{"nrhp_refnum":"94001057","name":"Commodore Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by PA 286, Vanderbilt Ave., Musser St. and Fisher Ave., Green Township","address_restricted":false,"city":"Commodore","county":"Indiana County","state":"PA","lat":40.71547136900003,"lon":-78.94373965252043,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1994-08-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A former company coal town in Green Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, laid out and built in 1919-20 by the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corporation. It has 94 contributing and 17 noncontributing buildings, mostly concrete block and brick houses.","why_significant":"Commodore is a well-preserved example of a planned bituminous coal mining community, with uniform housing, company ownership and a clear hierarchy of housing. It is unusual for its concrete block construction made on site, and for its sewage and water systems, which reflect early 20th-century industrial housing reform. It is significant in industry, community planning and development, and architecture.","narrative":"Commodore is a coal company town in Green Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, planned and built in 1919-20 by the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corporation, a subsidiary of the New York Central Railroad, to supply coal for the railroad's locomotives. Company engineer Paul Gill laid out the town, which was named for Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. Most of the houses are uniform, two-bay buildings of buff concrete block made on site, with eighteen brick houses for mine foremen and a few larger houses for bosses. The former company store, bank, doctor's office, school and machine shop also survive. The town had water and sewage systems, electricity and indoor plumbing, which were uncommon in coal patches of the period. Most mine buildings are gone, but the street pattern, housing and setting remain largely intact. The district is significant for its industrial history, its company-town planning and its unusual concrete block architecture, which sets it apart from other coal communities in the region.","period_of_significance":"1919-1943","architect_builder":"Gill, Paul","architectural_style":"No Style","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Mixed use: houses, a meeting hall, a post office, a bar and a pizza shop occupy historic buildings; the school is listed as vacant/not in use. Most mining structures no longer survive.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:59:06.482053-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/94001057.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94001057/05016b8b18-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94001057/05016b8b18-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herriman_east_of_Blueberry_in_Commodore.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herriman_east_of_Blueberry_in_Commodore.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71993091","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110009977"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/indiana-county/commodore-historic-district-94001057/"}