GREENWALD, PA
The Donohoe Coal & Coke Co. developed a coal mine, coke works, and company patch town
at Greenwald in 1898. In 1906 The Black Diamond reported that the Pittsburgh seam mine was entered through a drift portal, daily
production exceeded 2,000 tons, approximatley 400 men worked at Greenwald, and that every coke oven had been in continuous operation for "the past three years."
In 1908 Donohoe implemented a Welfare Plan whereas the families drinking the least beer and liquor, as determined by company store receipts, would receive: The
best housing; regular painting of the houses; fruit trees and grass sod for yards; and flower and garden seeds. Apparently, the excessive alcholic consumption
of the European immigrants was problematic, so the coal company sought to remedy the problem. At any rate, the Greenwald Mine closed in 1923.
Ruins of the beehive coke ovens.
Greenwald coal tipple and colliery buildings (boiler house, engine house, etc.).
The coal company store at Greenwald operated as "John P. Donohoe Unlimited." Pennsylvania
law prohibited coal companies from operating their own stores, so they circumvented that law by setting up separate companies to handle their
retail business. Pittsburgh Terminal Railroad and Coal used "Mutual Supply Co.," H.C. Frick Coal & Coke used "Union Supply Co.," Pittsburgh
Coal used "Federal Supply Co.," and apparently Donahoe Coal Co. used "John P. Donahoe Unlimited."
A trip of mine cars coming to or from the Greenwald coal mine, with a few company houses in the background.
This is probably the best type of housing that the company offered, and also the homes that the most temperate families could occupy.
These were probably the highest quality of company houses at Greenwald, and they were probably for management. There were also small shanties and the
ubiquitous duplex houses, as well, and they were given to the families that drank the most beer and booze.
Some of the remaining management houses at Greenwald.
Greenwald also features these two-family duplex homes found in coal company towns all over southwestern Pennsylvania.
Aerial view of the remnant of the Greenwald patch, with a remnant of the mine
site or ash dump being the grey area in the bottom left of the photo.
Sep. 2003 image by author
Circa 1906 image from
The Black Diamond via Google Books
Image courtesy Westmoreland History magazine
Circa 1906 image from
The Black Diamond via Google Books
Probably early-2000's image courtesy of Westmoreland History magazine
2019 image by author
2019 image by author
Microsoft Virtual Earth image