Where is robertsdale pa

Unemployment Rate. Median Income. Median Home Price. Median Age. Comfort Index Climate. Recent job growth is Positive. Robertsdale zip jobs have increased by 0. More Economy. More Voting Stats.

Since , it has had a population growth of 0. Learn More Below are photos of some of his family. Chuck also told me he had visited Robertsdale, and he provided us with information and photos about the Italian Cemetery there. The flu epidemic, cited in one photo, may have been the cause of Angela Alessi Coniglio's illness and subsequent death.

The cemetery sign also mentions "casualties resulting from acts of violence A search of records of the last names of current residents of the Robertsdale and Huntingdon County area shows there are few or none that are Italian. Why did the hundreds of Sicilian families who lived in Robertsdale leave no descendants there?

Did most die of the flu epidemic, or the "acts of violence", or did they leave en masse in the s, searching for a better place?

The 's through the 's were not only the height of Italian immigration to America, they were the volatile peak years of coal mining in Western Pennsylvania. The Sicilians were brought in to a former rural agricultural region, where locals saw their farmland disposessed by coal mines. Often immigrants were used as ignorant pawns of the mining companies to be "strikebusters": unorganized miners hired to discourage and impede the unionization of mine workers.

The Sicilians, though, were strong union supporters and hard workers. During the same period, the Ku Klux Klan was almost as active in Pennsylvania as it was in the South, and the KKK intimidated, threatened, and even killed those they disagreed with.

Often, earlier immigrants from other nations, fearing the loss of their jobs to "newer" immigrants, were duped into joining the Klan. Don Numer , now of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, tells the story of his Welsh grandfather, who was convinced by the Klan that the Sicilians were 'sent by the Pope' to take his job.

He joined the Klan, but when his wife found out three days later, that was the end of his Klan membership, and the end of his peaked hood and cloak. Appropriately, she burned them! Don's mother tells him ' the families were never proud of it and you didn't speak about any of your family being Klansmen But the Klan did persecute many mainland European immigrants and Roman Catholics. Those built in later years used balloon frame construction. They are mostly semi-detached, four bay, with hip or side gable roofs and usually contain four to six rooms.

When built, the houses contained no indoor plumbing or electricity Bennett, p. Typically the houses featured front porches and additions on the rear. Alleyways, running behind the lots, acted as fire breaks and gave access to the privies, gardens, and sheds for deliveries and other services.

Current residents use the many extant outbuildings as tool sheds or storage. Exceptions to the typical miners' housing are the superintendent's house on Church Street, the grouping of one-story cottages on Spring Street, and the Methodist parsonage on Lincoln Street.

The superintendent's house is located just below the Methodist Church and near the portal to Rockhill mine l. It was constructed around as a single family dwelling. This balloon frame, two story, side gabled house has the same size and massing as the semi-detached miners' houses but has the added detail of a porch with turned posts, an element seen only on two other houses, the postmaster's and the engineer's. Around , the company constructed nine balloon frame one-story cottages along Spring Street.

Eight of these remain consisting of a front facing, clipped gable roof, concrete block foundation, and front porch. These buildings sit on smaller lots and closer to the street than the semi-detached houses.

All but one have undergone little or no changes over the years.. The remodeling that has occurred on the one includes an added second story, chimney on the facade, two car garage, and new fenestration, which totally obscures its original identity. The only other example of a single dwelling in Robertsdale is the Methodist Parsonage, constructed around in the Colonial Revival style.

Little change has occurred to this two story, Foursquare house since its construction. It retains the original shingle clad walls, hipped roof, and three over one double hung sash windows. The one story front porch covers the whole length of the facade and is supported by square columns. The United Mine Workers were permitted to construct a miners' hall in the s behind the hotel. This building no longer exists but from early photographs, it was a two story, rectangular, wood frame structure with a hip roof.

Another Union building that no longer exists is the barracks constructed during the strike to house evicted miners and their families. It was located on Lincoln Street Extension which at the time was outside of the village. Robertsdale's one remaining school building is located on South Main Street next to the theatre. Its length runs parallel to South Main with the main projecting block providing entry to the building at the north end through three tall masonry arches and a gabled secondary entrance at the center of its length.

