Renovo. The principal employer was the Pennsylvania Railroad which had a large repair facility . It closed over 50 years ago and, being near the Susquehanna River, much of the town is subject to flooding.
Pithole. Almost every town that had a steel mill, coal mine or oil business has been in decline for years. And not just in Pennsylvania. All along the rust belt.
Lock Haven really???? You should have done Renovo. Lock Haven is a college town and was hardly ever known for it's lumber. I've lived in both Renovo and Lock Haven. Lock Haven is the reason Renovo was forgotten about. Oppression.
Lock Haven at one time was a lumber city as it was second to Williamsport with logs in the river and millionaires row on west water street was built back in the fat, lumber mills was also thru the area Boom island was named for the lumber industry at this spot the cribs left the logs put there. I would say the logging boom was the city then, but another thing is when the logs crashed together the sound went thru the bald eagle valley. One of two booms in the west branch of the river The three out of four(fourth time it was Keystone which was beech Creek and surrounded area)times Clinton county and Lock Haven made it to the Little League world series was due being sponsored by the lumber industry
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I was born in the old hospital in Renovo 1953, my sister in 1955 our mother in 1933 . I had family in Westport, in Shintown and Driftwood. I can't go up there anymore because it's not the place I knew from my childhood and it fills me with a great saddness I can't discribe. My grandfather once told me you will never get these mountains out of your blood ,you will always want to come back, He was right.
7:39 There is a section of PA that is never mentioned. It starts in Meyerdale and ends at Maryland line. There are about 3 or 4 small towns that are barely hanging on. They are in order Meyesdale, Boyton , Coalrun, and Salsbury. They are all coal mine towns with very little mention anywhere. I know of this area because I was born in Meyersdale and lived in the other small towns.
You spent a lot of time on Shenandoah. My parents were from Shenandoah, but as a family we lived in Frackville. My mother still resides there and I live in the township up the road from her house. Although the borough was so dependent on the coal and garment industry which have declined, it is still making efforts to keep the town alive. They have some amazing grant-writers and always seem to have a new revitalization project being undertaken. Thank you for this short video. Of the towns you have mentioned, I have been to 5 of them many, many times. i think there are 4 houses left in Centralia.
The only borough on here that is actually not in existence is Centralia. The rest of them are less populated than they once were but very much active boroughs. Next week plymouth will hold the annual kielbasa festival which will bring alot of visitors to enjoy all the food and festivities. Plymouth is far from gone
Byrnesville, Pennsylvania is another coal mining town that is completely gone. Centralia's mune fire on May 27, 1962 happened because when burning the landfill to clean up the area for Memorial Day activities, a mine that did not get capped allowed the embers from burning the trash to ignite the coal.
My Dad was from Pa. Often spoke of Mt. Carmel. He was from Aristies, formally Marshal. Took him back late in his life. He took us to Centrailia. Had a great time eating in Ashland. He mads sure I could pronounce Lancaster.🦇
It’s unfortunate but true that we need to remember much of the content we view nowadays is AI generated. For instance, you may have noticed a lot of images had the disclaimer sorta off to the top corner. Anyways, the idea being they’re only trying to illustrate a point but I also know what you’re getting at. 🤷🏻♂️
Yeah, you are right.They treat the whole region like it's a throw away just lumping everyone together,but we are the "keystone." We are actually what "holds" everything together !
When coal use died out in favor of the convenience of oil,so did the entire anthracite coal region. The factories that produced everything from hats to shoes and shirts to dresses also went south or overseas.
I currently live in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. If anyone is ever in the area and are Interested in the landmarks/ History, and or The Amazing food stops randomly in the area that are all one of a kind. I've lived here on/off My entire life. A lot of good in this area and also a lot of bad. But I'd love to share the beautiful things that this town and Area have to offer someone from out of town.
Brownsville was also Headquarters of The Monongahela Railway, a coal hauler that ran south into West Virginia and serviced many large mines. Around 1990 Conrail took over and the railroad shops were closed. Today, Norfolk Southern still runs trains through Brownsville but the heyday is long over.
I grew up in California, PA. Every Saturday my mom would take me to Brownsville. She would get her hair done by “Guy” and then we’d go shopping. I remember the downtown area very well. Very pleasant memories.
the South Carolina stock photo in a PA video is a nice touch. Also Lock Haven certainly isn't the center of the universe but to put it higher on the list than Mount Carmel wow! I enjoyed the video though.
@@davegallo8166 lol. Now you've jumped the shark. The word "town" has more meaning than pennsylvania's unique definitions. I believe you are correct that bloomsburg is the only municipality in PA chartered as a town, but clearly people calls bouroughs, cities and townships "towns" all the time. "facts matter" lol. Gtfoh. Many boroughs in PA (eg- quakertown, trexlertown etc) have town in the name you pedantic boob.
Cambridge Springs, halfway mark for trains going from NYC to Chicago. Was a busy resort 100 yrs ago when it was popular for its healing waters (springs). Multiple large hotels and restaurants.
Coatesville, Pennsylvania, was once a bustling city where everyone would put on their finest clothes and would go to do their shopping, eat dinner, and see a show. Many people lived here, worked here in the shops and steel mills. Once the steel mills closed, the city was abandoned by the upscale businesses and entertainment industry. The city changed drastically. It's unsafe to visit and live there. Now it's a depressed area within the city limits where crime is rampant and there's nothing redeeming left behind. However, Coatesville is huge. Outside the city limits are suburban and rural areas where beautiful roaming countryside and farmlands abound. Houses range from hovels to mansions, from to farmhouses to churches, from occasional small businesses to open countryside to quaint Amish villages. It's definitely a diverse area, but not much worth visiting. Outside the city limits of Coatesville is a beautiful place to live. But if you ask, the residents won't ever say that they live in Coatesville. Instead, they'll use the township name to describe where they reside. Unless they're from inside the city itself, where they have no choice but to call themselves denizens of Coatesville. Most people who live in the city of Coatesville district send their children to the local charter school. Others are fortunate to have Coatesville addresses but actually live in the Downingtown Area School District. DASD is a good school, better than the charter schools. Obviously, it is better than the Coatesville Area School District, which is inside city limits itself. Gangs from CASD have made their way to the charter schools, unfortunately. The area is extremely diverse, as is all of Chester County, PA.
