Our History

In 1869, Ario Pardee, the largest individual anthracite shipper in Pennsylvania, laid out the village of Lattimer, which was to be one of many coal towns populated throughout the area during this time.

The small “patch town” consisted of two roads, Lower Street and Quality Row. Lower Street consisted of the general store, mule barns, machine repair shop and housing for the miners.

Quality Row was a private road, off limits to the miners, where the mine bosses and superintendent resided.

As the years passed, Emily’s remained owned by the Pardee family. It was rented to the Beringer and later, the Cook, families. In the early Thirties, Pardee sold the building and grounds, along with the Lattimer Mines, to the Osler family. It is in these subsequent years that Emily’s took on a transformation.

Augustus W. Drake, mine superintendent of the Lattimer Mines, was the first resident of Emily’s. Ario Pardee built the home to assure Mr. Drake would be close to the mining operation.

Mrs. Osler made the outside porches into a sitting room and kitchen. She added chestnut wainscoting and hard wood flooring throughout the home. She also added two more rooms onto the existing home.

Mrs. Osler would not allow “coal dust” to soil her home, so a small structure, which still stands today, was erected to conduct Mr. Osler’s mining business.

Her love of beautiful objects did not cease inside her home.

She hired a gardener, Mr. Richard Schaffer, to tend to the gardens, ornamental trees and shrubs. Mr. Schaffer and his wife, Emily, purchased the home from the Osler’s in the late thirties.

They raised their two daughters and shared the home with Emily’s parents and siblings.