Located north of the town of Tower City in the Williams Valley, this colliery was originally operated as two distinct individual collieries. The East Brookside was named the Tower Colliery and the other was the West Brookside Colliery.
The
Tower or East Brookside Colliery was originally opened by a slope 450 ft. in
length on the north dip lykens valley no.5 vein by E. D. and James Savage, Evans
and Althouse in 1868 and operated by them to 1873 when it was purchased by Repplier,
Gordon & Company who operated for a short time to 1874 when abandoned.
The total shipment of coal from Tower Colliery was 101,550 tons.
In 1892, the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co. (P&R C&I Co.) reopened the colliery and operated it in conjunction with the West Brookside Colliery.
The West Brookside Colliery was originally opened by a slope sunk 442 ft. on the north dip lykens valley no.5 vein by Williams, Jones, Savage and W. B. Kaufman in 1868 who operated to 1872 when purchased by Repplier & Co. who operated a short time to 1873.
In 1873, the P&R C&I Co. came in possession through the purchase of the Munson and Williams lands and operated both collieries as the Brookside Colliery. They extended the no.1 slope to a length of 1170 ft. in 1878. by 1879, the surface openings consisted of one tunnel and three slopes and on the inside workings were six planes and seven main gangways.
The total production from 1875 to 1879 was 1,382,083 tons being the largest production of coal by any colliery in America or Europe.
Two breakers were used to prepare the coal and on April 25, 1885, one breaker was destroyed by fire and was rebuilt in just 94 days. This was the first time in which iron was used extensively in breaker construction.
In 1888, a slope was sunk on the "white" no.4 lykens valley no.4 vein and in 1894, the east brookside slope was sunk 2374 ft. on the lykens valley no.5 vein to the basin.
In 1895, a new slope was sunk on the lykens valley no.4 vein directly over the no.3 slope to 2175 ft. in length and a tender slope was sunk on the same vein at East Brookside. By 1898 the no.3 slope was worked out and the pumps removed on Feb. 15, 1898.
In 1900, the head frame for the sinking of the brookside shaft was installed. By 1905, the shaft completed, reached a depth of 1864 ft.
On Aug. 2, 1913, a disastrous explosion occurred at East Brookside and 20 lives were lost.
In 1914, a new breaker was completed and the old East Brookside Breaker was abondoned.
The Brookside Colliery was closed Aug. 26, 1938 and the total shipments of coal to 1931 were 19,011,169 tons.