Bud, first off, a few inaccuracies in the video. The biggest of all however, is your pronunciation of Shenandoah. Anyone from here knows it is pronounced "Chendoh" , I mean 462 dafuk.
Brownsville is where my family is from, they left in the 60s I think. My grandfather has fond memories and we went back there for a family reunion in 1992 and my cousins were so poor that when I brought my Nintendo they thought it was the greatest thing they ever saw. I let them have it and all my games too, just so they'd have something to play. Nice folk though. Apparently Doug Dascenzo, a baseball player for the cubs at the time, lived there and my grandfather showed me his house. It was a VERY rustic town even then, with no stores, no real place to eat, and everyone was buying their stuff at a bait shop along the river.
Wow you lost me 50 seconds in! That's NOT how the Centralia mine fire started, it was a controlled burn above ground and didn't start in the mine, but spread to it. Amazing that you couldn't even get the easy one right.
There are many towns that are not doing well in most of those areas in PA. Lots of empty houses. Sometimes you can even buy homes dirt cheap in those areas. But the issue is there are not enough jobs so people don't have the money to fix them up or if they do they would want to rent them out but then renters don't have the funds to afford renting them as most of the good paying jobs closed down. If you go to Kittanning and ford city pa, Some of the larger coal mining companies closed. PPG glass in ford city closed, Ejer closed( they made toilets, sinks, and urinals. I remember seeing the brand name on the urinals as a kid not knowing they were made locally. If you go to downtown Kittanning the main street going thru town from the bridge going to the court house since it's the county seat. Lots of building taken down and turned into parking lots. There are not many stores left. there are still nice homes in the area but a lot of the schools were torn down as there wasn't as big of a need for schools as people moving from the area and less people with kids. It seems to be lots of retired people. I just wonder what is going to happen when they are no longer in the area. I've seen homes for sale for like 20k 30k that are liveable at times but right now the prices are up and a fairly nice house is 50k dollars. that isn't bad for a place to live if you think about it. Of course if you get to some of the better areas you can still find expensive homes but again it depends on the area. I am sure you can find homes that are over a million dollars in the surrounding area if you looked but there are also lots of budget homes with the lack of jobs.
@@urpreposterous682 They are hoping stores will come if they have parking. But the issue is to pay for the paving they put in parking meters and that just kills people from coming as they can go to walmart without having to pay for parking.
@@JUST_ONE_ID10T Pittston is trying to revitalize its downtown, but it will never be like it was in its heyday. I found some great JC Penney sheets and pillowcases at my grandmother's house that were priced at 34 cents or less when JC Penney was in downtown Pittston. Now, the surrounding areas have many rundown, unkempt houses and streets. Drug and alcohol addiction are prevalent, as is mental illness.
@@JUST_ONE_ID10T I understand what you are saying but stores, restaurants etc are all useless unless there are jobs to support the residents and give them a reason to stay . I moved to western PA 25 years ago honestly, I was shocked to see towns like Brownsville with empty buildings…it’s very sad and eye opening indeed.
Dont forget Central City, Cairnbrook, #2,4,7 Rockingham, all stretched together, just 2 gas stations and a DG. Used to be ALOT of family owned business, now nothing.
I feel like this is mostly AI generated content based on keywords and little knowledge about these places went into this video. When talking about Shenandoah and the drying up of coal jobs for instance, you showed an image from Yellow Dog Village which is clear across the state. The inability to pronounce the Monongahela River correctly is making the research into this video dubious as well.
The fire that started the coal vein on fire in Centralia was started at the town dump, and it caught the vein in the ground there. It didn't start in the mine.
The mine fire is spreading and now threatening 3 other cities, especially Ashland and in 10 years that city will be gone as well because they will have to evacuate it
How about Jeannette. The Glass City, it had 3 glass companies, Jeannette sheet glass, Westmorland Glass for figurines and other things, and Shade novelty for glass lamp shades and other things.
Ayee I live in Brownsville!!! This was a pretty cool video n Brownsville is starting to make a come back. Back in the day Brownsville used to be bigger than Pittsburgh until the highways got built.
You missed Bennington, PA on the Cambria Co./Blair Co. Line. All that remains is the cemetary that can be seen from Rte. 22 West just before the Gallitzin Exit of Rte.22.
@travelawaitsyou That's awesome. Thanks. I grew up in the Cambria county, Blair county area and Bennington was one of two places that I remember my grandparents talking about. The second being Beulah (spelling?) which was a small community in between Ebensburg, Pa and Nanty Glo, Pa which was one of the original picks for the county seat of Cambria county.
I'm from Lock Haven. There hasn't been a bad flood there since the 70s. It's not the biggest place but there is a university here, and Penn State is only an hour away
The fire in centralia was intentional. They were burning garbage in the old mine shafts. Eventually a coal vein caught on fire. Brownsville isn't stuck in time because of the loss of employment, it is that way because a weird, super rich, business man, bought the majority of the inner city, with plans to revive the place, then never did. This ownership has actually been holding brownsville back. It has lost a lot lf opportunities due to this. This video got a lot of stuff wrong, used incorrect images for places, and glossed over a lot of the most inteteresting facts of these places. The biggest issue, however, is that only one of these places is a ghost town.
The fire under Centrailia didn't start in a coal mine, but a dump where garbage was burning that caught the coal seam on fire. A local man offered to dig out the fire for $175 but the town declined, preferring a response by the state. By that time the fire had burned beyond putting out.
I'm in southwestern PA. Once other countries began building steel mills, the demand for imported steel from the US decreased significantly. Also, many US steel companies relocated out of the country for cheap labor. Once the steel industry went down, the coal mining industry also suffered since coal is necessary in the production of steel. Andrew Carnegie made his first big profits from England when England began constructing railroads and needed steel for the tracks. Carnegie exported steel to England. Streetcar tracks were another source of profits for Carnegie's steel manufacturing. Once England began constructing their own steel mills, Carnegie was shut out there, but there was still plenty of tracks to construct across the US. Then came steel necessary to construct skyscrapers. But by then then steel industry was diverse, spread out among many countries. Hence, the decline of steel mills and coal mining towns in the US, especially in Pennsylvania.
