold the houses. The right house
still has its original wood clap-board siding. (Photo by Raymond A. Washlaski, 2006.) |
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| House plans used by the Jefferson &
Clearfield Coal & Iron Company for the coal company built houses at Fulton
Run. Eleven of these double family houses were built at Fulton
Run. (Photo courtesy of the Special Collections Section, IUP Library, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA. Source Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal Company Media Collection, MG94: Series III, Box 1 Photographs.) |
| HISTORY: A few farm houses were present on Fulton Run by ca.1877, and were incorporated into the later coal mining Village of Fulton Run. The Fulton Run Mine was established in ca.1906 by the Jefferson & Clearfield Coal & Iron Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal & Iron Company. Some of the miners houses in Fulton Run were moved from the nearby company town of Ernest, on the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railroad, which built a spur line up Fulton Run from the Ridge Branch to reach the new Fulton Run Mine. The Coal Company owned town of Fulton Run had a school house, mine office, and company store, but no doctors office; the townspeople called on the coal company doctor in Ernest. The small mining village of Fulton Run was always tied to its larger neighbor Ernest and to the Village of Creekside, when the mines at Ernest shut down in the 1960's, the Fulton Run Mine was also closed. In ca.1947 the coal company owned houses were sold to Joseph Kovalchick Salvage of Indiana, PA, along with all the other Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal & Iron Company towns, and under a contractual agreement, Kovalchick in turn sold the houses to private individuals. All the remaining company houses in the Village of Fulton Run are now privately owned. Many of the houses have been torn down, but approximately twelve building survive ca.1990, together with the old Coal Company mine office and company store. Foundation remains of the tipple are located directly behind the old coal company office building. Several abutments in Fulton Run behind the company store might have been used for the mine cars to cross the creek. (History and description of the Fulton Run Mine, adapted from, with additional information "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.) |
| "Coal Miners
Memorial, Fulton Run Mine Fulton Run, White Twp., Indiana County, Pennsylvania" |
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Mines of Indiana County, PA Contact: Ray Washlaski, Editor Copyright 2008, All rights reserved, by Raymond A. Washlaski, Ryan P. Washlaski & The 20th Century Society of Western Pennsylvania. Web site Design by "Mercers, an Undertakers" Web Design Company |
