On episode 01 of Grapple, we explore how Mahanoy City transformed from a vibrant coal town into a distressed community struggling with job loss, low home values, blight, and fire. You’ll hear stories about how residents have had to deal with house fires, what’s being done about blight, and poetry that captures the town’s coal mining past.

Listen to Grapple on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher.

What’s left of the St. Nicholas coal breaker — once a pulsating building — just outside of Mahanoy City in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. (Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY)

Mahanoy City is a small town tucked away in northeastern Pennsylvania’s coal country. At the beginning of the 20th century about 16,000 residents called Mahanoy City home, and many residents worked in the nearby coal mines and at the St. Nicholas coal breaker just on the edge of town.

Built in the early 1930s and once considered the largest in the world, the St. Nicholas coal breaker was in operation for nearly 40 years. Today, the breaker is full of broken windows with birds flying through, wires hanging from old light fixtures and rusty stairwells. The Reading Anthracite Company began tearing it down a few years ago, but much of it still remains and it is a haunting reminder of when coal ruled the town and of the town’s downfall.

Susie Kester lives on Centre Street in Mahanoy City. Her home was damaged by smoke and water due to a fire that ripped through the block. (Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY)

Today, only about 4,000 people live in Mahanoy City and more than 25 percent of the homes in the town are vacant or abandoned. Home values are low. The average assessed value of a home in Mahanoy City is $8,000. Fires and blight have become major challenges for the borough.

The town has its share of well-kept row-homes with proudly decorated front-porches and American flags. But within blocks, run-down properties stick out, with red and white notices about violations or hazards inside. And there are homes completely abandoned, just wasting away.

Along Centre Street, the main street in town, a fire damaged seven homes, including Susie Kester’s home. More than a year and a half later, the ruins of the homes remained. The borough says it’s the responsibility of the homeowners to tear down their properties.

We heard many other stories from residents about fires in Mahanoy City. Cheryl Herring, a former home nurse, told us about how her house caught fire several years ago. She lost a few personal items, including mixed tapes that her late husband had made.

One success story for Mahanoy City is the former Kaier Brewery. Jim Rhoades, a municipal engineer who works with the borough, says the brewery had become the poster child of blight in Mahanoy City. The borough plans to demolish the building and turn the land into a public park.

Rhoades grew up in Mahanoy City and has been personally affected by blight. He recently purchased the abandoned home next to his and plans on demolishing it.

“It’s just to keep it from falling down on my house. There’s tar paper and wood and things falling all the time.”

Heather Hoover sits on her porch while her children, Emmalie, 6, Hannah, 3, and Jared, 1, play in front of their home in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania. Hoover, a mother of eight, hopes to move to a place with more space for her children to play. She said it seems like the town is falling apart. (Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY)

We spoke to a number of residents in Mahanoy City. Some who remember better times. Some who are trying to leave the borough. And others who plan to build a better life for themselves there.

“Lullaby to a Miner’s Child”

The Miner, 1925 painting by George Benjamin Luks (Image: National Gallery of Art)

As part of his research on the lives and stories of Slavic immigrants in Pennsylvania’s coal region, Nick Kupensky, a Yale graduate student, translated some of the poems of Emil Kubek. At the turn of the 20th century — when the coal industry was booming in Mahanoy City — Kubek served as a priest at St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church.  

“Lullaby to a Miner’s Child”

By Emil Kubek

Oh sleep, my sweet child!…
Underneath the ground bursts…
Do you hear the terrible noise of the earth?…
Your father is working in the mines oh so deep,
When the earth shakes, that’s him who rocks you to sleep.

Oh sleep, my sweet child!
That noise, it’s your dad,
From under the earth he’s bringing home bread;
Deep in the mines he works as hard as he can,
While peacefully dreams his young little man!

Oh you haven’t yet tasted of life’s bitterness,
My dove, my sweet child:
Right now your life’s blessed.
Someday you’ll encounter
Old age and sadness –
You’ll go to mine coal –
Amidst darkness and rubble,
You’ll fight death and will struggle…
But now sweetly sleep,
Like in heaven, my child!
God will make things all right!
Sleep my dear baby, good night!

From the depths of the night some people appear,
Mother answers the door and trembles with fear…

“Don’t cry, poor lady,” they comforted her,
“Your husband’s breathed his last breath.
In the depths of the earth he valiantly worked,
In the depths of the earth he met a quick death!

Oh what a terror! The mine suddenly shook,
A flame blazed in a terrible shock,
In a deafening blast, the walls then collapsed,
And they all were buried in piles of rocks.

Everyone died!…Only we survived
Amongst the smoke and the cries and the strife…
We found your husband just barely alive.
With sadness he quietly asked for his wife:

‘Help me, my dear, my life’s almost done’
And the last words he whispered were meant for his son,
‘Sweetly sleep,
Like in heaven, my child!
God will make things all right!
Sleep my dear orphan, good night!’”

Poem Translated by Nick Kupensky

Credits

Music: Tony Trov and Mike Vivas
Audio Engineers: Al Banks and Charlie Kaier
Reporters: Lindsay Lazarski and Emily Previti
Executive Producer: Stephanie Marudas
Host, Editor: Naomi Starobin

Grapple is a co-production of Kouvenda Media and Keystone Crossroads — a public media initiative covering both challenges and solutions for distressed cities.