More Miner's Homes
Photos by John Schehrer
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This old "shotgun style" house is only one of a very few of the original houses left in the Picher area. These houses usually had no electricity or indoor plumbing. They were usually heated by a wood or coal stove and had no cooling other than open windows during the summer. They usually consisted of two or three rooms in a straight row. Large families sometimes lived in these places. There was a constant threat of dust blowing off the giant chat piles. It was destroyed in the May 10, 2008 tornado.
Another old two room shanty from the days of mining, this two room shack has been modified several times. It was later electrified and light bulbs hang from long wires attached to the ceiling. These old houses will be gone in a year or two. They will never be seen again. I have only located two or three of these original houses. All of those on the previous page are now gone. Unfortunately, there is no interest in preserving one of these structures, and now it is too late. This building and everything around it was destroyed by the May 10, 2008 tornado.
This building is the last of the rooming houses where miners would obtain room and board. This place is only a shell and would be gone if not for the stone construction. There were many of these rooming houses in the 1920s and 1930s and almost all were frame construction like the one in the picture on the right. Both of these houses were located at Commerce, Ok. Very soon, the above house will be gone and nobody will even notice or care. Even the chat piles and abandoned mines are now gone from Commerce.
Update: In Novermber, 2008 I discovered that the building was gone.
5/24/07
The rooming house long ago during the 1920s
