Mayfield (Alverton No. 2) and Carolyn/Peerless Coke Works

Today was a nice, sunny break in the weather and I was also off work. Bonus! I headed over to Alverton to explore a couple more difficult to get to coke plants. Alverton is a historically rich area as far as coal and coke production. We've found ourselves here a good many times over the past few years. 

 

These two coke plants are both in really bad condition with only a fraction of the ovens remaining. Mayfield (Alverton No. 2) is a very old coke plant dating back to ca. 1878. It was a McClure plant and was renamed Alverton No. 2 in 1899. It contained 55 ovens up until 1890 and after that is listed as having 104. We know that Frick absorbed McClure in 1895 so after this, it kept the name McClure but must have been controlled by Frick. It is not listed as a Frick plant until 1901. I am also finding no mentions of  Alverton No. 2 after 1920. 

 

Carolyn/Peerless Coke Works on the other hand, is a later coke plant. The Peerless Connellsville Coke Company was organized in 1907 with Wade Echard as President, James M. Doyle - Treasurer and P.W. Simon - Secretary. Others named in the charter include George Wilson, Christian Echard, John M. Mumaw, Samuel Cummings, J.M. Kennel, and Cyrus Echard. Their small coke plant of 32 ovens was named Carolyn and fired in the spring of 1908. I can't find how long they operated the plant under this name. By 1920 the plant was renamed Peerless and was being operated by the Mahoning Coal and Coke Company. After that I lost track of this as well.

 

Portion of the Alverton No. 2 mine map showing the Mayfield and Carolyn Coke Works. Mayfield, I believe originally started at the bottom and eventually started working its way north. Carolyn never got any bigger. Coincidentally, all that's left of Mayview today is the original part.

Mine map superimposed over a road map. Alverton No. 2 ran along a large portion of Sportsmen Road and ended up almost butting up with Donnelley Coke Works to the north.

Mine map superimposed over a modern aerial view.

This 1939 aerial shows that these two coke plants were still intact but very much abandoned.

 

 

Mayfield/Alverton No. 2

 

 

These are very old and in very bad condition.

This is probably the best one left.

The old rail bed that headed up to Carolyn after leaving here.

All the ovens at Mayfield were bank ovens.

These two are of the backside of the bank.

This is where the ovens just disappear.

 

 

 

 

Carolyn/Peerless

 

 

 

 

 

There are only five ovens left here.

What remains are in decent shape though.

There are some nice foundations and piers left.

The rail bed. You can see the bank where the rest of the ovens were to the right.

A couple footers on the ground.

Some sizable coke laying around.

One of the piers.

One of the arch blocks from the ovens.

An oven full of bones. This was a first.

Bricks that fell from the ovens.

 

Merry Christmas! This is my cat Skippy under the tree.

Maple Glen Dairy Farm - Mt. Pleasant

Yesterday afternoon Marybeth and I went to walk around the old Maple Glen Dairy Farm. I don't know much about this place. I've found mentions of it in old newspapers from the 1940's and 1950's. It's definitely different from researching mines and coke plants. I found that it was a working farm up into the 1960's and was operated by the Glick Brothers. They did home deliveries of milk. According to the Images Of America- Mount Pleasant Borough (2014, Friends Of The Mount Pleasant Public Library) book, the Glick Brothers owned a meatpacking plant on Rt. 31 west of town and their three farms bordering the town provided doorstep delivery of milk from the 1930's through the 1960's. 

 

I remember going to a dairy farm with my grandfather when I was a kid. It was somewhere in Mt. Pleasant. The barn here reminded me of it, but I would think the layout is similar to most dairy farms. 

Some of the milk caps I collected.

A Maple Glen milk bottle I found on Etsy.

Walking back to the farm.

Marybeth. One of my favorite people on the planet.

This twin silo is what caught my attention before anything else. I've never seen one like it.

This house is amazing.

One of the farm buildings.

Inside of this building.

A brick grill outside.

The crooked house.

Shelves inside the crooked house. We laughed because this was the first time we could explore an old house without even stepping inside.

Crooked house. Interior from the exterior.

Basement of the crooked house.

Other side of the crooked house.

One of the barns.

Inside the barn.

Collapsed wall.

Corn crib!

Another barn.

Vent falling victim to time and gravity.

A collapsed farm building.

Inside of the other barn.

Old boiler in one of the buildings. A cat lived in this building and wasn't a big fan of us being there.

Inside the cat's house.

Bottom of the silo's.

Looking up one of the silos.