CLYMER, PA

I visited Clymer, Pennsylvania two times, 15 years apart. While a coal company town, Clymer is more than just a "patch town;" it is a small town. Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corporation, which built Clymer beginning circa 1905, maintained offices here, although they had larger offices in Indiana. Eventually there were Clymer No. 1, 2, and 3 mines.

Mar. 2006 image by author Clymer features the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corporation's trademark clay block patch houing. Clearfield Bituminous Coal was a subsidiary of the New York Central Railroad, which needed to the coal to power its trains. Clearfiled Bituminous also owned other mines in Indiana County such as Sample Run, Commodore, Barr Slope, and Rossiter.

Mar. 2006 image by author There are also company houses of frame construction in the patch section of Clymer, PA, which grew into a sizeable borough over the years since the mines were opened around 1905. Not every house in Clymer is a company house, and there is a commercial district as well.

Mar. 2006 image by author Another type of company housing at Clymer is closer to the site where the coal processing complex used to be. They may have been constructed at a different time than the other houses in this company town.

Mar. 2006 image by author The Clymer patch as viewed from the porch of St. Michael American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church.

Mar. 2006 image by author All that remains from the mine complex is the deteriorating machine shop, now functioning as the maintenance garage for the borough.

Mar. 2006 image by author Another perspective of the machine shop, which appears to have three sections.

Mar. 2006 image by author Detail of a door on the historic Clymer Machine shop.

Mar. 2006 image by author Slovak club in Clymer.

Mar. 2021 image by author The former Clearfield Supply Company (retail arm of Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corp.).

Mar. 2021 image by author This building was once the Clymer National Bank.

Mar. 2021 image by author Saint Anne Byzantine Catholic Church.

Mar. 2021 image by author A memorial plaque in the little downtown section of Clymer remembers the explosion in Clymer No. 1 mine.

Mar. 2021 image by author More company housing at the edge of Clymer. A little ways past this was separate housing for Clearfield Bituminous's Sample Run coal mine.

Mar. 2021 image by author The buildings in the Clymer vicinity were (left) a mine shaft entrance and (right) the housing of a ventilation fan, both for the Sample Run mine.

Mar. 2021 image by author The same site showing the fan house and, behind the trees, electrical substation for the Sample Run mine.

Saint Michaels Orthodox Church (American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of the USA) in Clymer (Image courtesy of stmichaelschurchclymer.org)