CARPENTERTOWN
This coal and coke operation, built by the Mount Pleasant-Connellsville Coke Company (later known as the Mount Pleasant Coke Co.), was
one of the last to be constructed in the Mt. Pleasant to Latrobe section of the Connellsville Coke Field. Some researchers show Carpentertown as being opened in 1901. However, author Kenneth Warren has Carpentertown being built in 1908. Since a search of 1902 and 1907 state mine reports shows no mention of Carpentertown or the Mount Pleasant - Connellsville Coke Co., I'm inclined to go with Warren.
According to area historian Mike Mance the coke ovens were first lit in May 1909.
Other nearby mines named "Carpentertown" were owned by Sharon Steel in the 1960s.
Sources:
Fitzsimons, Gray, editor. Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania - An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites. National Park Service, 1994.
John Enman papers, 1876-2013, Coal and Coke Heritage Center at Penn State Fayette, the Eberly Campus
Edited by Raymond A. Washlaski, Virtual Museum of Coal Mining in Western Pennsylvania.
Mance, Mike. Old Industry of Southwestern Pennsylvania, coalandcoke.blogspot.com.
Warren, Kenneth. Wealth, Waste, and Alienation. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001.
Series MG-377.1: Photographs circa 1959-1965; Enman, John Collection, circa 1959-1965; Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, PA
1959 image by John Enman
The coke ovens at Carpentertown were of the "rectangular" type rather than beehive ovens. Note the doors that
were used in lieu of bricking up the openings.
1959 image by John Enman
A different style of company-built patch housing at Carpentertown, Pa.
Dec. 2002 image by author
A few of these brick company houses survive into the 21st Century.
December 2015 image from coalandcoke.blogspot.com
Abandoned coke ovens.
1990s? image from patheoldminer.rootsweb.ancestry.com
This abandoned mine building, which was probably a machine shop or mule barn, is most likely gone by now.