Raven Run – Anthracite Coal Region

(Third in a series)

One of the large format cameras needed to do aerial surveying.

A large-format camera used for aerial surveying.

In previous posts we shared with you two sets of aerial images: the borough of St. Clair, PA and a coal mine at Raven Run, PA. Today we we provide several close-ups showing how Pottsville, PA looked in the 1930s. We enlarged these images from a single aerial photo of Pottsville, PA taken during a 1936 fly-over.

On the left is one of the large cameras used to take these kinds of photos by the Dallin Aerial Survey Company.

This Pottsville, PA photo was taken on May 5th, 1936 looking south over the town. The shadows seem to confirm the time shown on the courthouse clock—it was 1:23pm in Pottsville.

May 5th, 1936. Pottsville, PA

The Courthouse clock shows the early afternoon time. View is from Sanderson Street side of building.

County jail, next to the Courthouse.

The Philadelphia & Reading passenger train station.

Industry along the rails.

N. Centre Street, the wide street on the left half of the image, has midday traffic.

A building foundation under construction can be seen at center left.

Citation:

Hagley Museum and Library Digital Archives

(Second in a series)

The Dallin Survey Company plane.

We previously shared with you the first in what will be a series of aerial photos taken over Schuylkill County in the 1930s. That St. Clair PA image pictured the town and nearby Pottsville, PA from thousands of feet in the air.

The special Dallin Aerial Survey Company plane, (shown at left), had an opening in the floor to allow a large-format camera to take straight-down land survey mapping images. The St. Clair image from our first post and the one below would have been taken out of the plane’s side window using the same large negative cameras.

The photo below taken in May 1936, shows a coal mine in Raven Run, PA, just west of Shenandoah, with the supporting roads, rail lines and all the activity the anthracite coal operation involved.