ROWES RUN, PA
Homes built for the employees of Pittsburgh Coal Company's Colonial No. 3 mine at Rowes Run, PA.
This company store of masonry construction is still in existence at Rowes Run. It was probably the United Supply Company store, which was
the retail arm of H.C. Frick Coal and Coke Co., which acquired the mine and patch in 1911. There is also an older company store at the bottom of the hill that dates back to
the Pittsburgh Coal Company days.
Detail of the sign on the company store.
Ballfield in the center of the patch, with the company houses surrounding it.
A few garages on the edge of the patch for the residents.
On another edge of the patch the Rowes Run school is dilapidated and forlorn.
Homes on the edge of the slate dump.
Pink red dog in the Colonial No. 3 slate dump.
This brick stable is a reminder of the era when animals were used in the mining
of coal at the Colonial No. 3 mine.
Apr. 2009 image by author
Apr. 2009 image by author
Apr. 2009 image by author
Apr. 2009 image by author
Apr. 2009 image by author
Apr. 2009 image by author
Apr. 2009 image by author
Apr. 2009 image by author
Apr. 2009 image by author
John Lowery emailed in this picture of the Colonial No. 3 tipple. He writes, "The photo enclosed was given to me by Bobby Cramer of Rowes Run. It is an original taken by his family in 1937, and he said I may use it.
I would like you to enter it into the Rowes Run webpage. I was born in 1946 on Second Street in Rowes Run, shortly after my parents moved to house #466 on Fourth Street. I left in 1964 for the Air Force, and now I live in NJ ... Everybody left when the mines closed,
and took all photos and mine related things with them. So it is tough finding things today. What I truly am looking for is a picture of the coke ovens that was at the Rowes Run mine. They quit coking there and covered the ovens up with the slate dumps.
I’ve been over every inch of the mine area as a kid, and have not found any signs of coke ovens. It was really something to watch the coal cars being turned over and dumped at the underground belt to the river. It was great being a coal patch kid."