(Editor's Note: This is the fourth in a series of photo features showing area communities. Others will be published periodically. If you live or work in Mahanoy City, see if you can find your home in any of the accompanying photos.)

By ANDREW LEIBENGUTHaleibenguth@tnonline.comSituated in the valley of Mahanoy Creek, Mahanoy City served as a major center of historic and curent anthracite production for the region. According to the latest census, Mahanoy City, originally a part of Mahanoy township, incorporates a population of over 4,100. Settled in 1859, Mahanoy City was incorporated as a borough on December 16, 1863. It also served by branches of the Philadelphia & Reading and Lehigh Valley railways. One of the borough's principal industries is still the mining and shipping of coal, although the demand for it has steadily declined since its peak in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The number of people working as coal miners had declined by 1940 when 13,442 people lived in the borough. Aside from coal, the manufacturing of shirts, bedding and foundry products are also fairly prominent. In 1948, Mahanoy City became the first municipality in the country to have Cable TV. According to the US Census website, the population in 1900 was 13,504 people; in 1910, 15,936 people; and in 1920, 15,599 people. The population was 4,162 in 2010, a decrease of about 500 since the 2000 Census.