Struthers Coke Works-Fairbank, PA

The Struthers Coke Works at Fairbank, PA date back to ca. 1904. The plant was built by the Struthers Coal and Coke Company which was an affiliate of the Struthers Furnace Company based out of Cleveland, Ohio. The company town of Fairbank was named after Struthers Furnace Company Vice President George L. Fairbank. 

 

 The Struthers Furnace Company has local roots. Originally from Washington County, PA, John Struthers purchased 400 acres of land in Poland Township, Ohio (near Youngstown) in 1798. Originally named Marbletown, Struthers owned this land until the War Of 1812 when his family suffered financial ruin. The land lay dormant until 1865 when it was repurchased by Thomas Struthers, the son of John Struthers. It is John Struthers who is credited with bringing railroads and industry to the town. Marbletown would eventually be renamed Struthers in a popular vote.

 

 Struthers, Ohio's early iron industry dates back to 1803 when the Hopewell Furnace was built by Daniel Eaton. This furnace operated until 1812 when John Struthers fell into financial ruin.

 

In 1869 The Struthers Iron Company built the Anna Furnace. In 1896 the Struthers Furnace Company was incorporated and continued to operate the furnace. 

The Struthers Coke Works at Fairbank contained 200 ovens and probably lasted until the 1920's shipping its coke to the company's Anna Furnace.

 

 Today the Struthers Coke Works contains one block of deteriorated ovens and one bank of ovens in really good condition. 

 

Approaching the ovens.

This bank is in really good condition.

Looking over at the block which is not in good condition.

A swampy field of cat tails.

The condition of this bank leads me to believe these ovens were used much later than the 1920's.

Concrete bottom. These were definitely rebuilt at one point.

Then in the middle of the bank there are three or four deteriorated ovens.

Perfect beehive shape.

This tree lived and died in this oven.

Interesting stacked bricks.

At the far end of the bank. It looks like somebody used the stone for something else but left the brick.

The back side of the block still has a nice stone wall.

Except in this section.

The far end of the block. Nothing but coke oven rubble.

Looking back up the middle. Good ovens on the left, bad ovens on the right.

Field of cat tails.

Fairbank Herbert Road runs perfectly parallel with the back of the bank of ovens. You can't see them from the road.

On the block were these stone sleeper blocks.

Looking over at the bank from the block. Fairbank Herbert Road is in the background.

 

Buffington Coke Works- Buffington, PA

All that remains of the coke ovens at Buffington is the No. 3 Block. The ovens themselves are in pretty deteriorated condition. A very interesting thing about the ovens at the northwestern end of the block is that bricks were used, probably during the Great Depression, to make doorways in the openings of the ovens. The doors themselves are long gone but all you'd have to do is hang new ones to have a very comfortable oven home! The trunnel holes have also been sealed up. At the end of the block are also the remains of a fan house. Across the Dunlap Creek from the ovens are the still intact hoist-house, bath-house and lamp-house building as well as the blacksmith shop, warehouse and welding shop. These are currently being used as businesses.

The history of the Buffington Mine and Coke Works is almost identical to Footedale. 

The Buffington Coke Works, named for E.J. Buffington, President of the Illinois Steel Company, were built by the Eureka Fuel Company and placed into operation on November 16, 1900. The Eureka Fuel Company was a subsidiary of the Illinois Steel Company, who had long controlled the coal lands and coke works of the Southwest Coal and Coke Company at Morewood and Tarrs. Eureka was formed in 1898 to develop more coal lands. That same year Illinois Steel and its properties were incorporated as the Federal Steel Company. By summer 1899 Federal had purchased nearly 6,000 acres of coal lands in Nicholson, German, and Menallen Townships in Fayette County. The H.C. Frick Coke Company acquired the mine and coke works on April 1, 1903.

Totaling approximately 425 ovens in its heyday, the coke works contained three batteries of double block ovens. By 1928 the ovens were out and all coal was shipped through the U.S. Steel conveyor system to Colonial Dock on the Monongahela River. The raw coal was then shipped to U.S. Steel's byproduct ovens at Clairton. This system lasted until June 1957 when U.S. Steel closed the mines and dock.

The Buffington mine was originally closed in 1938 but reopened during World War II. It was permanently closed in 1946

This is the condition the majority of the ovens at Buffington are in.

The first of the ovens with the doorways.

Looking out through the doorway.

The sealed up trunnel hole in one of the ovens.

Some more of the doorways.

There was a whole village here!

The ruins of the fan house.

This wall is almost gone.

Supports for the fan?

Former rail bed of the Connellsville and Monongahela Railroad that served the ovens and mine.

Looking across Dunlap Creek at the other mine buildings.

Two of the ovens on the creek side of the block. This was too overgrown to go any further.

We passed by this sign walking back to the truck in New Salem.