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Calumet, Pennsylvania

Calumet, Pennsylvania
Census-designated place
Named for: Calumet Coke Company
Country United States
State Pennsylvania
County Westmoreland
Township Mount Pleasant
Elevation 1,000 ft (305 m)
Coordinates 40°12′49″N 79°29′35″W / 40.21361°N 79.49306°W / 40.21361; -79.49306Coordinates: 40°12′49″N 79°29′35″W / 40.21361°N 79.49306°W / 40.21361; -79.49306
Population 1,241 (2010 census)
Founded 1888
Timezone EST (UTC-5)
 - summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code 15621
Area code Area code 724
School District Mount Pleasant Area School District
Calumet, Pennsylvania is located in Pennsylvania
Calumet, Pennsylvania
Location of Calumet in Pennsylvania
Calumet, Pennsylvania is located in the US
Calumet, Pennsylvania
Location of Calumet in Pennsylvania

Calumet is a census-designated place in Mount Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Although the United States Census Bureau included it as a census-designated place with the nearby community of Norvelt for the 2000 census, they are in reality two very different communities, each reflecting a different chapter in how the Great Depression affected rural Pennsylvanians. As of the 2010 census, Calumet-Norvelt was divided into two separate CDPs officially. Calumet was a typical "patch town," another name for a coal town, built by a single company to house coal miners as cheaply as possible. The closing of the Calumet mine during the Great Depression caused enormous hardship in an era when unemployment compensation and welfare payments were nonexistent. On the other hand, Norvelt was created during the depression by the US federal government as a model community, intended to increase the standard of living of laid-off coal miners.

Calumet was founded by the Calumet Coke Company in 1888 as a housing site for its workers. The community, as originally laid out, consisted of twenty double houses, twelve single-family houses, and a few commercial and industrial buildings. The workers were employed in a coal mine and also tended ovens that produced coke (fuel). During the Bituminous Coal Miners' Strike of 1894, Calumet was the site of a bitter confrontation between the strikers and the H. C. Frick Coke Company, which at that time was part-owner of Calumet Coke Company.


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