Ghost Towns? Not at all a good definition of places where people still live. "Depressed" is a better definition. Then too, a place like Plymouth always was depressed even when coal was king. A ghost town would be Centrailia and not mentioned Concrete City near Nanticoke.
This video is not credible. You showed a town called Shenandoah and your pictures are showing yellow dog, which is over here containing which is abandoned limestone so I’ve bend out these towns and just throwing pictures of whatever.
If you want to know why Lock Haven started to fail beyond the flooding it's because some interest was to drive out the local high schools , when they decided to consolidate around the time the paper mill and piper international aircraft company was closing the doors in the area later Woolrich started closing up shop as the big 3 factories all now went out of business from back when this happened , sure the one who stayed was south Avis's Jersey Shore steel mill , A lot of lost has happened in the area but stores are coming back , most local main street business is filled up and more is being added or being replaced with anew. Like many business is using Woolrich buildings as their home now, first quality is in the old home the Hamnermil international paper mill area, and dollar general is popping up everywhere. Yes the brick factories, the chair factories, the older business of lumbering and rafting and the canal systems are gone, the railroad is limited to one track now as it was also one of the major part of the lumber industry too. The Locks of which Lock Haven gots it's name it's gone yes the flooding was the major cause of its demise as 1889 this Ice flood was the beginning of the end , 1936 floods was the end. You see Jerry Church which founded a portion of Old Town west part as Lock Haven for the heaven of Locks this the name Lock Haven..which so many locks in the bald eagle canal system which ran from the west branch over to the Bald Eagle Creek had at least 6 locks known of but some say 9 or 10 in the cross cut area . The canal system ran clear to Pittsburgh . A silk mill was taken over William T. Piper a little after Tyler piper airport burnt in Bradford and Mr Piper built a airport behind the silk mill in a former race track field and a aircraft facility to build aircraft which built the Piper Cub Well the paper company which used many logs shipped down the bald eagle and in by trains was lock haven and castaner paper mills once was a big part of Lock Haven history too. I could go on and on a out the history of Lock Haven Since I live in the area Yes 1972 was the last major flood in the area and some minor in 1980s, but in 1994 a levee was built which did have the critics cause the would have the beauty taken away and did in ways, the town other than few spots hasn't flooded since closes was 2004 Tho other parts was and has flooded in the county which was also founded by Jerry Church is in. As this point the city which is the smallest metropolis in Pennsylvania seems to have a little prosper in it and some areas not as much , .. enjoy little more history
you incorrectly feature the"Shenandoah Woods" neoghborhood, an abandoned (now razed) US Nazy Development located in Warminster, PA. Shenandoah Woods has nothing to do with Shenandoah PA and is located more than 100 miles away.
My paternal aunt and her husband live in Mount Carmel, where they both worked in the garment industry making women's dresses. As a child and teenager, I would visit, and the women in our family could buy dresses at a huge discount. Sadly, my father committed suicide, and his side of the family blamed my mother, even though they were the ones who didn't visit or call him. He even called this sister the night before he died, and I've always wondered what they talked about. Mount Carmel is a depressing place with very prejudiced people, much like the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre area.
Fire in Centralia didnot start in a mine, but in a trash pit which did have a coal seam in it. Burning trash when the pit got filled was a regular thing. Just this time, the coal seam ignited.
The fire started in a trash heap, and it lit a coal vain. The town didn’t wanna put it out because it would cost too much money and it was thought it would burn out, however, it didn’t. The fire continue to burn on that cold and travel throughout the vain.
Vintondale, PA , a coal mining town lost to the abandonment of the Vinton Colier company and loss of any profitable work there. My parents were born and raised there, population way less than 500 people
Lykens PA should be on this list too, it was at one point going to be the state capital now it barely has anything left after a flood and the coal industry declining so many abandoned buildings here and barely anyone has heard of it
Omg I got 3 more for you 1 audernried pa an beverbrook pa Macadoo pa I lived in all three of them audernried was a coal town till about the 60s an it slowed till about the 90s beverbrook was also a coal town one road in one road out people still live there Mcadoo pa it's still a nice town quite an big also all 3 towns are on the same road together neseld on rout 309 south of hazleton pa
Some pictures are generated by AI in this video which have some inaccuracies. We apologize for that, we will surely try to enhance our quality in the next videos. Thank you for your understanding. Ghost Towns in USA: th-cam.com/video/OgrnYXZz7Wo/w-d-xo.html
The fact that he literally mentioned Mt.Carmel but completely forgot about the biggest man made coal mining town known for it’s innovation and long gone Edgewood park
my whole family history is from brownsville....my dad got a football schoalship went to school got a degree and got out!...ive been back to vist many times....sad to see what happened to it. my parents were maried in 1957 at first baptist church and it just burned down i heard
Shamokin in coal township has a little over 6000 in population im from there and there are actually fewer people and many buildings has be falling bc of people moving bc their is not many jobs nearby
Shenandoah doesn't "shine." Unless you mean the shine of the drugs that are consumed there. The only town on this list that I would even consider living in is Lock Haven. Lock Haven shouldn't really be on this list. The university ensures that it isn't "forgotten."
Lock Haven still a working town yet. With business in and around there's a factory that makes diapers and bottle water in Lock Haven and small businesses that are thriving in the city.
centraila- i think a pile of garbage was burning and then the ground gave way below to the coal underground. The white church is on solid rock, so it will remain forever. brownsville-- its pronounced monon-ga-he-la braddock as much of pittsburgh's western towns are all the same.duquesne is the same across the river mt carmel clip, you reversed the clip of driving thru town? thats odd.... lock haven, i live 10mins from lh, and its dual but busy downtown. you forgot clearfield, johnstown, RENOVO. all but jtown are along the same river as lh. renovo is the worst of them on the river. jtown is simply jinxed, forgotten steel mill town.
