Coke Plants Around Vanderbilt

Just south of Vanderbilt are the ruins of three coke plants. 

 

 

 

Clarissa, Nellie and Paul are located in really rough terrain along the old Dickerson Run Branch of the Pittsburgh, McKeesport and Youghiogheny Railroad (later the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad). This area has been heavily strip mined and who knows what else, it's really nasty back there. Northeast of these three coke plants are the ruins of the Fort Hill Coke Works, easily accessible via the Great Allegheny Passage. 

 

 

 

Paul and Fort Hill were both operated by the Rainey Coke Company, Fort Hill being the earliest of the four in this area. From looking at the mine maps it looks like the Paul and Fort Hill Mines were eventually connected underground. Fort Hill began operating in 1880. Rainey had entered into a contract in September 1880 with the B&O Railroad to built a siding to serve his plant. This was supposed to be ready by November 1880. Two years later he still didn't have his siding, he had a contract with the Cleveland Rolling Mill to supply them with 800 tons of coke a day, and in 1887 sued the B&O for $100,000.00 in lost profits. I'm not sure how that suit turned out. 

 

The coal mined at Fort Hill was also shipped across the river to the Rainey (Fayette) Coke Works. Fayette was the earliest in the region, originally firing in 1841 (not by Rainey), so I assume the mine was mined out years before. Both Paul and Fort Hill were operating into the 1920's. 

 

Since Fort Hill was the earliest, we'll start with that and then get into the Vanderbilt Triangle.

 

Fort Hill Coke Works

 

Walking up the Great Allegheny Passage to Fort Hill

Part of the siding that caused Rainey so much grief in 1887.

There are not a lot of ovens left but there are still some nice sections of pier walls remaining.

Finally ovens start popping up. Eventually there would be more than  140 ovens. Now there are only around 10.

This is one of the nicest ovens around!. The beehive is perfectly intact.

Thousands of people go past these ovens every year, either riding locally, or from Pittsburgh to Washington DC. These ovens are often mistakenly referred to as the Adelaide Coke Works. The ovens at Adelaide were located further upstream at the town of Adelaide.

This oven is almost completely buried. I think that was the fate of most of the ovens at Fort Hill.

A little further up I found a potential mine entrance cut out of the side of the hill.

This section near the potential entrance has been carved out of the side of the hill.

 

 Paul Coke Works

These are actually photos from last February which I never did anything with. The Paul Coke Works were Rainey's second in this area. They date back to 1887 and stretch for a good distance along Lower Sandy Hill Road and Leisenring Vanderbilt Road. There was a bank and a block and a good bit of ovens remain. Sources vary but there were anywhere from 489 to 500 ovens here. This was originally built by James Cochran but was in Rainey's control by 1890.

 

 

Portion of the Paul mine map showing the ovens.

Mine map superimposed over a modern map.

Location on a regional Connellsville Coke District map. Date unknown.

Closeup of the Paul portion on the regional map showing the bank and the block.

 

This is starting with the bank ovens.

There is nothing too spectacular here. All these ovens are in really bad shape.

This was a welcome clearing. Ahead you can see what's left of the block.

These are the block ovens.

There aren't even very many bricks left in this oven.

This is all baked insulating clay with imprints from the bricks. Where are the bricks?

There are some bricks left here.

This was in half decent condition. Somebody's having fires here.

This one's pretty crazy....

The current end of the block.

I think these were a few more in the bank. These photos were taken nine months ago.

 

Dubuque Times February 25, 1891

 

 

Nellie Coke Works

 

More from February. These ovens are all visible from the north side of Nellie's School Road. There were ovens located on the south side as well but those aren't visible today. These ovens date back to 1882 and belonged to Brown, Cochran and Company. I found mentions of these ovens in newspaper archives as late as 1948 but I doubt they operated consistently the entire time. They probably went out in the 1920's and may have been used again during World War 2. Eventually the ovens would total 329. 

 

Like all of the coke plants in the region they had their labor issues.

 

Connellsville Keystone Courier December 3, 1886

 

They also had their share of strange events.

 

Connellsville Courier June 25, 1906

 

I couldn't get too far into these ovens. These photos are taken from the road. The ovens are located in the backyards of a few different properties and it would have taken half a day to get permission from everybody.

 

Nellie section of the regional map. There were a mess of ovens here. I think there are two banks with a block in the middle. It's hard to say without going in there.

 

Clarissa Coke Works

 

These were ovens that I thought were gone. Most of them are, but there are a couple really nice intact ovens. These ovens are in a swamp. I was looking at a terrain map of the area and it really looked like there could be something. I bushwhacked my way back there today between storm systems and it turned out there was. 

 

Clarissa was another James Cochran plant dating back to 1883. The plant was probably named in honor of James' wife  Clarissa.

 

Connellsville Keystone Courier June 29, 1883. An article talking about the plant being built in June 1883.

Two months later they had their first accident:

Connellsville Keystone Courier August 31, 1883

Section of the regional map showing Clarissa.

Nice and intact with different styles of brick. Not the original arches.

This is another example of ovens that look like they were used later. Most of these ovens are collapsed and buried but there are three or four that have definitely been rebuilt.

The swamp!