Northern Anthracite Coalfield of Pennsylvania

Luzerne, Lackawanna, Susquehanna, and Wayne Counties

March 2026 image by author Whereas the other three Pennsylvania anthracite coalfields are mostly known for duplex company housing, the Northern Anthracite Coalfield often featured single family company houses such as these that were probably constructed by the Scranton Coal Co. for the workers of Raymond Colliery in Lackawanna County.
2013 image by Hank Rogers Concrete City was an attempt to build coal company houses from concrete.
April 2025 image by author> Browndale, sometimes named "Browntown" on old maps, was probably the only anthracite coal town in Wayne County, Pa. The inhabitants of Browndale worked for the Hudson Coal Co.
April 2025 image by author These may be the northernmost coal company houses in Appalachia. They are located at Forest City, Pa. in Susquehanna County, and it at about the same latitude as Warwick, R.I. Hillside Coal and Iron Co., a subsidiary of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad, developed the anthracite coal mines in Forest City in the 1870s and 1880s.
April 2025 image by author A mini-recreation of a breaker in a park in Simpson, Pa. The black and orange sign is for D&H (Delaware & Hudson Railway) Lackawanna Anthracite.
Google Street View Image This social club near Wilkes-Barre is named the Henry Citizens Club after the Henry Colliery coal mine. Note the pick, shovel, and miner's hard hat on the sign. After a few small concerns started the Henry mine in the 1870s, Lehigh Valley Coal Co. became the operator and ran the mine all the way into the 1950s. In addition to operating other anthracite collieries such as Prospect and Dorrance, Lehigh Valley Coal also branched out into the bituminous coal region near Snow Shoe, Pa.
April 2025 image by author Former coal miners' houses in Vandling, Pa. These families would have worked at the Clinton mine of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co., and later the Hudson Coal Co.
March 2026 image by author I was driving up the Wyoming Valley (Susquehanna River) and noticed these old mine shops. Upon further research, I found out that they were once the office and compressor house for the long-gone Boston Colliery. Someone has placed a marker on the red building on the right reading, "1868." The compressor house is obviously newer and probably dates to the early 20th century.

Boston Colliery was opened by the Boston Coal Company in 1857. The next year, Boston became a property of Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. Delaware & Hudson Canal Co. (later just Delaware & Hudson Co.) acquired Boston Colliery in 1880 and operated it successfully for several decades. The Boston breaker was abandoned in 1908 and coal was take out through D&H's nearby Plymouth No. 5 breaker. The Boston Colliery breaker was demolished in 1909. It was now considered part of Plymouth No. 5 operations. The "Boston section" of Plymouth No. 5 was last mentioned in state mine records in 1915.

A malicious individual set fire to a stack of mine timber props being stored in the Boston mine on May 10, 1911. This resulted in the death of five miners.

March 2026 image by author A decent grade of company house at Bush Patch near Old Forge, PA.
March 2026 image by author Remaining conveyor from Marvine Colliery in Scranton. This went from Marvine No. 1 shaft to the breaker.
HABS / HAER image I believe this conveyor structure originally only carried a mine dewatering / effluent pipes, as shown in this vintage image with Delaware & Hudson's Marvine Breaker in the background. A conveyor belt was later tacked on to the top and additional structure added to carry the increased load.
March 2026 image by author A closer look at the remaining section of the conveyor / pipe support shows the asbestos-covered pipe still in place. Riveted construction verifies the structures age.
March 2026 image by author The former wash house for Marvine No. 1 shaft survives by being incorporated into a newer addition and a new use.
March 2026 image by author Former coal company houses for the miners of Schooley Colliery. Whereas the mining "patches" in the other three anthracite coalfields were seen as separate villages, Schooley is probably viewed as just another neighborhood of Exeter. I thought maybe a portion of the colliery's surface structures may have survived as part of the Mar-Val Industries plant across the railroad tracks. But, after walking around the perimiter of the plant, I don't that anything remains.