Plymouth is plagued by drugs, with high overdose rates and fatalities. If someone isn't a drug addict, they might be an alcoholic, or even both. However, they do have the Pierogi Festival.
I am from Pennsylvania. I live near Centralia and Shenandoah. Centralia is just like a ghost town you still can see the smoke coming up through the ground and nobody lives there. there are people visiting Centralia to check it out at times. but Shenandoah I passed through Shenandoah all the time. and it's not as bad as they predicted in this video. it was a big mining area. there are lots of other businesses around Shenandoah and is still very busy town. they act like it's dead, and it's a ghost town. it's not , it's actually a nice town. it's clean and nice. the only problem is you have a lot of illegals moving in too Shenandoah and they caused a lot of violence and they bring drugs crimes with them.
No. Pennsylvania is full of towns that are built in flood zones. And all those trees grew back. The area is beautiful. And Lock Haven is hardly "forgotten."
Beaver falls wasnt so bad 30 years ago, but dang that place went down hill😂, my kid didnt get any good habbits hanging out there let me tell you and if i knew what his mother was letting him do there i would have been peed off
I grew up in Beaver Falls. Left out not long after high school in 85 right before the tornado.I was dating the girl that survived while working at spotlight88 drive in. We have a son and he's a great guy. She still lives in the house on college hill where she grew up. Most of the steel mills- B &W were already closed and the town was going down fast. I've gone back a few times lately and it's still holding on somehow.
@@NOBodYknoys111 boy hood home of Joe Namath. Lived there as a child. Not in town but on a gravel road. Than it was off to Johnstown as my dad kept moving on up in his career. Two more moves to Ohio got me through high school. All of those areas have turned into a part of the rust belt which started in 1980 when China entered the market.
@@davestrang8585 I actually lived outside of Koppel on Carywood Rd. Went to Beaver Falls high. Funny story, my mom come from a big family and they lived in town near the Namaths. Joe's mom knocked on the door and told my gramma that her son Gene had beat up her Joe up after school. Gramma proceeded to tell her that Gennie was her daughter.
The problem with Pennsylvania is that they always go back to coal which creates little to no jobs. As the town get run down and people leave other coal companies move in here and destroy everything because the towns are too poor to fight them and keep them out. The bottom line is anywhere there's coal mines and coal cleaning plants is that the towns are usually dumps.
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Part 2 is out now, don't forget to check it out: th-cam.com/video/A7pp4IoxOaw/w-d-xo.html
Renovo. The principal employer was the Pennsylvania Railroad which had a large repair facility . It closed over 50 years ago and, being near the Susquehanna River, much of the town is subject to flooding.
Pithole. Almost every town that had a steel mill, coal mine or oil business has been in decline for years. And not just in Pennsylvania. All along the rust belt.
Love to see folks trying to find Pithole or other towns like Trunkyville or Oleopolis. Tidioute was a lot bigger than it is now.
We have covered Pithole and many more in Part 2: th-cam.com/video/A7pp4IoxOaw/w-d-xo.html
The fire in Centralia, PA started in a garbage dump where trash was burned. It ignited a coal seam!
And it's still burning. It's one year older than me.
Lock Haven really???? You should have done Renovo. Lock Haven is a college town and was hardly ever known for it's lumber. I've lived in both Renovo and Lock Haven. Lock Haven is the reason Renovo was forgotten about. Oppression.
Lock Haven at one time was a lumber city as it was second to Williamsport with logs in the river and millionaires row on west water street was built back in the fat, lumber mills was also thru the area
Boom island was named for the lumber industry at this spot the cribs left the logs put there. I would say the logging boom was the city then, but another thing is when the logs crashed together the sound went thru the bald eagle valley.
One of two booms in the west branch of the river
The three out of four(fourth time it was Keystone which was beech Creek and surrounded area)times Clinton county and Lock Haven made it to the Little League world series was due being sponsored by the lumber industry
I was born in the old hospital in Renovo 1953, my sister in 1955 our mother in 1933 . I had family in Westport, in Shintown and Driftwood. I can't go up there anymore because it's not the place I knew from my childhood and it fills me with a great saddness I can't discribe. My grandfather once told me you will never get these mountains out of your blood ,you will always want to come back, He was right.
7:39 There is a section of PA that is never mentioned. It starts in Meyerdale and ends at Maryland line. There are about 3 or 4 small towns that are barely hanging on. They are in order Meyesdale, Boyton , Coalrun, and Salsbury. They are all coal mine towns with very little mention anywhere. I know of this area because I was born in Meyersdale and lived in the other small towns.
You spent a lot of time on Shenandoah. My parents were from Shenandoah, but as a family we lived in Frackville. My mother still resides there and I live in the township up the road from her house. Although the borough was so dependent on the coal and garment industry which have declined, it is still making efforts to keep the town alive. They have some amazing grant-writers and always seem to have a new revitalization project being undertaken.
Thank you for this short video. Of the towns you have mentioned, I have been to 5 of them many, many times. i think there are 4 houses left in Centralia.
great to hear about your connection to Shenandoah and Frackville!
Don't forget mrs t pierogies.keeped the town aluve.i used to lived minersville and I missed the frackville mall
The only borough on here that is actually not in existence is Centralia. The rest of them are less populated than they once were but very much active boroughs. Next week plymouth will hold the annual kielbasa festival which will bring alot of visitors to enjoy all the food and festivities. Plymouth is far from gone
I was thinking the same thing. There is only one "ghost town" on this list. The other six are just depressed, not dead.
Byrnesville, Pennsylvania is another coal mining town that is completely gone.
Centralia's mune fire on May 27, 1962 happened because when burning the landfill to clean up the area for Memorial Day activities, a mine that did not get capped allowed the embers from burning the trash to ignite the coal.
I was born in Lock Haven ,Grew up only 3 miles west even went to church there and eventually college there , I never knew it was forgotten
Yeah. I went to college there and loved that place. A lot of good memories
My Dad was from Pa. Often spoke of Mt. Carmel. He was from Aristies, formally Marshal. Took him back late in his life. He took us to Centrailia. Had a great time eating in Ashland. He mads sure I could pronounce Lancaster.🦇
Being from the coal region especially Mount Carmel you're not showing accurate photos of the town
can you please elaborate which images are not accurate!?
