McINTYRE, PENNSYLVANIA

In 1910 the Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal & Iron Company (later simply Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Co.) constructed the coal company town of McIntyre in Young Township and awarded the contract for the construction of fifty houses to the Hyde-Murphy Company of Ridgeway, Pennsylvania. Two coal mines opened in 1911.

McIntyre is named after H. Barclay McIntire, a Jacksonville merchant and coal speculator who had controlled leases on much land in the area. The mines and town were served by a branch of the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railway. The company store was called Jefferson Supply Company because, in Pennsylvania, the retail arm of a coal company had to be separated from the mining portion of the firm.

McIntyre No. 1 and 2 mines were later renamed Jacksonville No. 1 and 2 mines, and still later Kent No. 1 and 2. There was also a Kent No. 2A in the 1950s. Tonnage dropped during the 1930s. The mines were inundated by the 1936 flood but reopened. The Kent No. 2 mine blew up in 1941. Seven miners were killed and 16 injured. Kent No. 1 closed in 1952, No. 2A in 1959, and No. 2 in 1963.

March 2020 image by author The company houses at McIntyre have been greatly altered from their original appearance.
March 2020 image by author The house on the left still retains its original front porch arrangement. I believe that the small room with the shed roof on the side of the house is original, too.
Courtesy of mcintyrepa.com One of the homes when they were newer.
March 2020 image by author Another style of company housing at McIntyre.
March 2020 image by author Looking up at the McIntyre "patch town" from the former tipple area.
March 2020 image by author This structure was originally the McIntyre company store.
March 2020 image by author The small, weathered structure on the right was once the company doctor's office. The company store is in the background.
March 2020 image by author The company store peeking out from behind the slate dump.
March 2020 image by author There are a few of these slate dumps (a.k.a. bony piles) around McIntyre.
March 2020 image by author Railroad ties remain from what I believe was part of the slate/refuse disposal system. Again, that is the former company store in the background looming prominently in McIntyre's landscape due to not only its size but also the shade of green with which it has been painted.
March 2020 image by author Concrete abutments from what was possibly an internal railroad for coal refuse disposal.
March 2020 image by author Another view of the concrete abutments where a rail bridge was once located.
March 2020 image by author A steel rail sticks out of a chunk of concrete in the area where the tipple was once located.
March 2020 image by author These stairs in the woods used to be part of the walkway from one part of the mining village to the tipple and mine portal area.
March 2020 image by author Coal-filled tires surround modest athletic courts.
March 2020 image by author

Sources:

Rose, Kenneth, editor. Indiana County, Pennsylvania; An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites. 1993.

mcintyrepa.com (now defunct) by Susan Ferrandiz. Accessed here through the Wayback Machine.

http://patheoldminer.rootsweb.ancestry.com (now defunct) by Ray Washlaski. Accessed here through the Wayback Machine.