24/7 Trauma & Biohazard Cleanup Near Commodore Historic District Commodore, PA

Commodore is a census-designated place in Green Township, Indiana County, that was founded in 1919 by the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corporation, a subsidiary of the New York Central Railroad.

Commodore was named in honor of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, the founder of the New York Central Railroad.

Commodore was deliberately built as a "model town," with a higher caliber of worker housing than other coal mining communities — its houses were constructed of concrete block rather than wood.

Commodore's streets were named after executives of the coal company, including President F. E. Herriman, Vice President John Fisher, and General Manager A. J. Musser, and the town was designed by Paul Gill, an engineer of the coal company.

The Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corporation sold no coal commercially — all of the coal mined at Commodore was "captive tonnage" used solely as locomotive fuel for the New York Central Railroad.

Commodore was unusual among coal towns for having a sanitary sewer system and sewage treatment plant from its earliest days, a feature that drew attention even outside Pennsylvania.

The community was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Commodore Historic District on August 26, 1994, with 94 contributing buildings.

Commodore's population was 284 at the 2020 census, down from 331 in 2010 and 337 people in 126 households in 2000, spread across about 0.8 square miles.

Commodore is served by the Purchase Line School District.