ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | SEPTEMBER 2024 20 An ASM International Historical Landmark presentation ceremony by the Pittsburgh Chapter was held on the evening of July 10 during a celebration at the West Overton Village’s 19th century “Big Barn” event venue in Scottdale, Pennsylvania. The springhouse home, located in West Overton Village, is the birthplace of Henry Clay Frick. He is notable for creating the H.C. Frick Coke Company and eventually the formation of the United States (U. S.) Steel Company, which made him one of the wealthiest and most significant industrialists in American history. A replica beehive coke oven, built using some of the remaining brick and stone structures that were used to make coke, also sits on display at the West Overton Village site just steps away from Frick’s birthplace home. MATERIALS SIGNIFICANCE The birthplace of H.C. Frick is important to the field of materials, in part, because of the location of this home at West Overton Village. It allowed him to pursue the coal and coke industry in the surrounding area, and later to join forces with Andrew Carnegie in Pittsburgh, which led to the exponential growth of the steel industry in the United States. Henry Clay Frick founded the H.C. Frick Coke Company, was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company, and played a major role in the formation of the giant U. S. Steel manufacturing concern. He also financed the construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Company. ENTERPRISING FRICK As a teenager, Henry Clay Frick worked as a bookkeeper at the village’s general store run by his uncle, Christian S. Overholt, and later at the family’s Broadford Distillery in Connellsville. It was at the Broadford Distillery where he first ventured into the coal and coke industry. Aware of the industry’s rising profitability, in 1871, at 21 years old, Frick joined two cousins and a friend in a small partnership. They developed a ASM HISTORICAL LANDMARK SERIES PITTSBURGH CHAPTER HONORS HENRY CLAY FRICK’S BIRTHPLACE The springhouse home of one of the most significant pioneers in the coke and steel industries is dedicated as a 2024 ASM Historical Landmark. Dignitaries at ASM International Historical Landmark plaque presentation include (from left): Patrick Bochy, (co-executive director, West Overton), Ben O’Donnell (member, Pittsburgh Chapter), Andy Pinskey (treasurer, Pittsburgh Chapter), Aaron Hollis, Jr., (co-executive director, West Overton), and Steve Fyfitch (chair, Pittsburgh Chapter). Henry Clay Frick birthplace.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjMzNTA5MA==