In the 1870s, Horseshoe Curve looked north over a rubble-strewn trackside area with a coal hopper and a track along the hillside, evidence of coal mining activity along Kittanning Run. A shanty in the foreground was one of several to occupy that spot. In 1879, the embankment on both sides of the Curve were sodded and the level area was landscaped, and a new watchman's shanty patterned after a Swiss cottage was built. Mining activity appears to have expanded along Kittanning Run, and the foreground showed the beginning of the spur that ran to another mining operation at the little town of Glen White. A new stone station was constructed at Kitanning Point in 1892. More fill was added to the embankment and a third track was added to the main line in 1898. The present stone watchman's shanty and tool house, now vacant, was built sometime after 1900.