Editing Kistler, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
Kistler, [[Pennsylvania]] is one of the United States' lesser known Company Towns.  A [[Company Town]] is a settlement built and operated by a single business enterprise.<ref name="GarnerJohn">Garner, John.  The Company Town; Architecture and Society in the Early Industrial Age. Oxford University Press. 1992</ref>  Most company towns were established between 1880 and 1930 during the early industrial age.<ref name="GarnerJohn" /> See [[list of company towns]].

Kistler was initially established to meet the needs of a large manufacturing plant by providing comfortable homes for its workmen within close proximity of the factory.<ref name="NolenJohn">Nolen, John. New Towns for Old (1927) Reprinted by [[University of Massachusetts Press]], Amherst 2005 pp. 66-74.</ref>  The town was built and owned by the Mount Union Refractories Company (MURC), a large brick making plant originally located at the foot of [[Mount Union, Pennsylvania]].
 
The MURC sought to design and implement an industrial village which provided the best home and surrounding environment for its employees, in the hope that this would achieve the highest possible working efficiency.  In order to successfully accomplish this goal, the company appointed distinguished town planner [[John Nolen]] to design a model company town.  [[John Nolen]] was a prominent planner of his time, producing nearly four hundred planning projects, with more than 25 of those company towns.<ref>Crawford, Margaret. The "New" Company Town. Perspecta, Vol. 30, Settlement Patterns (1999), pp. 48-57 Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of Perspecta.</ref>  Nolen published New Towns for Old in 1927, which carefully outlines in detail the planning precautions taken in the towns’ design and also includes illustrations of Kistler’s planned layout.<ref name="NolenJohn" />

=== Development ===
[[File:Juniata River at Kistler, PA.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Juniata River as seen from Kistler]]
Nineteen-eighteen saw the construction of the industrial village.   At this stage, MURC employed some seven hundred employees.<ref name="NolenJohn" /> The town of Kistler was located on the east side of the [[Juniata River]], one and one-half miles east of the Refractories site. MURC acquired a  land parcel of approximately sixty acres on the opposite side of the river from the works, in order to reduce the potential spread of dust, dirt and noise.<ref name="NolenJohn" />  The site of the planned town was triangular in shape, bordered by the [[Juniata River]], the Pennsylvania Railroad Topography and preexisting agricultural land.

=== Town Layout ===

Although there was no definite axis in John Nolen’s design, the centre point of the plan was said to be the major recreational facility, ‘Kistler Green’.  These well planned open spaces provided recreational areas for all residents.  Park Road and Nolen Street were the two arterials leading into the development from the south, while running parallel to the railway is State Street.  Nolen’s original plan included provisions for a proposed train station.<ref name="NolenJohn" />

=== Street Design ===

There were two major street widths in the design of Kistler.  The forty foot design allowed for eighteen foot of road and twenty-two feet of sidewalk and planting space.<ref name="NolenJohn" />  In contrast the seventy foot street allowed for two lanes with a central twenty-two foot parking strip.  The street widths played a pivotal role in allocating as much area to the lot owner as possible whilst avoiding street paving costs.  In the early stages of the development while the streets would not have been prone to large volumes of traffic throughput they served a secondary purpose; play spaces for children.<ref name="NolenJohn" />

=== Park Features ===

The large amount of open areas in Nolen’s design retained the natural woods which included willow, locust, sycamore, persimmon and black and white oak.  The river embankment was to be reserved for parkland with the northern end comprising a playground and picnic facilities and the south a boat landing, athletic field, baseball diamond and a field house.<ref name="NolenJohn" />

=== Housing design ===

The houses constructed for employees were built with varying character in detached or semi detached quadrangles.  This was thought to bring some individuality among the residents and their houses and to generally provide the best surroundings for the employees and their families. Dwellings were built on block sizes of forty feet in width by one hundred feet in depth.<ref name="NolenJohn" />  Almost two hundred dwellings were built in total, with houses ranging from four to eight rooms in total and all houses including their own baths and porches.<ref name="NolenJohn" />

=== Community wellbeing ===
[[File:Kistler (PA) Vol ire C.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The former volunteer fire company firehouse]] 
It was evident that Nolen and MURC gave considerable attention to the welfare of the citizens of Kistler.  The design aspired to provide not only comfortable housing and surrounds, but equally importantly it attempted to promote a sense of belonging and citizenship among the residents.  [[John Nolen]] discusses the success of Kistler and its design in his book ''New Towns for Old'' (1927) when he states that ‘there are few places in this country where the problem of low cost housing, primarily for the unskilled worker has been better solved for the employer and employee alike.<ref name="NolenJohn" />