Two shafts (one for coal, one for ventilation) were sunk in 1882 by operators Cowan and Dinniny. A breaker was built and, on September 3, 1883, coal was first shipped to market from Schooley Colliery. Butler Coal Co. was listed in state mine records as Schooley's operator in 1885. From 1886 until 1888, Nelson Cowan operated Schooley. A firm listed at times as Butler Mine Co. Ltd., Butler Colliery Co., and Butler Coal Co. became the new operator in 1889. They also owned other nearby coal mines. Butler successfully mined several veins of anthracite coal until 1896-97. That is when Pennsylvania Coal Co. took over Schooley Colliery. Disaster struck on May 8, 1889 when the Red Ash vein workings suffered an inundation from the Susquehanna River. This was followed by an underground cave-in at Schooley that was bad enough to affect the surface, causing a trolley to derail and damage to a house. Valiant efforts to save the mine went on well into June. For many years after that, PA mine records were silent on Schooley Colliery except for a mention in 1918 that a boiler house had been upgraded and blacksmith shop, bath house, and forman's office had been erected. So, it is possible that Pennsylvania Coal Co. was still mining Schooley coal reserves in the early 20th century and sending the coal to another breaker. Schooley coal production returned to state mine reports in 1939 as being operated by Saporito Coal Co. That particular annual report states that Schooley had previously been operated by Schooley Coal Co. However, there is little to know about that company. During this time, Schooley was reported to be a "run of mine" operation that shipped unprocessed coal, perhaps to another breaker for final preparation and shiment. Saporito continued to mine Schooley Colliery on a lease from Pennsylvania Coal Co. until 1943. Carlo Saporito was an associate of local mafioso Stefano La Torre. The next company to operate Schooley on the same lease was also mobbed-up: Knox Coal Co. Under Knox, Schooley suffered a gas explosion on April 10, 1947 that caused the death of ten workmen. Knox continued to mine Schooley coal and send the coal to their other breakers in the area until the same company's River Slope Mine pushed the envelope on how close they could mine under the Susquehanna River and caused the inundation of the local mines in an event that came to be known as the Knox Mine Disaster.

Ashley, Pennsylvania and Huber Breaker

2011 image by Marc One of the last of the giant old breakers was the Huber Breaker at Ashley, Pa. It was constructed by Glen Alden Coal Co. in 1938 and cleaned its last anthracite coal in 1976. Despite efforts of the Huber Breaker Preservation Society, it was demolished in 2014. The colliery's office building, however, has been repurposed into headquarters for the Earth Conservancy.
April 2025 image by author A remnant of the coal company housing development for the miners who lived across Main Street from the breaker. Before the late 1930s, there were many such houses in this neighborhood, and they were an improvement over the duplexes found in most Pennsylvania coal "patches." The coal company also owned houses, possibly for managers, on High Street at the back of Ashley Boro. These are still in existence.
April 2025 image by author Main Street in Ashley, Pa., where the Huber Breaker was located.
An Anthracite Miners' Memorial Park was constructed along Main Street where the Huber used to stand. The concrete structure at the back right of the photo used to house the dynamite/powder storage for the mines. The Huber Breaker used to be located in the background.
April 2025 image by author I can neither confirm nor deny that the "Blue Coal Corp" sign at the park is original. Glen Alden did dye the coal cleaned at Huber blue as a marketing gimmick, and Blue Coal Corporation was a subsidiary of that firm. They even advertised it on the radio show "The Shadow Knows." The target audience was the residential heating market. In the background is the smokestack that was preserved from Huber's power plant.
April 2025 image by author The Huber smokestack as viewed over Ashley homes.
Circa 1930 image, Historic American Engineering Record / Library of Congress Photo taken from an airplane showing the colliery that preceded the Huber Breaker. Shown here is the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company's Maxwell Colliery. Note all of the company housing that was demolished in the 1930s when Huber Breaker was constructed.

