20. Driving Main Street (Plank Rd.) to Pilfershire Road

Listen to the Iron Story Site 20 Audio Narration

During the steel-making boom years of World War II, Republic Steel faced the problem of providing housing for an anticipated 1,200 new miners and their families. State and federal officials decided that constructing a federal housing project would provide the solution. The site chosen was on Pilfershire Road, located between Moriah Center and Mineville, allowing workers easy access to the Mineville mines, Fisher Hill mines, and the #7 sintering mill. This new community was called Grover Hills and consisted of wood-frame, multi-family, single-floor units. A total of 316 units in all were built, but only 95 were ever occupied. At the end of the war, the government tore down two complete streets.

Across the street from the Grover Hills development stands Linney Field, which honors the man who invented the massive separating and sintering machinery used in #7 Mill from 1942-1971. Local lore holds that the field was one of the first high school football fields to hold night games under electric lights.