| NATIONAL
PARK SERVICE REPORT ON BUFFINGTON INCLUDING BUFFINGTON MINE 1990 |
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BUFFINGTON:
Company Town
N of SR 4006, about 6 1/2 mites SE of
Brownsville, Menallen Twp.
Construction Dates: 1900 to 1902 |
DESCRIPTION: The town of Buffington has about 100 houses, which comprises
virtually all of its original housing stock. The town was laid out along five parallel and
two intersecting streets. Situated north of the former ovens and mine site, the houses
along the northwest side of town arc built on a particularly steep hillside.
Buffington’s semi-detached dwellings are of the type most common in the region.
Four-bay, two-story, side-gabled structures, and they have shed-roofed full front porches
and single-story rear additions; some of the houses have been altered and are now only
two-bay on the second floor.
The company store was built around 1902 and is in good condition today. Located about
one-eighth of a mile southheast of town, the building is two stories high and the exterior
material is brick. Rectangular in plan, it has a flat roof, a main facade with three bays,
each with sets of three arched windows on the second story. The glazing has been removed.
The main offset entrance on the first floor has been altered. |
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| HISTORY: Construction of the company town
Buffington was probably begun by the Eureka Fuel company. the original owners of the plant
who opened the facility in October 1900. The Southwest Connellsville Coke Company operated
the mine from July 1901 to March 1903 and the majority of the houses were constructed
under its direction. The most houses were constructed in 1902, when the Southwest
Connellsville Coke Company built eighty-nine double houses and sixteen single houses. The
store probably was built about this same time as well. In March of 1903 the H. C. Frick
Coke Company acquired the property and the store was turned over to the Union Supply
Company. |
Buffington: Mine and Coke Works
Along Dunbar Creek, southwest of SR 4006, at Buffington, in
German and Menallen Twps. Construction
Date: 1900 |
DESCRIPTION:
Located along Dunlap Creek on the west side of SR 40W,
the long-abandoned Buffington mine comprises several brick and steel-frame buildings
including the largest structure on site, the former hoist-house, bath-house, and
lamp-house building, the blacksmith shop, the warehouse, and the welding shop. Located
40’ west of the hoist-house, the mouth of the vertical shaft is marked by a concrete
cap. The hoist-house, Bath-house, and lamp-house building measures approximately 170’
x 45’ and now serves as an electrical repair shop for “Tex’s
Alternator and Starter Service.” Containing common-bond red brick walls and riveted
steel Fink roof trusses, the tall one-story building features a large hipped roof. The
hipped roof, in fact, is characteristic of all the mine buildings at Buffington.
Originally the hoist-house occupied the western half of the building, and the lamp-house
and bath-house occupied the other half. No motors or hoisting equipment remain in the
hoist-house. The blacksmith shop is also of common-bond red brick construction. It was
converted into a residence in 1980 and measures approximately 35’ x 25’.
Northwest of the former blacksmith shop is the abandoned warehouse, a one-story
common-bond red brick building. It measures approximately 55’ x 35’ and
is in poor condition. The welding shop is located west of the warehouse and consists of a
small one-story common-bond red brick building with a hipped roof. A number of mine
structures have been torn down since it closed in 1946 These include the steel headframe
and tipple, the fan house (a brick building),
the barn (a wood-frame building), the office (a small brick building), and the scale house
(a small wood frame building). East of
the mine, between Dunlap Creek and SR 4006, stood two batteries of coke ovens, probably
beehive ovens. Now covered with slate from the mine, there were approximately 100 coke
ovens in this location. On the west side of Dunlap Creek a battery of double-block beehive
coke ovens still stands. Interestingly, the remains of tall, narrow rectangular doors
maybe seen in the Northernmost one-third of the ovens. The coke ovens on the west side of
the creek are accessible by a riveted steel pony Pratt truss bridge crossing Dunbar Creek
south of the mine buildings. The single-span, single-lane bridge is approximately 60’
in length and is in poor condition.
HISTORY: The Buffington coal mine was established by
the Eureka Fuel Company and placed into operation on November 16, 1900. The Southwest
Connellsville Coke Company acquired the plant on July 31, 1901, and the H. C. Frick Coke
Company acquired the mine through a merger on April 1, 1903. The mine had 1,327 acres of
assigned coal. A vertical shaft, located next to the hoist house, extended to a depth of
391’.
In addition to the mine, the Eureka Fuel
Company probably built the beehive coke ovens at Buffington. Totaling about 425 ovens, two
batteries of double-block beehive coke ovens were operated located on the east side of
Dunlap Creek and one battery of double-block beehive coke ovens were operated on the west
side of the creek. The Connellsville & Monongahela Railroad served the coke ovens and
mine. The works produced over 170,000 tons of coke per year in the early 1900s. At its
peak in the early 1900s and 1910s, the mine and coke works employed about 440 workers,
nearly 100 of whom were engaged in coke production. By 1928, the Buffington mine had been
consolidated with the Footdale mine and all coal was shipped underground to a rotary dump
at Filbert from where it was conveyed underground to the Palmer Coal Dock on the
Monongahela River. U.S. Steel’s Frick Coke Company dismantled the ovens, probably in
the 1920’s. The Buffington Mine was
closed in 1938, reopened during World War II, and was finally abandoned in 1946. …end |
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