Marianna Historic District
Courtesy of Generic1139
24 August 2014, 15:33:51
Website:
https://www.mariannapa.org/History
Telephone Number:
Location:
Ten Mile Creek, Beeson Ave Hill, 6th, and 7th Streets., Marianna, Pennsylvania 15345
Description:
Marianna is a coal mining town situated on a hillside which rises 240 feet above the banks of Ten Mile Creek.It was built as a mining town for the Pittsburg Buffalo Company in 1907 and was incorporated in 1910. At the time of its construction, the Marianna Mine was among the most modern and well equipped in the world. The town's brick homes were designed to offer indoor bathrooms, fenced yards and other amenities making living conditions very attractive for the time. Marianna is the best preserved example in Washington County of a company-built coal-mining town.
The Marianna Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
Beginning at the bridge spanning the creek, Beeson Avenue, the main street, defines the western boundary for much of its length while it climbs up the hill. Rows of regularly spaced single and semi-detached houses with small to moderately sized yards branch off Beeson Avenue like ribs from a spine. The rows generally face south except where the terrain, most notable around the knoll crowned by the schoolhouse, imposes a curvilinear system.
The significant and contributing structures of the Marianna Historic District were built between 1906 and 1912. Built in a short time to meet the industrial requirement of economy, the buildings are vernacular in the sense that they are neither high style nor an adaptation of a high style. The primarily brick buildings are quickly and cheaply, though not necessarily shoddily, built boxes.
The Marianna Historic District has an unusually good integrity because the brick construction has resisted the wholesale residing that most mining towns have undergone. Of the 255 buildings in the Marianna Historic District, 250 are residential, and the remaining 5 are commercial and semi-public institutions. Five are classified as significant, 218 as contributing, and 32 as intrusions. One large tax parcel at the southern edge of the district contains all the mine buildings and coke ovens.