I used to lived closed to mount Carmel,from minersville pa
It’s unfortunate but true that we need to remember much of the content we view nowadays is AI generated. For instance, you may have noticed a lot of images had the disclaimer sorta off to the top corner. Anyways, the idea being they’re only trying to illustrate a point but I also know what you’re getting at. 🤷🏻♂️
My mother was born in Locust Gap, PA. Her parents were Irish immigrants. My grandfather was a coal miner.
How can you say Centralia is a forgotten town? If anything, due to the internet, it's more well known now than ever.
Mt carmel, Shenandoah and Centralia are all like within 15 miles of of each other.
Yeah, you are right.They treat the whole region like it's a throw away just lumping everyone together,but we are the "keystone." We are actually what "holds" everything together !
When coal use died out in favor of the convenience of oil,so did the entire anthracite coal region. The factories that produced everything from hats to shoes and shirts to dresses also went south or overseas.
I live in Mt Carmel
I currently live in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. If anyone is ever in the area and are Interested in the landmarks/ History, and or The Amazing food stops randomly in the area that are all one of a kind. I've lived here on/off My entire life. A lot of good in this area and also a lot of bad. But I'd love to share the beautiful things that this town and Area have to offer someone from out of town.
Brownsville was also Headquarters of The Monongahela Railway, a coal hauler that ran south into West Virginia and serviced many large mines. Around 1990 Conrail took over and the railroad shops were closed. Today, Norfolk Southern still runs trains through Brownsville but the heyday is long over.
I lived in Brownsville from 1952 to 1972
I grew up in California, PA. Every Saturday my mom would take me to Brownsville. She would get her hair done by “Guy” and then we’d go shopping. I remember the downtown area very well. Very pleasant memories.
What killed Brownsville is the lane Bane Bridge, everyone went around Brownsville, without going through it.
McKeesport , Johnstown , Duquesne, and glassport. Any town along rte 837 , outside of Pittsburgh.
It shocked me how bad Johnstown is. My goodness. 😢
@@yvonneplant9434 I stopped in Johnstown once. It was pretty bad.
I live in Johnstown💀
@@SummerLovesLilac I live Ross township , Allegheny County.
@@danielfrancella5219 johnstown once one of the most important towns in the world!
the South Carolina stock photo in a PA video is a nice touch. Also Lock Haven certainly isn't the center of the universe but to put it higher on the list than Mount Carmel wow! I enjoyed the video though.
God bless all those folks from the Blue Comet Diner! Nobody finer in all of Pennsylvania.
There is only one "town" in Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg. Everything else is boroughs, cities, & townships
@@davegallo8166 true but also incredibly pedantic
@@CharlesD4rwin video talks about towns in pa , there's only one and it's not mentioned , facts matter
@@davegallo8166 lol. Now you've jumped the shark. The word "town" has more meaning than pennsylvania's unique definitions. I believe you are correct that bloomsburg is the only municipality in PA chartered as a town, but clearly people calls bouroughs, cities and townships "towns" all the time. "facts matter" lol. Gtfoh. Many boroughs in PA (eg- quakertown, trexlertown etc) have town in the name you pedantic boob.
Cambridge Springs, halfway mark for trains going from NYC to Chicago. Was a busy resort 100 yrs ago when it was popular for its healing waters (springs). Multiple large hotels and restaurants.
I live in northeastern Pennsylvania we had about 5 steel factories that have shut down its hard to find good work here
Coatesville, Pennsylvania, was once a bustling city where everyone would put on their finest clothes and would go to do their shopping, eat dinner, and see a show. Many people lived here, worked here in the shops and steel mills. Once the steel mills closed, the city was abandoned by the upscale businesses and entertainment industry. The city changed drastically. It's unsafe to visit and live there.
Now it's a depressed area within the city limits where crime is rampant and there's nothing redeeming left behind.
However, Coatesville is huge. Outside the city limits are suburban and rural areas where beautiful roaming countryside and farmlands abound. Houses range from hovels to mansions, from to farmhouses to churches, from occasional small businesses to open countryside to quaint Amish villages. It's definitely a diverse area, but not much worth visiting.
Outside the city limits of Coatesville is a beautiful place to live. But if you ask, the residents won't ever say that they live in Coatesville. Instead, they'll use the township name to describe where they reside. Unless they're from inside the city itself, where they have no choice but to call themselves denizens of Coatesville.
Most people who live in the city of Coatesville district send their children to the local charter school. Others are fortunate to have Coatesville addresses but actually live in the Downingtown Area School District. DASD is a good school, better than the charter schools. Obviously, it is better than the Coatesville Area School District, which is inside city limits itself. Gangs from CASD have made their way to the charter schools, unfortunately.
The area is extremely diverse, as is all of Chester County, PA.
Lived at 6th and Merchant. Coatesville isn't as bad as you make it !
Bud, first off, a few inaccuracies in the video. The biggest of all however, is your pronunciation of Shenandoah. Anyone from here knows it is pronounced "Chendoh" , I mean 462 dafuk.
Brownsville is where my family is from, they left in the 60s I think. My grandfather has fond memories and we went back there for a family reunion in 1992 and my cousins were so poor that when I brought my Nintendo they thought it was the greatest thing they ever saw. I let them have it and all my games too, just so they'd have something to play. Nice folk though. Apparently Doug Dascenzo, a baseball player for the cubs at the time, lived there and my grandfather showed me his house. It was a VERY rustic town even then, with no stores, no real place to eat, and everyone was buying their stuff at a bait shop along the river.
My Mom grew up in Mt Carmel, my Dad in Centraila, they moved to Philly when the mines closed. I went up there every summer for many years.
The photo of Mt Carmel at 5.50 is from Wheeling WV! Fact check...
tons of that in this video.... many shenandoah pics are from a neighborhood in Warminster, PA that happens to be called Shenandoah woods.
Pennsylvania: The gold buckle of the Rust Belt.
