A bituminous coal mining town and structures in Western Pennsylvania. A coal patch (called "coal camp" elsewhere) is a town where everything was built and owned by a coal company, including schools, churches, stores, theatres, and residential structures. Coal patches in Western Pennsylvania generally date from the 1870s through the 1920s. Although the coal seams around the patches are mined out and the coke ovens are crumbling ruins, people still live in these towns in homes built by the coal companies a century or more ago. In 1991 the Windber Historic District was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. The district includes most of the original Berwind-White planned grid, and encompasses land and buildings in both Cambria and Somerset Counties. Windber was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places for its significance to the "history of industry, community planning and development, social history, ethnic heritage and architecture," as an example of both a typical western Pennsylvania coal mining community and as a unique example of a planned company town.
Location
Windber, Pennsylvania, 15963, United States