This photograph from the Smithsonian Institution captures Mahanoy Plane, Pennsylvania around the turn of the 20th century – taken near the headhouse of the inclined plane railroad that hauled loaded coal cars up Broad Mountain toward Frackville.
A coal breaker rises in the distance, while the large buildings along the tracks served as engine houses and workshops for the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad. By this point, about 2,000 people in the town.
An earlier history of Schuylkill County shared the development of this Coal Region community.
From Munsell’s History of Schuylkill County, 1881:
Mahanoy Plane
This, the principal village in the borough [of Gilberton], was named from the inclined plane that, running to the top of Broad Mountain, connects the Mill Creek railway with the Mahanoy and Shamokin branch of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.
The building of the roads drew here a few of their employees, and in 1859 a school-house was built by the township of Mahanoy. Immediately following the completion of the plane, in 1861, the collieries of the adjoining country drew the attention of speculators and operators to this vicinity, and in 1865 the abandoned tunnel which was driven by Stephen Girard in 1833 and was taken possession of, and Bear Ridge collieries were established.
Meanwhile coal shipments over the plane had commenced, railroad repair shops and engine house had been erected, and the plane made the headquarters of a division of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.
The hotel known as the Union House was built in 1863, at which time the place contained about 200 inhabitants… The Shenandoah branch railroad was built during the same year, and the offices of the resident engineer and superintendent of the railroad.
From 1865 the growth of the place was rapid, three large collieries having been opened, and the transfer of coal up the mountain to Frackville became an important industry.
In 1880, the place had grown to a prosperous village of 1,000 inhabitants, with a number of fine stores, three hotels, two churches, and an intelligent and orderly population.
During the time of the labor troubles a ‘body’ of Mollie Maguires was located here…
Read more Coal Region history
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