Wow you lost me 50 seconds in! That's NOT how the Centralia mine fire started, it was a controlled burn above ground and didn't start in the mine, but spread to it. Amazing that you couldn't even get the easy one right.
There are many towns that are not doing well in most of those areas in PA. Lots of empty houses. Sometimes you can even buy homes dirt cheap in those areas. But the issue is there are not enough jobs so people don't have the money to fix them up or if they do they would want to rent them out but then renters don't have the funds to afford renting them as most of the good paying jobs closed down. If you go to Kittanning and ford city pa, Some of the larger coal mining companies closed. PPG glass in ford city closed, Ejer closed( they made toilets, sinks, and urinals. I remember seeing the brand name on the urinals as a kid not knowing they were made locally. If you go to downtown Kittanning the main street going thru town from the bridge going to the court house since it's the county seat. Lots of building taken down and turned into parking lots. There are not many stores left. there are still nice homes in the area but a lot of the schools were torn down as there wasn't as big of a need for schools as people moving from the area and less people with kids. It seems to be lots of retired people. I just wonder what is going to happen when they are no longer in the area. I've seen homes for sale for like 20k 30k that are liveable at times but right now the prices are up and a fairly nice house is 50k dollars. that isn't bad for a place to live if you think about it. Of course if you get to some of the better areas you can still find expensive homes but again it depends on the area. I am sure you can find homes that are over a million dollars in the surrounding area if you looked but there are also lots of budget homes with the lack of jobs.
I don't understand why they convert everything into parking lots when there's nothing to do downtown.
@@urpreposterous682 They are hoping stores will come if they have parking. But the issue is to pay for the paving they put in parking meters and that just kills people from coming as they can go to walmart without having to pay for parking.
@@JUST_ONE_ID10T
Pittston is trying to revitalize its downtown, but it will never be like it was in its heyday. I found some great JC Penney sheets and pillowcases at my grandmother's house that were priced at 34 cents or less when JC Penney was in downtown Pittston. Now, the surrounding areas have many rundown, unkempt houses and streets. Drug and alcohol addiction are prevalent, as is mental illness.
@@JUST_ONE_ID10T I understand what you are saying but stores, restaurants etc are all useless unless there are jobs to support the residents and give them a reason to stay . I moved to western PA 25 years ago honestly, I was shocked to see towns like Brownsville with empty buildings…it’s very sad and eye opening indeed.
@@donnalaguardia2686 I'm over in charleroi pa not far from brownsville. It's sad.
Dont forget Central City, Cairnbrook, #2,4,7 Rockingham, all stretched together, just 2 gas stations and a DG.
Used to be ALOT of family owned business, now nothing.
I feel like this is mostly AI generated content based on keywords and little knowledge about these places went into this video. When talking about Shenandoah and the drying up of coal jobs for instance, you showed an image from Yellow Dog Village which is clear across the state. The inability to pronounce the Monongahela River correctly is making the research into this video dubious as well.
Agree. And Shenandoah has become a drug infested nightmare with decaying houses. It certainly doesn't "shine."
The fire that started the coal vein on fire in Centralia was started at the town dump, and it caught the vein in the ground there. It didn't start in the mine.
This is a super cool find 😎 🤟 thx for sharing
The mine fire is spreading and now threatening 3 other cities, especially Ashland and in 10 years that city will be gone as well because they will have to evacuate it
Hey I love your channel. You’re gonna be really big. Keep up the good work. ❤
would mean a lot❤️
That is not how the fire in Centralia started
How about Jeannette. The Glass City, it had 3 glass companies, Jeannette sheet glass, Westmorland Glass for figurines and other things, and Shade novelty for glass lamp shades and other things.
thanks for suggestion, we'll look at this and surely include it in the next part.
Ayee I live in Brownsville!!! This was a pretty cool video n Brownsville is starting to make a come back. Back in the day Brownsville used to be bigger than Pittsburgh until the highways got built.
Glad you liked it.
None of these are correct. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania only has one town, Bloomsburg.
You missed Bennington, PA on the Cambria Co./Blair Co. Line. All that remains is the cemetary that can be seen from Rte. 22 West just before the Gallitzin Exit of Rte.22.
we'll consider this in the next part. subscribe so you won't miss it out
@travelawaitsyou That's awesome. Thanks. I grew up in the Cambria county, Blair county area and Bennington was one of two places that I remember my grandparents talking about. The second being Beulah (spelling?) which was a small community in between Ebensburg, Pa and Nanty Glo, Pa which was one of the original picks for the county seat of Cambria county.
Fetterman destroyed braddock
It was like that 20 years ago when I lived in N Braddock.
Quit hating.
I'm from Lock Haven. There hasn't been a bad flood there since the 70s. It's not the biggest place but there is a university here, and Penn State is only an hour away
The fire in centralia was intentional. They were burning garbage in the old mine shafts. Eventually a coal vein caught on fire.
Brownsville isn't stuck in time because of the loss of employment, it is that way because a weird, super rich, business man, bought the majority of the inner city, with plans to revive the place, then never did. This ownership has actually been holding brownsville back. It has lost a lot lf opportunities due to this.
This video got a lot of stuff wrong, used incorrect images for places, and glossed over a lot of the most inteteresting facts of these places.
The biggest issue, however, is that only one of these places is a ghost town.
The fire under Centrailia didn't start in a coal mine, but a dump where garbage was burning that caught the coal seam on fire. A local man offered to dig out the fire for $175 but the town declined, preferring a response by the state. By that time the fire had burned beyond putting out.
I'm in southwestern PA. Once other countries began building steel mills, the demand for imported steel from the US decreased significantly. Also, many US steel companies relocated out of the country for cheap labor. Once the steel industry went down, the coal mining industry also suffered since coal is necessary in the production of steel. Andrew Carnegie made his first big profits from England when England began constructing railroads and needed steel for the tracks. Carnegie exported steel to England. Streetcar tracks were another source of profits for Carnegie's steel manufacturing. Once England began constructing their own steel mills, Carnegie was shut out there, but there was still plenty of tracks to construct across the US. Then came steel necessary to construct skyscrapers. But by then then steel industry was diverse, spread out among many countries. Hence, the decline of steel mills and coal mining towns in the US, especially in Pennsylvania.
