Colver

Colver
Location in Pennsylvania
Colver
Basic data
Foundation :	1911
State :	United States
State :	Pennsylvania
County :	Cambria County
Coordinates :	40 ° 33 ′  N , 78 ° 46 ′  W Coordinates: 40 ° 33 ′  N , 78 ° 46 ′  W
Time zone :	Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 )
Residents :	1,035 (as of: 2000)
Population density :	333 inhabitants per km 2
Area :	3,108 km 2  (approx. 1 mi 2 )
Height :	661 m
Postal code :	15927
FIPS :	42-15416
GNIS ID :	1172252

Colver is a census-designated place in Cambria County , Pennsylvania . The place had 1035 inhabitants in 2000 and a size of 3.2 km². It belongs to the Cambria Township .

history

Colver was founded by two entrepreneurs B. Dawson Coleman and John Heisley Weaver. The name of the place is made up of parts of the name of the two.

In 1904 Weaver opened a coal mine in Possum Glory (now Heilwood ) in neighboring Indiana County . Coleman had also bought coal mines in Cambria County. In 1909 the two merged and bought a coal mine of the Nanty Glo Coal Company ten kilometers north of Ebensburg . At the same time, the two acquired the nearby Blacklick-Yellow Creek Railroad (later Cambria and Indiana Railroad ). In the following year, the development work for the coal mine of the now called Ebensburg Coal Company began. The first coal was mined in mid-1911. At the same time, the extension of the railway line to the coal mine was completed. The settlements “9 Row”, “20 Row” and “Shantytown” were established to accommodate the workers.

At the same time, the construction of a settlement for the miners on a hill above the mine began. In June 1911 40 houses had already been built and 60 more had been commissioned, and the road to the settlement had largely been completed. The construction work was coordinated and supervised by the railway engineers. Most of the buildings were planned in-house. The architect Horace Trumbauer was hired for the hotel and the Presbyterian church . For the water supply, the Vetera Dam was built by 1914, ten kilometers from Colver. Over 400 houses were built by 1923. The miners lived in the rented houses. They were only able to buy the houses from 1947 onwards.

In the period that followed, two smaller settlements emerged that were not owned by the mining company. Various shops were located in Jewtown, now Bakersville. In 1920 there were two grocery stores run by a Russian and an Austrian, a Russian warehouse and an Italian bakery. A bottling company and a dry cleaning company were added later. Several bars were built in Tripoli, as in Colver alcohol could only be sold in the hotel bar. In addition, the “Slovak Club”, the “Italian Club” and the union's assembly hall were built.

The settlement was completely under the control of the mining company. The various unions found it difficult to gain a foothold in Colver due to the good living conditions of the workers. In the summer of 1922, workers in Colver also went on strike as part of a nationwide miners' strike. On July 21, 1922, the place was occupied by the National Guard , primarily to protect the property of the mining company.

In the same year, the partnership between Coleman and Weaver also ended. Coleman took over the mine in Colver and at the same time sold his stake in the C&I Railroad to the New York Central Railroad . Weavers' share in the railway company was sold to Bethlehem Steel Corporation in 1948 . The Ebensburg Coal Company was acquired by Eastern Gas and Fuel Associates on August 1, 1956. The mine was later sold to the Peabody Coal Company.

In 1924 around 2000 people lived in Colver, by the beginning of the Second World War the population rose to 4000. Since no new houses were built, the people lived in very cramped conditions.

The mine’s production peaked during World War II and continued into the early 1950s. With the decrease in demand for coal and the simultaneous technological improvements in mining, fewer and fewer workers were required. In 1978 the mining operations were finally stopped. The C&I Railroad ceased operations to Colver in 1990 and on the entire route in 1994.

Because of the good state of preservation of the miners' settlement, an application was made in June 1994 to declare Colver a National Historic District .

In 2000, 1,035 people lived in 416 households. The population is 99.52% white. 23.3% of the population were under 18 years of age, 8.6% between 18 and 24, 27.5% between 25 and 44, 22.8% between 45 and 64 and 17.8% over 65. The median income was 23,388 $ a year. 17.1% of the population live below the poverty line. Most of the residents now work outside of Colver.

urban planning

Panorama of Colver 1913

Colver is designed as a factory settlement according to a strict geometry. There is a main street from north to south (Reese Avenue) and two other parallel streets (Coleman Avenue and Weaver Avenue). These cut a total of nine streets that are only numbered. The single-family houses were built in two variants. The workers' houses had four rooms and those of the employees had six rooms. In the beginning, the water connection was outside the building, between two properties. The buildings had an electrical connection from the start. The company provided electricity and water free of charge. The houses of the mine workers were built of wood and were clad with asbestos panels from 1928. The houses of the employees of the railway company were made of brick.

Furthermore, various community facilities were built by the mining company. Among other things, the place received a shop, a cinema, a post office and a hotel. A district heating system was built to heat these facilities as well as some of the houses of the higher employees. The settlement also received a hospital for medical care. Furthermore, three churches (Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and Orthodox) were built, a playground was set up and a police station with a prison was built. The company made funds available to set up a fire brigade , an orchestra, a shooting club and a baseball team. The mining company set up subsidiaries to manage the individual activities.

education

When the town was founded, a school was also built. In 1913 the one-room building was replaced by a brick building with four classrooms. In 1921 four more classrooms and an auditorium were added. Six years later a new, larger school building was inaugurated. The buildings erected by the school authorities of Cambria Township were co-financed with funds from the mining company.

Healthcare

The first hospital consisted of two six-room houses. Later the company moved to the former administration building of the mining company. In 1940 the United Mine Workers union acquired the hospital and operated it until 1974.

economy

The only shop in town was a shop belonging to the mining company. Employees were advised to only make their purchases in this shop. In many cases, credit transactions were collected directly from wages. It wasn't until 1963 that the shop was privatized. Today the shop is closed and there is only one small neighborhood shop in town.

To supply the miners with milk and milk products, the mining company built a milk farm that existed until the 1930s. A gas station was built in 1925.

Web links

• Extensive site about Colver