Beauty, Kentucky

Beauty is a Martin county community about eight miles east of Inez on Buck Creek. It was established about 1918 by Martin Himler and the Himler Coal Company as Himlerville. The town and company were owned by the miners and the town had running water and indoor plumbing, electricity, natural gas, a school, an amusement hall, a clinic, and other amenities not usually found in coal camps. Many of the residents were originally from Hungary and a weekly paper for Hungarian miners, Magyar Bányászlap, was published in the town for several years. The company and town were successful until economic problems in 1926 and a severe flood in 1928, after which most residents left. The town was renamed Beauty and another company took over mining. The source of that name is obscure.

The Himlerville post office opened in 1921 and was renamed Beauty in 1929.

The Himler Coal Company built more than 100 houses for workers and their families. (There may have been 2,000 miners employed.) Himler built a large house for himself on a hill above the town in 1922. It was abandoned for many years and was dismantled in 2022 because of the danger of collapse. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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© 2024 David C. Elbon