Actually the towns in pennsylvania are boroughs.
Except for Bloomsburg
Levittown
@@seancrowley1065 levittown is an unincorporated area, it's a housing development, not a town
Ghost Towns? Not at all a good definition of places where people still live. "Depressed" is a better definition. Then too, a place like Plymouth always was depressed even when coal was king. A ghost town would be Centrailia and not mentioned Concrete City near Nanticoke.
McKeesport early 70s and 80s was smashing, I was there as a child
and now its nothing but memories
If there are still people living there it isn’t a true ghost town. Pithole is a true ghost town.
Guess what? We have listened to you, Pithole is covered in Part 2, kindly check it out: th-cam.com/video/A7pp4IoxOaw/w-d-xo.html
Those AI representations are awful, don’t add anything.
we were just testing new thing. thank you for your response (surely will add something better in next vids)
This video is not credible. You showed a town called Shenandoah and your pictures are showing yellow dog, which is over here containing which is abandoned limestone so I’ve bend out these towns and just throwing pictures of whatever.
Also check out Tyrone, PA in Blair County.
If you want to know why Lock Haven started to fail beyond the flooding it's because some interest was to drive out the local high schools , when they decided to consolidate around the time the paper mill and piper international aircraft company was closing the doors in the area later Woolrich started closing up shop as the big 3 factories all now went out of business from back when this happened , sure the one who stayed was south Avis's Jersey Shore steel mill ,
A lot of lost has happened in the area but stores are coming back , most local main street business is filled up and more is being added or being replaced with anew.
Like many business is using Woolrich buildings as their home now, first quality is in the old home the Hamnermil international paper mill area, and dollar general is popping up everywhere.
Yes the brick factories, the chair factories, the older business of lumbering and rafting and the canal systems are gone, the railroad is limited to one track now as it was also one of the major part of the lumber industry too.
The Locks of which Lock Haven gots it's name it's gone yes the flooding was the major cause of its demise as 1889 this Ice flood was the beginning of the end , 1936 floods was the end.
You see Jerry Church which founded a portion of Old Town west part as Lock Haven for the heaven of Locks this the name Lock Haven..which so many locks in the bald eagle canal system which ran from the west branch over to the Bald Eagle Creek had at least 6 locks known of but some say 9 or 10 in the cross cut area .
The canal system ran clear to Pittsburgh .
A silk mill was taken over William T. Piper a little after Tyler piper airport burnt in Bradford and Mr Piper built a airport behind the silk mill in a former race track field and a aircraft facility to build aircraft which built the Piper Cub
Well the paper company which used many logs shipped down the bald eagle and in by trains was lock haven and castaner paper mills once was a big part of Lock Haven history too.
I could go on and on a out the history of Lock Haven
Since I live in the area
Yes 1972 was the last major flood in the area and some minor in 1980s, but in 1994 a levee was built which did have the critics cause the would have the beauty taken away and did in ways, the town other than few spots hasn't flooded since closes was 2004
Tho other parts was and has flooded in the county which was also founded by Jerry Church is in.
As this point the city which is the smallest metropolis in Pennsylvania seems to have a little prosper in it and some areas not as much , .. enjoy little more history
I love love love your Pennsylvania videos!
glad to hear that.❤️
The fires in Centralia started from a burn at the trash, which ignited the coal mine
you incorrectly feature the"Shenandoah Woods" neoghborhood, an abandoned (now razed) US Nazy Development located in Warminster, PA. Shenandoah Woods has nothing to do with Shenandoah PA and is located more than 100 miles away.
My paternal aunt and her husband live in Mount Carmel, where they both worked in the garment industry making women's dresses. As a child and teenager, I would visit, and the women in our family could buy dresses at a huge discount. Sadly, my father committed suicide, and his side of the family blamed my mother, even though they were the ones who didn't visit or call him. He even called this sister the night before he died, and I've always wondered what they talked about. Mount Carmel is a depressing place with very prejudiced people, much like the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre area.
Tons of inaccuracies. Bad AI and pictures of the wrong towns .
we are sorry for that, will try to improve in next videos.
How about Star Junction, where my dad grew up. Also Crabtree, and Russelton.
Another forgotten town: Frackville, Mahanoy City.
Fire in Centralia didnot start in a mine, but in a trash pit which did have a coal seam in it. Burning trash when the pit got filled was a regular thing. Just this time, the coal seam ignited.
thanks for the Correction
The fire started in a trash heap, and it lit a coal vain. The town didn’t wanna put it out because it would cost too much money and it was thought it would burn out, however, it didn’t. The fire continue to burn on that cold and travel throughout the vain.
McKeesport ,Duquesne Glassport , Clairton Pa
Donora, mon city, mckeesport the list around here goes on😂
@@Jay70chevelle it does 🤣
Kindly check more in Part 2: th-cam.com/video/A7pp4IoxOaw/w-d-xo.html
Yeah, moved all of our manufacturing, good paying jobs out of the country. So sad how they slowly destroyed our country.
The AI talking sounds terrible... you all need to stop using it.
Vintondale, PA , a coal mining town lost to the abandonment of the Vinton Colier company and loss of any profitable work there. My parents were born and raised there, population way less than 500 people
We have covered Vintondale in the Part 2, kindly check it out: th-cam.com/video/A7pp4IoxOaw/w-d-xo.html
What about oil towns in Pa?
Lykens PA should be on this list too, it was at one point going to be the state capital now it barely has anything left after a flood and the coal industry declining so many abandoned buildings here and barely anyone has heard of it
Why don't you call the places like city hall or tourist help centers where you can ask them for the correct names of the town?
*Quieter. Semantics for mostly abandoned.
Omg I got 3 more for you
1 audernried pa an beverbrook pa Macadoo pa I lived in all three of them audernried was a coal town till about the 60s an it slowed till about the 90s beverbrook was also a coal town one road in one road out people still live there Mcadoo pa it's still a nice town quite an big also all 3 towns are on the same road together neseld on rout 309 south of hazleton pa
My town where I reside Plymouth is far from a ghost town lol. We don't have much going on here but it's far from being a ghost town
Some pictures are generated by AI in this video which have some inaccuracies. We apologize for that, we will surely try to enhance our quality in the next videos. Thank you for your understanding.
