Eckley Historic District
Laborers' dwellings
|
|
 Location of Eckley Miners' Village within Pennsylvania
|
|
| Established | 1970 |
|---|---|
| Location |
Foster Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, USA (near Hazleton) |
| Coordinates | 40°59′36″N 75°51′46″W / 40.99333°N 75.86278°WCoordinates: 40°59′36″N 75°51′46″W / 40.99333°N 75.86278°W |
| Curator | |
|
Eckley Historic District
|
|
 
|
|
| Location | Both sides of Main St. through town of Eckley, Eckley, Pennsylvania |
| Area | 73.2 acres (29.6 ha) |
| Built | 1870 |
| Architectural style | Gothic |
| NRHP reference # | 71000710 |
| Added to NRHP | October 26, 1971 |
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Eckley Miners' Village in eastern Pennsylvania is an anthracite coal mining patch town located near Hazleton, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Since 1970, Eckley has been owned and operated as a museum by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
Before the 1850s, Eckley was not a mining town, but a rural, forested community called Shingletown. It was located on land owned by the Tench Coxe Estate. The inhabitants took advantage of the surrounding woodlands and made shingles to be sold in White Haven and Hazleton. These goods were traded for the necessities of life, such as “whiskey, port, and tobacco”.
In 1853, four prospectors came to Shingletown and found that the land contained several veins of coal. Within the year these four men, Richard Sharpe, Asa Lansford Foster, Francis Weiss and John Leisenring, formed Sharpe, Leisenring and Company, later known as Sharpe, Weiss, and Company. Judge Charles Coxe of Philadelphia, executor of the Tench Coxe Estate, granted the company a 20-year lease for the establishment and operation of a colliery on these 1,500 acres (6 km²) of land. In 1854 the company began work on this, the Council Ridge Colliery.
...
Wikipedia