Now the Wood Township elementary school, this WPA project, constructed in , was originally the high school. It is in the Colonial Revival style, one story tall, and faced in stone. Prior to this school, the Robertsdale school was located on "school house hill" in the north section of town, above North Main Street. There have been three buildings located at this location. The first was built in and destroyed by fire in Shortly thereafter, Wood Township constructed a new brick school in its place and added a second brick building two or three years later.

After the school house was erected, the buildings on school house hill were torn down and only the steps leading up the hill from North Main Street remain. Although Robertsdale had schools as early as the s, the above buildings are the only ones whose location and description are known. Originally, Robertsdale boasted three churches, of which only one remains in the Robertsdale Historic District. This white clapboard wood frame building measures feet by 60 feet and is topped by a small spire.

Besides an addition which was constructed in the early s, the church has undergone very little change beyond simple maintenance Bennett, p. This wood frame building was shared with the Lutheran congregation and was later, around , sold to the Church of God.

In the s, this congregation built a new church to the north of town, outside of the Robertsdale Historic District, and demolished the church. This building was constructed in and moved to Dudley in Robertsdale appears much as it did during the years the mines were in operation, rows of identical houses sitting close to the road; only now the roads are paved and nature has reclaimed much of the mining site, now rich with vegetation.

The mine site stretches from just south of Church Street and west of the old post office following the rail road bed south toward Woodvale. Although most of the structures from the mining operation are gone, this area is rich in archaeological resources.

Many foundations and shells of structures remain which can be identified with particular functions in the mining process.

The foundation for the engine shop is located west of the old post office, retaining the pit below the tracks. Rockhill mine 1 is located south of the Methodist Church. Near mine 1 is the shell of the concrete lamp house and the remains of the tipple. Further to the southwest, the fan house, the brick boiler house, and the foundation for the main and tail rope system are visible along the tracks among other structural remains. The portal to the slope mine and its wood tipple create the southern end of the mine site in the historic district.

In , a portion of the area directly west of the old Post Office was made into the Ruth George Playground Bennett, p. At the center of town, to the east of Main Street and behind the company office building, is a large green field where the wye was located.

The wye allowed engines to turn around. In spite of some modern improvements, the integrity of the village on the whole is excellent. The consistent massing and setback of the houses, the few non-contributing buildings, and the little new construction enhances the timeless quality of Robertsdale. Most of the houses have experienced some alteration such as rear or side additions, new siding, and some window replacement.

These changes have done little to change the overall character of the building beyond making some of the units individualized. Of the buildings in the Robertsdale Historic District, there are only 10 non-contributing buildings.

Eight of these are mobile homes that have been moved onto empty lots. Although they are intrusions, the mobile homes are scattered which decreases their impact on the Robertsdale Historic District.

Two houses have undergone incompatible alterations such as faux brick siding, an added level, and changes in fenestration. These non-contributing resources do not detract from the overall integrity of the village.

All new construction occurs on the outskirts of the village leaving a cohesive historic district. The Robertsdale Historic District is significant in the areas of industry, community planning, architecture, and archaeology. It was built by the Rockhill Iron and Coal Company which was established to exploit the semi-bituminous coal fields in the East Broad Top region. The company was the most productive of all the Broad Top mining operations between and the s and Robertsdale was the center of these activities.

The Robertsdale Historic District is a typical example of a Pennsylvania coal patch town containing company-built dwellings, company store and office making it significant in the area of community planning. The company housing forms the bulk of the building stock and represents an important concentration of typical mining town architecture in the region making it significant in the area of architecture.

The Robertsdale Historic District includes the mine site which retains the structural remains of the mining operations. This site has the potential to reveal information, through archaeological study, on the mining processes and changes that took place during the period of significance. Union where it was transferred to the Pennsylvania Railroad. The area at that time was occupied by a few pioneers, some of whom mined the coal.

William Houck, for example, settled in the Robertsdale area in the s and opened a mine that later became the first Rockhill Iron and Coal Company Mine. Mining did not prove profitable in the isolated region for lack of an efficient way to transport the product to market. This changed by the s when the Pennsylvania Railroad was constructed and a spur line, the Huntingdon and Broad Top Railroad, began hauling coal from the fields on the west side of the mountain.

The east side of the mountain was unaffected by the successful operations on the west side. The East Broad Top Railroad and Coal Company was chartered in but funding to build the line that would connect the fields on the east side of the mountain to the Pennsylvania Railroad at Mt.

Union was not secured until