Image courtesy Coal and Coke Heritage Center, Penn State Fayette
Dramatic nighttime view of the Phillips coke plant taken during the late 1920s.
Image courtesy Coal and Coke Heritage Center, Penn State Fayette
Phillips, along with Collier, was the last beehive coke plant built by H.C. Frick Coke. The year was 1908. The corporate giant stopped building new beehive coke yards after this and started sending their coke to far-off by-product coke ovens, mostly in Clairton, Pa. This is how the Phillips "patch town" looked in 1995.
Jul. 2004 image by author
Nearly a decade later most of the duplex houses in Phillips were still standing.
Jul. 2004 image by author
A view of the Phillips patch from a knoll on the edge of town.
Jul. 2004 image by author
One of the few company-built privies still standing at Phillips. The other side of it was a coal bin, and the door in the back of it is where the company delivery truck would deposit the coal. Some companies provided some coal free of charge to their employees, though I don't know what Frick's policy was here.
Jul. 2004 image by author
This house still has a coal chute that probably led to a stoker furnace in the basement.
