Anthracite coal mining history began underground. That past will rise to the surface with a new breaker at Eckley Miners’ Village.
In the tall slanted structures boys — most younger than 12 — toiled away separating coal from debris. The new multi-million-dollar structure on the museum’s grounds will preserve artifacts from that past.
The breaker also will symbolize the once unique landscape of the region.
“For us to really talk about the lives … of people that lived in patch towns in Northeast Pennsylvania, we really needed to have a structure on the landscape that represents the processing and the distribution of coal," said Bode Morin, Eckley Miners' Village site administrator.
Patch towns, like Eckley, were company-owned communities where workers and their families lived. The village in Foster Twp. was built in 1854. Paramount Pictures restored much of its 19th century character to shoot the 1970 movie “The Molly Maguires.” After the film wrapped, the 90-acre property was purchased by the community then given to the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (PHMC).
The new structure will be humidity and temperature controlled to store Eckley’s artifacts. There also will be a restroom for guests. Morin said they also hope to include some public functions.
The breaker project will be funded by a state grant, according to the PHMC.
Breaker background
A breaker was built at the site around 1899 and torn down in the mid-1930s. Morin says the structures had a lifespan of 30 to 40 years.
"You've got giant screens that are shaking, so the whole building is vibrating," he said.
The mining operations at Eckley went through many hands. In 1915, Morin says it was owned by the Cox Brothers.
"The company did an evaluation of all of its structures for its insurance company in 1915 and so we have pretty good photographs of the building of the breaker," he said.
That structure was made out of wood. The new one will be steel.
Work inside a breaker was rough.
When anthracite is blasted out of the ground it comes out in large chunks.
"They [breaker boys] would be sitting over a shoot where coal and stuff from the mines would be going through, and they would be sitting there picking out slate and picking out wood and other debris that was in the coal," said Morin.
Customers needed the smaller sizes to heat their homes or power their stoves. Coal that went to customers ranged from the size of a fist to the size of a fingernail, he said.
Crushers were large steel wheels with spikes inside the breaker that made smaller pieces. The structures were sloped so gravity could move the coal.
Breaking ground
The area of the breaker site will be cleared this winter and regraded.
Eckley’s strategic plan is aimed at long-term sustainability for the museum.
"This project is not going to be funded like the rest of the strategic plan will be, but it is part of the overall vision for the future of Eckley," he said.
In 2023, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission a $48,400 grant to design an interdisciplinary research and learning center that will be housed at the former home of Eckley co-founder Asa Foster. Eckley is also in the early stages of updating some of around 200 structures for researchers and the public.
The design of the new breaker will reflect an older era of mining.
"The heyday, the boom years of anthracite coal ... like all industrial structures breakers went through several phases of evolution and of technology, and this is kind of representing that middle phase," Morin said.
READ MORE ABOUT ECKLEY'S TRANSFORMATION: "Historic coal mining village receives grant for upgrades."
