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GAHAGEN, PA
Boy, talk about a remote coal town
in the middle of nowhere. Gahagen, Pa. was at the very end of the railroad in Shade
Township. It was built by Gahagen Coal Co. in 1919 to house the workers of
the Huskin No. 3, 4, and 6 coal mines. Mining was in the Upper Kittanning and
Lower Kittanning seams.
Former coal company houses.
I figured that there was originally a house
between these houses and that they had been torn down. But I checked the
1939 aerial photo on Penn Pilot and the original spacing of the houses
was actually this generous. Maybe this is because the owner of Gahagen Coal Co., William Gahagen, was a
local man, and not some financier or industrialist in some distant East Coast City, and thus
cared more about the workers and his little coal town.
These houses were probably for managment.
The porches have been converted to rooms, window changed, etc.
Sources:
Summers, Patrica, editor. Somerset County, Pennsylvania; An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites. 1994.
Apr. 2018 image by author
Apr. 2018 image by author
Apr. 2018 image by author
Apr. 2018 image by author