Ghost Towns in USA: th-cam.com/video/OgrnYXZz7Wo/w-d-xo.html
Brownsville, and no word about the Liggetts? C'mon 🙈
Shamokin. It’s by a few spots mentioned
The fact that he literally mentioned Mt.Carmel but completely forgot about the biggest man made coal mining town known for it’s innovation and long gone Edgewood park
The overwhelming theme here is the coal industry
What about Renova.
You must be a homey, there is no other way to know where that is.😊
my whole family history is from brownsville....my dad got a football schoalship went to school got a degree and got out!...ive been back to vist many times....sad to see what happened to it. my parents were maried in 1957 at first baptist church and it just burned down i heard
Shamokin in coal township has a little over 6000 in population im from there and there are actually fewer people and many buildings has be falling bc of people moving bc their is not many jobs nearby
You could have included Parker, PA, the Smallest City in America
Shenandoah doesn't "shine." Unless you mean the shine of the drugs that are consumed there. The only town on this list that I would even consider living in is Lock Haven. Lock Haven shouldn't really be on this list. The university ensures that it isn't "forgotten."
Actually Lock Haven is far better off than many other PA towns.
Renovo for example, and Emporium are just 2 examples.
Lock Haven still a working town yet. With business in and around there's a factory that makes diapers and bottle water in Lock Haven and small businesses that are thriving in the city.
Mount Carmel had a large bookie
Try where I’m from: Midland, Pennsylvania
centraila- i think a pile of garbage was burning and then the ground gave way below to the coal underground. The white church is on solid rock, so it will remain forever.
brownsville-- its pronounced monon-ga-he-la
braddock as much of pittsburgh's western towns are all the same.duquesne is the same across the river
mt carmel clip, you reversed the clip of driving thru town? thats odd....
lock haven, i live 10mins from lh, and its dual but busy downtown.
you forgot clearfield, johnstown, RENOVO. all but jtown are along the same river as lh. renovo is the worst of them on the river. jtown is simply jinxed, forgotten steel mill town.
Centraila is a pile of garbage now😂
@@Jay70chevelle lol
Richmond Furnace , pennsylvania, and the town of Metal Pa.
thanks for suggestion
Plymouth is plagued by drugs, with high overdose rates and fatalities. If someone isn't a drug addict, they might be an alcoholic, or even both. However, they do have the Pierogi Festival.
Everywhere is plauged by drugs and overdoses these days, trust me my family went through it
Most of these towns are the same. Except Centralia. I think no one lives there. Might be a couple left.
I always miss that festival. Is it always in Plymouth? Isn't there another one somewhere in Luzerne county?
Plymouth has the kielbasa Festival and Kingston has the Pierogi Festival
I agree with jeff, i worked in.braddock those ai pics are full of crap
You need to do one on Chester PA it's a gost town 😂
I am from Pennsylvania. I live near Centralia and Shenandoah. Centralia is just like a ghost town you still can see the smoke coming up through the ground and nobody lives there. there are people visiting Centralia to check it out at times. but Shenandoah I passed through Shenandoah all the time. and it's not as bad as they predicted in this video. it was a big mining area. there are lots of other businesses around Shenandoah and is still very busy town. they act like it's dead, and it's a ghost town. it's not , it's actually a nice town. it's clean and nice. the only problem is you have a lot of illegals moving in too Shenandoah and they caused a lot of violence and they bring drugs crimes with them.
No one has forgotten Centralia. Especially youtube
I imagine Lock Haven suffered from floods due to deforestation. Just a consideration. 🤷🏻♂️
All those logs sank and caused the river to rise😂😂😂
No. Pennsylvania is full of towns that are built in flood zones. And all those trees grew back. The area is beautiful. And Lock Haven is hardly "forgotten."
Clymer and beaver falls
Beaver falls wasnt so bad 30 years ago, but dang that place went down hill😂, my kid didnt get any good habbits hanging out there let me tell you and if i knew what his mother was letting him do there i would have been peed off
@@Jay70chevelle we lived there before we moved to Johnstown in the 60s. Everyone talked about Joe Namath being from there 🙂
I grew up in Beaver Falls. Left out not long after high school in 85 right before the tornado.I was dating the girl that survived while working at spotlight88 drive in. We have a son and he's a great guy. She still lives in the house on college hill where she grew up. Most of the steel mills- B &W were already closed and the town was going down fast. I've gone back a few times lately and it's still holding on somehow.
@@NOBodYknoys111 boy hood home of Joe Namath. Lived there as a child. Not in town but on a gravel road. Than it was off to Johnstown as my dad kept moving on up in his career. Two more moves to Ohio got me through high school. All of those areas have turned into a part of the rust belt which started in 1980 when China entered the market.
@@davestrang8585 I actually lived outside of Koppel on Carywood Rd. Went to Beaver Falls high. Funny story, my mom come from a big family and they lived in town near the Namaths. Joe's mom knocked on the door and told my gramma that her son Gene had beat up her Joe up after school. Gramma proceeded to tell her that Gennie was her daughter.
The problem with Pennsylvania is that they always go back to coal which creates little to no jobs. As the town get run down and people leave other coal companies move in here and destroy everything because the towns are too poor to fight them and keep them out. The bottom line is anywhere there's coal mines and coal cleaning plants is that the towns are usually dumps.
Hopwood and uniontown, pennsylvania
I thought for sure johnstown was going to be on here 🤷🏻♂️
I live there💀 me too
Centralia? Really? That lack of town is better known than 95% of all other towns in the state of Pennsylvania. Thumbs DOWN!
Lock Haven is nice😊
Thank you
Has no one mentioned Shamokin yet? What a miserable place.
You forgot McKeesport
We have covered it in Part 2, kindly check it out: th-cam.com/video/A7pp4IoxOaw/w-d-xo.html
wow, all these happy shiny, people