Harry E Colliery and Hollywood / Helenwood / Brodericks Patch

1988 Kenny Ganz image courtesy of northernfield.info Here is the Harry E. Breaker, which was located in Swoyersville, Pa. It was constructed in 1942 and was demolished in 1995.
March 2026 image by author Remaining foundations for the twin coal conveyors going to and from Harry E breaker.
March 2026 image by author A remnant of a wooden water pipe remaining from the Harry E opearation. Wooden pipes were used because coal mine water could be very corrosive to steel or iron pipe.
2013 image by Hank Rogers Harry E culm bank. People from other coal mining regions would call this a slate dump, boney dump, tailings pile, or refuse pile.
Image courtesy Frank Sova Jr Many people may not realize that a "patch town" was associated with Harry E Colliery. It was called Broderick's patch or Hollywood and there were 18 houses. They never had hot running water inside, only cold, and used coal stoves for heat. Toilets were outhouses except for one house whose resident later added an indoor bathroom. The residents were evicted in 1972, and the "patch" fell into disrepair and abandonment as seen here.

Gravity Slope Mine, Archbald, Pennsylvania

In 1912, Delaware & Hudson Company / Hudson Coal Co. constructed a new breaker on the edge of Archbald. The Gravity Slope breaker and portal opened in 1913 and replaced the D&H's older White Oak Colliery that was nearby. When the breaker feed conveyor collapsed in 1942, the breaker closed and the coal was shipped to other nearby breakers (Marvine and Powderly). Production from the Gravity Slope mine ceased in the mid-1950s.

April 2025 image by author The building on the left was the mine's oil house. It was restored by the Gravity Slope Colliery Committee. On the left is a remnant of the powder/dynamite storage building.
April 2025 image by author Another Gravity Slope structure that has survived into the 21st century is the former wash house or bath house.
April 2025 image by author A fan house also remains from Gravity Slope.
April 2025 image by author The steel (or iron) parts of the fan remain but the wooden blades are gone.
April 2025 image by author For comparison, here is a fan that was rescued from Dorrance Colliery and is shown here being reassembled at Lansford No. 9 mine. The impeller is on the right and the counterweights are on the left.

Laflin, Pennsylvania

April 2025 image by author Company houses at Laflin, Pa. Laflin Coal Co. opened an anthracite coal mine here by the 1890s, although Aurora Coal Co. was stripping the coal outcrops at Laflin as early as 1891. The breaker burned in 1894 and had to be rebuilt. In 1901, Laflin Colliery became an operation of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Co. / Hudson Coal Co., which provided coal to the Delaware and Hudson Railway. (The history of this railway and Pennsylvania anthracite coal industry were intimatley intertwined.) The Laflin breaker burned once again (!) in 1920, after which Laflin coal was sent to the nearby Baltimore breaker for processing.
April 2025 image by author Looking up through the Laflin community. The gray building on the left was certainly a store, and may have been the company store for the Laflin patch. Coal mining at Laflin ended in the 1960s, but large coal strippings on the hill above town recommenced circa 1980.
April 2025 image by author This small breaker of Casey-Kassa Coal Co. is still in operation at Laflin as of 2025. Its coal is marketed under the name "Silverbrook." If you need a ton to refill your coal cellar, give them a call.

Wanamie, Pennsylvania

April 2025 image by author Many structures remain from the Wanamie No. 18 Colliery, including the wash house, supply house, and oil house. Coal mining at Wanamie started in 1875 with the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Co. After 1930, the operator was Glen Alden Coal Co. Blue Coal Corporation, a subsidiary of Glen Alden, closed the Wanamie mines in the 1970s, ending almost 100 years of anthracite coal production. However, the mine was reopened by Silverbrook Anthracite Co. from 1973-75. This was the last underground anthracite mine in the Northern Anthracite Coalfield when it closed due to overwhelming groundwater inundation.
April 2025 image by author Part of the Wanamie "patch town" as viewed from St. Mary's cemetery.
April 2025 image by author Wanamie coal company houses.
April 2025 image by author These company houses may have been for foremen or management.
April 2025 image by author Former rectory and church of St. Mary's Catholic Parish. This parish, which was once home to many Lithuanian-American mining families, was dissolved by the diocese many years ago.
April 2025 image by author Not all of Wanamie was a coal company town.
April 2025 image by author I thought this building must have been the Wanamie company store. Turns out it was the Oddfellows lodge. Fraternal organizations were a big deal with Americans in the early to mid-20th century.
April 2025 image by author Jesus in Wanamie.