NORTHERN ANTHRACITE COALFIELD
Luzerne, Lackawanna, Susquehanna, and Wayne Counties
Ashley, Pennsylvania and Huber Breaker
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.
Laflin, Pennsylvania
Wanamie, Pennsylvania
1988 Kenny Ganz image courtesy of northernfield.info
What other coal areas call a tipple or preparation plant, the northeastern Pennsylvania Coal Region calls a breaker. Here is the Harry E. Breaker, which was
located in Swoyersville, Pa. and was demolished in 1995.
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.
2013 image by Hank Rogers
Concrete City was an attempt to build patch 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. It is 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.
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.
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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.
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.
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A fan house also remains from Gravity Slope.
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The steel (or iron) parts of the fan remain but the wooden blades are gone.
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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.
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.
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.
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Part of the Wanamie "patch town" as viewed from St. Mary's cemetery.
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Wanamie coal company houses.
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These company houses may have been for foremen or management.
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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.
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Not all of Wanamie was a coal company town.
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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.