The Ruins of Concrete City

Aug 26, 2024
2 min read

Updated: Sep 3, 2024

Nanticoke, PA

Tucked away amid the woods of Nanticoke, PA is Concrete City- a ghost town made up of 20, 2-story duplex homes, made entirely out of (you guessed it) concrete.

Concrete City was constructed in 1911 as housing for employees of the Truesdale Colliery, a coal mine run by the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad Company's (DL&W) Coal Division.

The homes were all identical and laid out in a rectangular fashion, with 6 houses on each side, and 4 on each end. In the middle, there was a large central courtyard with a pool, baseball field, walkways, and other amenities.

The DL&W transported materials via railroad tracks laid around the site, mixing sand, cement, and cinders on flatbed cars. Using portable hinged steel molds, the company was able to build a poured concrete house in just one day!

Concrete City in the Past

Images are public domain

Only 40 of the Truesdale Colliery’s 1,700 employees were able to move into the village. Those that were chosen had to speak English as their first language and were high level employees in the company.

For those who were chosen, each house was rented out for $8 a month, and had 7 rooms: a living room, dining room, kitchen, on the first floor and 4 bedrooms upstairs. There was also a basement and concrete outhouse behind each building.

However, not long after the families moved in, the homes began to show serious flaws. Despite efforts to reduce moisture by mixing coal cinders and crude oil into the cement, the walls and floors remained persistently damp and drafty, especially in winter. One former resident recalled that her father's shirts would freeze in an upstairs closet during the colder months, forcing her mother to iron them each morning just so he could wear them.

By 1920, the paint and plaster were already peeling from the walls. Additionally, the concrete made it impossible to install a proper septic system. Ultimately, the city was abandoned just 13 years after it was built.

After purchasing the homes from DL&W Railroad, the Glen Alden Coal Company attempted to demolish them but gave up when 100 sticks of dynamite failed to seriously damage one of the houses.

Today, Concrete City still stands, though it is slowly deteriorating. Most of the homes are heavily graffitied and the roads are deeply rutted and muddy. Nonetheless, it was still a fascinating place to explore! The only negative was that every home more or less looked the same on the inside unless it had sustained some type of significant damage over the years. Meaning, I chose not to explore every building. But, whether you decide to explore a few homes or all 20, I would still highly recommend checking this place out :)