Windsor Heights
A GLIMPSE OF WINDSOR HEIGHTS
...born in the Roaring Twenties, its still home for 520 residents....
...born in the Roaring Twenties, its still home for 520 residents....
No history of Windsor Power House Coal Company would be complete without a mention of Windsor Heights, the company-built mining community that still serves as home for many Windsor employees.
Homes in Windsor Heights, for the most part, were constructed between 1920 and 1924, according to 71-year old Windsor retiree Mike Gretchen, who has lived virtually his entire life in the community.
"The two-story houses that are on the eastern edge of Windsor Heights were the homes of the mine supervisors and the community doctors", Gretchen remembers, "while the one-story houses were the homes of the regular work force".
Unlike many coal companies of its era, Windsor Power House Coal Company never did operate its own company store, Gretchen says, although two privately-owned general stores in the vicinity were operated in virtually the same fashion.
One of the stores was in Windsor Heights, and the other was located along West Virginia State Route 2. "In those days, Route 2 was dotted with homes all the way from Beech Bottom down to Short Creek," Gretchen recalls. "That area was first known as Windsor, W.VA. then called Power, W.VA. because of the power plant."
The change in name from Windsor to Power apparently was related to attempts to obtain a post office for the community. The name "Windsor" could not be used, the local citizens discovered, because there was already one post office in West Virginia with that name. Power was selected as an alternative.
Windsor Heights today is a comfortable community of some 520 residents, but scarcely a trace of Power remains.
Harry Mushet, a preparation plant supervisor with Windsor Coal, remembers that his family moved from Scotland to Windsor Heights in 1928. "At that time, none of the homes in Windsor Heights had indoor plumbing ," Harry says. "There were four or five pumps in town where you could go and get your water."
"In the winter, sometimes the pumps would freeze up and someone would have to come out and light a fire to get them started up again, " Mushet chuckles. "You could look out your window and see that there were other families looking out their windows, too, waiting to see who would go out and thaw the pump."
"Finally, after someone came out and lit the fire to thaw it, why, there would be a whole steady stream of people coming out of their houses to get water."
Gretchen, who served on the board of UMWA District 6, says that indoor plumbing came to the community in the mid-1930's. "The company would give you the pipe and everything you needed to run the water line into your home, but you had to do the work yourself," he remembers. "Most people got their homes hooked up to the water system pretty soon."
Because if the urgent need for coal, many miners were exempt from military service during World War II. Nonetheless, Windsor Heights still sent a substantial number of men into battle.
Four of them never came back. And today, Sarko Street, Francis Avenue, Toat Street and Diotti Street serve as reminders of the young men of Windsor Heights who gave their lives in the fight against the Axis.
Housing was scarce in America when the GI's returned from overseas. Gretchen remembers, and he says that renting a home from Windsor Power House Coal Company was a good deal.
" In the 1940'a, a five-room home like mine, with a basement, rented for $19.75 a month, " Gretchen says, "A four-room home was three dollars a month cheaper. But you have to remember that the folks up here also got free electricity, their water free, and they only had to pay a dollar or two each month for their house coal."
The need to maintain the homes and the community also created jobs for younger men in Windsor Heights. "When I was growing up, it was pretty well understood that when a boy turned 18, he could get a job painting houses in Windsor Heights for the coal company," says Mushet, who joined Windsor Coal himself in 1940.
"After working for a year or so painting houses or doing work in the community, they would move him over to the tipple to work for a year or so. Then after that, the company would move him to a job inside the mine. That was generally the way a young person got started at Windsor Coal."
The end of World War II also brought an end to the "company town" concept in the mining industry, and in 1948, Windsor Power House Coal Company decided to bow out of the real estate business. It sold the homes in Windsor Heights to the miners who had been renting them.
Thirty-five years later, Windsor Heights may not be a company town, but it still is a very close-knit community where some third and fourth- generation miners still go off to work each day at the Beech Bottom mine, just as their fathers or grandfathers did.
