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Article: Mining the Hills Of Pennsylvania
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- September 18, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Though arrow-straight, the main street of Eckley, Pa., heaves
up and down like a roller coaster, undulating over hills once rich
in anthracite. On both sides of its mile-long course are rows of
modest frame houses dating mostly from the 1850s and '60s - a
unified fabric evocative of a world where life as a matter of
routine was fraught with hardship and peril.
Nearly identical at first glance, most of the houses of this
"miners patch" - the local vernacular for coal-company town - are
clad in the dark brown of weathered, unpainted clapboard. But these
plain dwellings turn out to have differences among them, important
if sometimes subtle. They have stories to tell.
Eckley is a genuine ...