Bovard, Pa., is a former coal company town just outside of Greensburg. It was built in 1910 by the Keystone Coal and Coke Co. for the families that worked in the Crows Nest mine. Bovard is named for a coal company official, Harry F. Bovard. Keystone operated Crows Nest Mine until 1942, when it sold the property to a local coal company. The deep mine closed in 1942, and strip mining on the property ended by 1950.
Sep. 2002 image by author
Former coal company "patch" houses.
Sep. 2002 image by author
Keystone Coal and Coke Company store at Bovard.
Sep. 2002 image by author
The preparation plant at Bovard was built at the site of the original tipple in 1975. It operated as Bovard Processing Co. At the time of this photo, the rail yard had been removed, and the operator, Crow's Nest Synfuel, trucked its product out. Synfuel was a briquette-like fuel made from fine coal refuse.
Sep. 2002 image by author
The rear of the Bovard prep plant. A few years after this picture was taken, the plant was demolished.
Sep. 2002 image by author
The supply house next to the Bovard recovery plant dated back to the original Crows Nest coal mine.
Picture from Black Diamond magazine
Bovard as it looked in its prime. The company store is on the right.
Picture from the Keystone Coal Catalog
Keystone Coal & Coke even supplied Bovard children with this nice playground. One of these children could be your great-grandparent.
Picture from the Keystone Coal Catalog
Rail cars being loaded at the Crows Nest tipple.
Sources:
Fitzsimons, Gray, editor. Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania - An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites. National Park Service, 1994.
