Smock Historic District

Smock is a former coal mining village and beehive coke works in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, developed on farmland from the 1880s through 1923. Colonial Mines No. 1 and No. 2 were opened by the Pittsburgh Coal Company in 1884, and the mine's coke plant once held nearly 500 beehive ovens, of which about 150 survive. The village was built by several companies and private investors rather than a single operator, producing a mix of workers' and managers' houses, commercial and social buildings, and a water filtration complex, a slate dump and two cemeteries. The district's housing stock retains a high degree of integrity and is regarded as a strong example of vernacular company housing across Pennsylvania's bituminous coal fields. Its archaeological remains of the demolished mine buildings are valued for what they may reveal about mining technology, facility layout and the daily lives of miners and coke workers. Coal was mined at Smock until 1943, when the depleted seam forced closure.