1907
Bretz coke ovens enter full production
The Elkins Coal & Coke Company's Bretz plant entered full production in 1907. The Morgantown & Kingwood Railroad connected the operation with its principal customer, the Maryland Steel Company plant and shipyard at Sparrows Point near Baltimore.
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Where this entry comes from
National Register of Historic Places nomination, Elkins Coal and Coke Company Historic District (1978), section 8, p. 3; e-WV, “Bretz Coke Ovens”
From the Library of Congress
Watering the ovens
Workers water the beehive coke ovens at Bretz, with steam rising above the ovens and railroad cars alongside. This later operating view illustrates the plant decades after full production began in 1907; it does not depict the opening year. The LOC catalog dates the survey as “Documentation compiled after 1968.”
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