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1938. "Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. Miner's home in the Brownsville sector." Medium format acetate negative by Sheldon Dick for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
The comment by dddlensman triggered my memory of visiting and photographing the very beautiful gravesite of Tommy Dorsey, "The Sentimental Gentleman," on November 1, 2019, at Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York. Incidentally, the page lists his place of birth as Mahanoy Plane, Schuylkill County (close enough):
This photo shows the Brownsville section of Shenandoah, which is in Schuykill County, in the eastern half of the state. The nearest city of size is Allentown. The Brownsville with Nemacolin Castle is in Fayette County, in southwestern Pennsylvania, and the nearest "big" city is Pittsburgh.
I am surprised our dedicated Shorpy sleuths did not dig deep enough to reveal this fact.
I watched the town board up businesses throughout the late '60s and '70s. It was nearly a ghost town.
Always knew I was close to Grandma's house when saw Nemacolin Castle.
[That's a different Brownsville (scroll up). - Dave]
Looks like an example of the saying, "Too poor to paint, too proud to whitewash." Even so, they appear to have done what they could in upkeep. I would hazard a guess that the home's residents were tenants rather than owners, and were, thus, at the tender mercies of the landlord as far as painting and such.
It could be upper and lower apartments or one side is a smaller apartment for a smaller family. There is a side door on at least one side so the building could be divided into even smaller spaces or rambles on like the house on the left. It isn't clear if these are company homes which weren't known to be overly generous to employees.
Is this a single family residence or for two families?
2 sets of stairs
2 entrance doors
2 doors to what is probably lower cellar area(s)
But only 1 of something that could be a mailbox next to the left entrance door.
I "drove" around Shenandoah, and found some of the narrowest streets I've seen. Maybe someone can tell me the reason for this.
Injuries possible everywhere you turn.
That's a darling smile shining from the sweet face of the elder of the two tots in the upper left-hand window. This place looks to be pretty nice given the situation. Madame behind door on the right cared enough to put a pretty fringed shade in the window of said door. I hope it was warm within those walls when the winter winds blew.
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