Founded in 1854 as Fillmore, the village was renamed for noted mining engineer Eckley Coxe. It was built to house anthracite coal miners and their families, many of them European immigrants. Coal patch towns like Eckley were common in northeast Pa. in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Colliery operations declined by the 1950s, but the site was restored for the 1970 film The Molly Maguires. It was later converted to a state historic site operated by PHMC.