Slickville Historic District
Why it's listed
Slickville is a company mining village in northern Salem Township, Westmoreland County, built by the Cambria Steel Company in 1916 and 1917 to serve Slick Mine No. 91, a captive drift mine supplying high-grade coking coal to the Rosedale by-product coke plant near Johnstown. The district includes 77 miners' houses and six managers' houses of vernacular company design, along with a company store, church, school, and four surviving brick mine buildings, including the motor barn, the 1918 power house, and the lamp house. Midvale Steel & Ordnance acquired the property in 1919 and Bethlehem Steel took over in 1923, which later merged the four drift entries into one mine. Production peaked in the late 1920s and ended in October 1943 when the seam was exhausted. The district is valued for its intact layout, its surviving mine structures, and buried archaeological remains of the extraction operations, which together document how captive coal mining and company housing worked in western Pennsylvania.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues the district is a well-preserved example of a company-planned bituminous coal town and captive mine built by steel companies, significant under Criterion A for industry and community planning. It is significant under Criterion C because its 77 miners' houses and six managers' houses are excellent vernacular company housing with strong integrity. The four surviving extractive buildings and archaeological remains also qualify under Criterion D.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 94000522, listed June 3, 1994. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-haiku-5-5, prompt v1.1-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | Roughly bounded by Greenburg and Second Ave. and Delmont, Court, Cottage and Fred Sts., Salem Township, Slickville |
|---|---|
| County | Westmoreland County |
| Listed | June 3, 1994 |
| Reference number | 94000522 |
| Resource type | District |
| Period of significance | 1916-1943 |
| Architect / builder | Thomas Tressler (contractor, cut lumber for construction); Cambria Steel Company (developer) |
| Architectural style | No Style; Vernacular Company Housing |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Social History, Historic - Non-Aboriginal, Architecture, Community Planning and Development, Industry |
| Level of significance | State |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | The power house is vacant after its interior was gutted in 1993; the former foreman's office and lamp house was refurbished into a single-family dwelling; the mine office is used as a single-family dwelling; the motor barn is used for storage. |
| Acreage | 62 |
| Coordinates | 40.45753, -79.52268 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 94000522.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q7540285
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.