Our last chance to preserve a coal breaker

Reading T1 2124 · **Posted:** Sun Dec 06, 2015 7:14 pm

http://www.tnonline.com/2015/jun/06/save-breaker As sad as it is to acknowledge that we've let all of the genuine PA coal breakers get demolished, we've got one more chance to finally do something.

cjvrr · **Posted:** Sun Dec 06, 2015 8:00 pm

It's not a real breaker. Just a movie prop from 1968.

buzz_morris · **Joined:** Thu Feb 03, 2005 9:32 pm **Posts:** 344

Photos of Pennsylvania Coal Company coal breakers in South Pittston, Pennsylvania, 1911, in the good old days of coal.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/gallery/breaker-boys

Reading T1 2124 · **Posted:** Sun Dec 06, 2015 10:08 pm

cjvrr wrote:

It's not a real breaker. Just a movie prop from 1968.

I'm aware. The point is, assuming that enough money is raised to stabilize it and prevent demolition, it can be rebuilt to resemble a turn of the century breaker. The truth is nothing could realistically be done to save Huber or St. Nicholas. Pennsylvania either can have a re-creation or nothing. I can't speak for anyone else, but given the choice I choose a movie prop over nothing.

Jersey steam · **Posted:** Sun Dec 06, 2015 11:14 pm

The coal breaker was one of the centers of the coal patch. I agree that it is a replica, but without even this replica, Eckley is just another bunch of old sheds that really says nothing. Even with the replica towering over the community, the visitor gets some idea that this big dirty building was really the lifeblood of the community. I agree that it would take a lot of work to "restore" it, but wouldn't it just be great if they configured the inside just like one of the early breakers and have the breaker boys (mannequins) picking slate with the straw boss with his whip or stick hovering over them. No one can imagine how horrible the conditions were, and they deserve to be remembered other than in pictures.

Many years ago, I worked in a factory when I was 16 and one of the olde employees was a former breaker boy. He had no good comments about the job especially what he would do to the straw boss if he met him again.

To diverge a little, another employee (who lived in Eckley at the time) had some nasty black scars on his face. I never had the courage to ask him about them, but it was only later that I found that this was coal driven into his face by a premature blast. I wish I could ask him some stories of what it was all about.

Even the replica breaker has its own history, and it should also be remembered for that.

Bernie (I live 10 miles from there)