8 minute read
Neighborhood Spotlight: National Hill
Neighborhood Spotlight : National Hill
Builder:
The National Mining Company, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel, built the neighborhood for coal mine workers. The company operated National No. 2 Mine in South Fayette from about 1905 to 1927.
Years Built:
Most homes were built 1900–1925, more than half in 1905.
Number of Homes:
54 single-family homes, 7 duplexes, one apartment building
Streets:
Allegheny Avenue and Campbell Avenue
Location:
Atop a hill between Millers Run Road and Route 50; accessible from the intersection of Route 50 and Alpine Road
Neighborhood Issues of Interest:
Pedestrian access, property maintenance, stormwater management
Fun Fact:
The Union Supply Company Store on Allegheny Avenue closed in 1950 and later was converted into apartments. The store served coal miners and families from National No. 2 Mine.
Historical neighborhood was melting pot
National Hill originally built for coal mine workers in South Fayette
By Andrea Iglar
When Clem Rolin was growing up on National Hill from the 1940s to 1960s, many of his generation’s grandparents spoke Italian, French, Hungarian and other non-English languages.
A wave of Europeans had emigrated in the early 1900s to work in the Pennsylvania coal mines, and during Rolin’s childhood, their families continued to live on the hill, located above the Millers Run Road railroad tracks in South Fayette Township.
Rolin, 78, and his childhood neighbor, Roy Watson, remember the neighborhood as friendly, communal and integrated, with various European and Black families living together and helping each other.
“Everybody knew everyone, and everybody cared about everyone,” Rolin recalled when he and Watson visited National Hill in October.
“We didn’t need the police. If you did something wrong, it was going to get back to your mother. Roy and I, we just loved it up here.”
Rolin, a former band director at South Fayette High School, left his family home on Campbell Avenue when he married and moved to North Fayette.
The history of National Hill stems from coal mining. South Fayette had 19 coal mines, and in 1905, the National Mining Company began operating National No. 2 Mine, which was located on the site of the present-day South Fayette Volunteer Fire Department in the Cuddy area.
To accommodate workers, the company built dozens of homes on a hill above Millers Run Road and named it National Hill.
Many present-day residents belong to families who have lived on the hill for multiple generations. Others are newer owners or renters. Even so, the neighborhood retains an old-fashioned flavor.
Patty Kaupinis, a 30-year resident of Campbell Avenue, and her husband, Kip, raised three children on National Hill.
She welcomed Rolin and Watson into her home to reminisce and said the neighborhood is still the kind of place where children play together outside and neighbors stop to chat.
“It’s a safe neighborhood,” Kaupinis said. “We all look out for each other.”
National Hill historically was home to two major institutions: the Union Supply Company Store and National Hill School.
The store on Allegheny Avenue originally served coal miners and families from National No. 2 Mine, according to “Images of America: South Fayette Township” (Historical Society of South Fayette Township, 2015).
Rolin said the store offered food and general supplies on the first floor, and an elevator opened to a second floor with furniture, toys and other items.
“We bought our first television there, a 1950 or 1949,” he said. “It was a Motorola 12-incher.”
The store closed in 1950. South Fayette resident John Alan Kosky said his father, John L. Kosky Jr., purchased the building in the 1950s and used it for equipment storage, eventually selling the property in the mid1990s. The structure has been converted into apartments.
National Hill School was located at the top of the hill—or “mountain,” as Rolin and Watson call it—in the path of present-day Route 50. The top row of buildings on National Hill was demolished in the early 1970s to make way for the highway construction.
The school held grades 1 to 6, with 35 to 40 students per classroom, according to the South Fayette history book. The building was heated by a large coal furnace in the basement.
Rolin attended second to fourth grade at the school. “It was wonderful because we could go home for lunch,” he said.
Rolin said the school stopped functioning around 1958, and a business took over until the building was torn down.
When they weren’t in school, the youth of National Hill found ways to entertain themselves. Watson, who now lives in Pittsburgh, recalled playing games in the street until his mother called him back inside.
Kids also formed their own baseball team and played sports in a cow pasture at the top of the hill.
“We would play ball, and [for bases] we would use these cow patties that we thought—for the most part—were dried out,” Watson said with a laugh.
The kids self-organized games with teams from other neighborhoods and played on fields in Fairview, Cuddy and Morgan.
Today, the sole access to National Hill is at the intersection of Route 50 and Alpine Road. Years ago, leaving National Hill by car required using a bridge that crossed the railroad tracks and emptied onto Millers Run Road.
Cars no longer needed the bridge once Route 50 was built, but pedestrians used the bridge for years, and kids would cross it to catch the school bus on Millers Run Road.
The railroad demolished the dilapidated bridge in recent years. Now, Kaupinis and other residents are trying to get a footbridge rebuilt.
Despite access concerns, Kaupinis enjoys living on National Hill: “It’s still kind of a little treasure.”
Coal Mine History
National No. 2 Mine was located along Millers Run Road, at the site of the present-day South Fayette Volunteer Fire Department in the Cuddy area, historically called Treveskyn.
The National Mining Company, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel, began operating National No. 2 Mine in 1905. The mine was idled in March 1927 and abandoned Jan. 1, 1928, according to a 1937 mine information booklet provided by the Historical Society of South Fayette Township.
The No. 2 closure essentially downsized company operations, and some coal in Treveskyn was extracted via National No. 1 Mine in the Morgan area of South Fayette (opened 1903, abandoned 1953; generally had 363 workers) and No. 3 Mine in Cecil (opened 1923 and had 775 workers).
However, the company never finished extracting the No. 2 coal, said John Alan Kosky of the historical society. "There are still a lot of coal reserves under the hill, but nobody will ever go and get them. It's not feasible," he said.
No. 2 workers who lived on National Hill would walk down the hill and cross a bridge to go to work and then either walk into the slope mine or take a railcar. The coal would come out on railcars.
