Mount Braddock slope portal coal mine and coke works were opened in 1871 by E.M. Ferguson. As the 1870s went on, the next operator of Mt. Braddock was Hoggsett, Watt & Company. At that time there were 127 beehive coke ovens at Mt. Braddock, though several contemporary publications rounded that quantity up to 130. A.O. Tinstman & Co., owned by H.C. Frick relative Abraham Overholt Tinstman, acquired Mt. Braddock. At that time, there were 40 company houses for workers. Tinstman sold Mt. Braddock to S. Colvin and Company in 1884. Apparently, around 1887, Colvin closed Mt. Braddock. When Robert Hogett & Co. reopened Mt. Braddock in 1888, the coke ovens were described as "decayed and crumbling." By the early 1890s, the operator was Mt. Braddock Coal & Coke Company, who sold it to W.J. Rainey Co., Mt. Braddock's longest and most well-known owner. The Rainey company were experienced coal and coke producers, and they successfully mined coal and coke at Mt. Braddock for several decades. Rainey added beehive ovens in the 1890s and rectangular ovens 1905-1908. In 1907 Rainey allowed H.C. Frick Coke to strip mine some of Mt. Braddock's coal reserves. From studying old Pennsylvania coal mining annual reports I believe Rainey had closed Mount Braddock by 1930.
Image courtesy of Laura
Laura contributes this photo taken at the W.J. Rainey Company's Mt. Braddock Mine. She writes, "My great grandfather is holding the mule. Mt.Braddock Mines in the 1920s."
July 2024 image by author
When looking at Mt. Braddock in the 21st century, one would never know that a coal mine, coke works, and company town once existed there. In the late 1970s or 80s, Mt. Braddock was reworked into an industrial business park.
July 2024 image by author
And yet, along a drainage ditch, pieces of coke and even "red dog" from a slate dump can still be found.
July 2024 image by author
A lonely piece of coke baked long ago in one of Mt. Braddock's coke ovens.
Circa 1960 image by John Enman, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg
These historically significant coke ovens no longer exist. The first rectangular coke ovens ever constructed were at Mt. Braddock. They were invented by Rainey manager Thomas J. Mitchell, who originally built eleven of them at Mt Braddock with which to experiment. Eventually, 470 rectangular coke ovens were constructed at Mt. Braddock, and they replaced the beehive ovens. This type of coke oven was more efficient, and produced more coke at less time and cost, than the beehive ovens. Rainey Coke eventually added rectangular ovens at their coke plants at Revere, and Royal. When Rainey coke opened Allison No. 1 and 2 in 1909, all of the ovens were rectangular.
Circa 1960 image by John Enman, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg
Although these coke ovens had long gone cold, remains of the bricked-up doors remained. There was also a brick plant on the site, although I don't know if the fire clay was mined on site alongside the coal or imported.
Circa 1960 image by John Enman, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg
Looking down a row of coke ovens, with a coke pulling machine and slate dump in the background.
Circa 1960 image by John Enman, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg
This piece of equpiment discharged finished coke into the rail cars.
Circa 1960 image by John Enman, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg
I'm not sure if this is the equpiment that pushed coke through the ovens or what the coke discharged onto to load into rail cars. Dr. John Enman, PhD took these photographs on one of his many trips from Bloomsburg, Pa. to the Connellsville Coalfield. Eventually, he sythesized all of the information into his 1962 dissertation "The Relation of Coal Mining and Coke Making to the Distribution of Population Agglomerations in the Connellsville (Pa.) Beehive Coke Region."
Circa 1960 image by John Enman, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg
Remains of the coke ovens with the remaining company houses in the backgroud.
Circa 1960 image by John Enman, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg
Although there is mention of 40 miners' dwellings at Mt. Braddock in the 1880s, I assume that Rainey Coke constructed these company houses, because they also built this style of company housing at Revere, Royal, and Allison.
1959 image by John Enman
People were still living in this coal company housing at Mount Braddock when this photo was taken. At least some of the houses and coke oven ruins survived into the 1970s. Now the entire "patch town" is gone.
July 2024 image by author
Former site of the company housing plan.
Sources:
John Enman papers, 1876-2013, Coal and Coke Heritage Center at Penn State Fayette, the Eberly Campus
Vivian, Cassandra. Henry Clay Frick and the Golden Age of Coal and Coke, 1870-1920. McFarland & Company, Inc.
MG-377 Enman, John Collection, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg.
Various state mining reports 1875 to 1919
Warren, Kenneth. Waste, Wealth and Alienation, Growth and Decline in the Connellsville Coke Industry. University of Pittsburgh Press.
