Housing conditions in Pennsylvania’s Coal Region | 1908

Posted on by Jake Wynn

Annie Marion MacLean’s 1908 study of Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal fields lays bare company-owned housing, four-room houses crammed with twenty to thirty boarders, beds shared by day and night shifts, vermin and filth, $1-per-room rents—and the gradual climb to 5 or 6 room homes, parlors, gardens, and disappearing boarders. Read the full story.

Company housing for mineworkers in Williamstown, Pennsylvania | 1860s

Posted on by Jake Wynn
Company housing for Williamstown Colliery in Williamstown Pennsylvania Coal Region history

By the Civil War’s end, the Summit Branch Railroad Company built these simple miners’ houses, transforming remote forest land into a bustling coal town called Williamstown. At its peak, thousands relied on the Williamstown Colliery for work. A few of these early homes still stand, silent witnesses to the region’s industrial heritage. Read the full story.