Abandoned buildings in Concrete City, near Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, an early example of International Style architecture built as company housing in 1911 for select employees of the Delaware, Lackawana and Western Railroad’s coal division in Nanticoke. It was eventually taken over by the Glen Alden Coal Company that, uninterested in paying for required improvements and unable to demolish it due to its robust construction, abandoned the property in 1924.
It used to be much easier to access, but over the years it has become more swampy, overgrown and some of the buildings are even sinking.
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International Style Architecture in Concrete City, Pennsylvania
The company housing in Concrete City, Pennsylvania represents an early and somewhat unusual American application of what would later evolve into the International Style. Built between 1911-1913 by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad for workers at the Truesdale Colliery, this planned community showcased several characteristics that presaged International Style principles:
The development featured:
- Geometric simplicity and rectangular forms
- Minimal ornamentation or decorative elements
- Reinforced concrete construction (hence the name “Concrete City”)
- Uniform, repeating structures arranged in a grid pattern
- Emphasis on functionality over aesthetics
The housing consisted of 20 identical duplex buildings arranged in a U-shape around a central courtyard. Each unit was a stark concrete cube with flat roofs, which aligned with the International Style’s rejection of traditional pitched roofs. While not fully embodying the glass curtain walls that would become central to later International Style buildings, the development’s emphasis on industrial materials, geometric forms, and repetition pointed toward modernist architectural principles.
Concrete City’s utilitarian approach focused on providing basic, durable housing rather than architectural distinction. This practical emphasis on function over form paralleled the International Style’s later guiding philosophy, though Concrete City predated the formal codification of the style by Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and Walter Gropius.
Interestingly, the development was abandoned by 1924 due to plumbing issues, but its ruins remain as a historical landmark today.
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