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CENTRAL, PA (UNITED NO. 2)

Central mine and coke works were founded in 1886 by the Central Connellsville Coke Company. In the 1890s the operation was owned at different times by McClure Coke Co., Connellsville Coke Co., and United Coal & Coke Co., who designated the mine, town, and coke works United No. 2. As he was known to do in this coalfield, H.C. Frick had purchased Central / United No. 2 by 1896. During this time Frick allowed a baseball team to form at Central. H.C. Frick Coal & Coke Co. ended the coal and coke operations at Central in 1925. In the late 1920s the company houses were sold to individuals. Central lay dormant until 1932, when the Bortz Coal Co. refurbished the coke works and reopened the coal mine. Bortz shipped some of the coke by rail and some by truck. By the 1940s, in addition to the slope portal deep mine, Bortz was also stripping the coal outcrop at Central. Although Bortz stopped mining Central coal in 1949 (according to sources), they kept the ovens fired until 1953 by trucking coal in from other mines. A vintage coal map shows the outcrop around the portal being stripped in 1956.

Mar. 2002 image by author

Brick coal company houses at Central. According to the Historical American Engineering Record (HAER), these houses could be as old as the 1880s.

Circa 1959 image by John Enman
The abandoned company store. It was destroyed by fire in the 1970s.

Circa 1959 image by John Enman
The Central coke yard. While the ovens in the foreground had obviously been abandoned (and partially deconstructed) for some time, the block of ovens in the background had been active within the previous decade at the time of this photo. A larry car still sits on top of the ovens.