It's been 35 years since Windsor Power House Coal Company signed over the deeds to its miners, but the fortunes of Windsor Coal and Windsor Heights are still intertwined - and probably always will be.
Homes in Windsor Heights, for the most part, were constructed between 1920 and 1924, according to 71-year old Windsor retiree Mike Gretchen, who has lived virtually his entire life in the community.
"The two-story houses that are on the eastern edge of Windsor Heights were the homes of the mine supervisors and the community doctors", Gretchen remembers, "while the one-story houses were the homes of the regular work force".
Unlike many coal companies of its era, Windsor Power House Coal Company never did operate its own company store, Gretchen says, although two privately-owned general stores in the vicinity were operated in virtually the same fashion.
One of the stores was in Windsor Heights, and the other was located along West Virginia State Route 2. "In those days, Route 2 was dotted with homes all the way from Beech Bottom down to Short Creek," Gretchen recalls. "That area was first known as Windsor, W.VA. then called Power, W.VA. because of the power plant."
The change in name from Windsor to Power apparently was related to attempts to obtain a post office for the community. The name "Windsor" could not be used, the local citizens discovered, because there was already one post office in West Virginia with that name. Power was selected as an alternative.
Windsor Heights today is a comfortable community of some 520 residents, but scarcely a trace of Power remains.
Harry Mushet, a preparation plant supervisor with Windsor Coal, remembers that his family moved from Scotland to Windsor Heights in 1928. "At that time, none of the homes in Windsor Heights had indoor plumbing ," Harry says. "There were four or five pumps in town where you could go and get your water."
"In the winter, sometimes the pumps would freeze up and someone would have to come out and light a fire to get them started up again, " Mushet chuckles. "You could look out your window and see that there were other families looking out their windows, too, waiting to see who would go out and thaw the pump."
"Finally, after someone came out and lit the fire to thaw it, why, there would be a whole steady stream of people coming out of their houses to get water."
Gretchen, who served on the board of UMWA District 6, says that indoor plumbing came to the community in the mid-1930's. "The company would give you the pipe and everything you needed to run the water line into your home, but you had to do the work yourself," he remembers. "Most people got their homes hooked up to the water system pretty soon."
Because if the urgent need for coal, many miners were exempt from military service during World War II. Nonetheless, Windsor Heights still sent a substantial number of men into battle.
Four of them never came back. And today, Sarko Street, Francis Avenue, Toat Street and Diotti Street serve as reminders of the young men of Windsor Heights who gave their lives in the fight against the Axis.
Housing was scarce in America when the GI's returned from overseas. Gretchen remembers, and he says that renting a home from Windsor Power House Coal Company was a good deal.
" In the 1940'a, a five-room home like mine, with a basement, rented for $19.75 a month, " Gretchen says, "A four-room home was three dollars a month cheaper. But you have to remember that the folks up here also got free electricity, their water free, and they only had to pay a dollar or two each month for their house coal."
The need to maintain the homes and the community also created jobs for younger men in Windsor Heights. "When I was growing up, it was pretty well understood that when a boy turned 18, he could get a job painting houses in Windsor Heights for the coal company," says Mushet, who joined Windsor Coal himself in 1940.
"After working for a year or so painting houses or doing work in the community, they would move him over to the tipple to work for a year or so. Then after that, the company would move him to a job inside the mine. That was generally the way a young person got started at Windsor Coal."
The end of World War II also brought an end to the "company town" concept in the mining industry, and in 1948, Windsor Power House Coal Company decided to bow out of the real estate business. It sold the homes in Windsor Heights to the miners who had been renting them.
Thirty-five years later, Windsor Heights may not be a company town, but it still is a very close-knit community where some third and fourth- generation miners still go off to work each day at the Beech Bottom mine, just as their fathers or grandfathers did.
It's been 35 years since Windsor Power House Coal Company signed over the deeds to its miners, but the fortunes of Windsor Coal and Windsor Heights are still intertwined - and probably always will be.
