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ELRICO, PA

Irwin Gas Coal Company opened the Irwin No. 3 and 4 mines and the coal mining village of Elrico circa 1920. Both mines had their own tipples - one on each end of Elrico. This company had other mines in Westmoreland and Fayette Counties, as well. The coal mines at Elrico were closed in December 1951.

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Elrico "coal patch town."

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There are also these cottge style company houses that reflect "model" company town reforms in worker housing.

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Two story company houses that were located near the No. 3 tipple.

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Old mine maps list this as the company store. It doesn't look like a company store, and is now obviously a residence, but that's what the mine maps say.

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I believe the H.A.E.R. survey back in the 1990s thought that this building was the company store. The section on Elrico reads, "the company store is a two-story wood-frame building with clapboard siding; it measures 75'x35' and contains a gable roof covered with asphalt shingles, and ashlar foundation, and a storefront of large multipaned windows in wooden architraves; the first floor serves as a grocery and the second floor contains apartments." But I think that this may have been a "mom and pop" store.

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Remaining slate dump near the site of the now-removed No. 4 tipple.

March 2020 image by author