This photograph was taken as part of a Historic American Engineering Record project documenting the abandoned St. Nicholas coal breaker in Maple Hill, Pennsylvania in 2002.

It shows a view from inside the breaker looking south toward the small, crossroads patch town of St. Nicholas.

The massive structure was an iconic building Schuylkill County, a massive facility that once processed anthracite coal. It went into operation in 1931 during the Great Depression, with operations at the breaker stopped in the 1960s.

After decades left behind as a ruin of the Coal Region’s industrial past, the final remains of the building where destroyed in a controlled explosion in March 2018.

From the Library of Congress collection.

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Read more about Coal Region history

Economic conditions in the Coal Region in the 1920s and 1930s provide warning for today | Article

Incredible photographs document the Maple Hill mine near Shenandoah in 1938

Winter at the abandoned Maple Hill Colliery near Shenandoah, PA | 2000

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