Pottsville – 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

It is 1:23pm according to the courthouse clock.

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

(First in a series)

Founded in 1924, they surveyed Mid-Atlantic states.

Founded in 1924, the Dallin Survey Company took to the skies in the Mid-Atlantic states, out of their home base in Philadelphia.

The Dallin Aerial Survey Company made several fly-overs of Schuylkill County in the 1930s. They specialized in photographing business and industry, as well as city and town views.

We share some of images results here.

In this first post in a series of posts, their single-engine plane flew over St. Clair, PA in 1937. They captured the layout of the entire town in the foreground and Pottsville can be seen in the background. People traveling north from Pottsville had to ride through St. Clair, which would change once the St. Clair by-pass was completed decades later.