Mother and children standing outside the entrance of their coke oven home, southwestern Pennsylvania, circa 1934.

Credit: Courtesy of The Coal and Coke Heritage Center, Penn State Fayette, www.coalandcokepsu.org/

Like many Americans, Pennsylvania’s working-class families struggled to survive during the Great Depression. This sometimes meant unimagined and unorthodox adjustments. Here a family demonstrates its resourcefulness in adapting an old oven into living quarters.