There were three sub-companies of U.S. Steel involved in coal mining: H.C. Frick Coke Co., United States Coal & Coke Co. (Southern W.Va. and Eastern Ky.), and National Mining Company. National Mining operated their No. 2 mine in South Fayette Township from circa 1905 to about 1930. (National No. 1 was nearby at Morgan, No. 3 was at Muse, and No. 4 in the Monongahela Valley near New Eagle, whose reserves may have evolved into the Maple Creek mine?)
Oct. 2024 image by author
In the 21st Century the remains of the coal mine are gone, but the coal company housing remains.
Oct. 2024 image by author
This was the company store, operated under the Union Supply Company retail arm of U.S. Steel's coal companies. An older resident of National Hill told me that, despite the No. 2 mine being closed for many years, Union Supply kept this store open into the 1950s. It has now been reworked into an apartment building.
A row of older "salt box" company houses on the back row of the "patch."
Some of the company houses are front-gabled and some side-gabled. Originally a duplex, the one on the left has been heavily remodeled into a single-owner dwelling with a decorative stone facade and bay window.
This "patch" house still sports its original two-porch arrangement. The majority of coal company houses in Western Pennsylvania were two-family dwellings.
