Hopewell Furnace National Park Service National Historic Site U.S. Department of the Interior Hopewell Furnace

NPS PHOTOS EXCEPT CHURCH Molten iron was cast into stove plates and other products in the cast house, roofed with tiles to prevent fi e Bethesda Church: remote Hopewell needed all social amenities on site The furnace, heart of Hopewell’s iron making operation NPS / GEORGE FISTROVITCH

s relations between England and its American colonies give up such a lucrative enterprise. When Parliament prohibited After the war, Bird had difficulty collecting debts from the ne demand for pig iron. But changing technologies—the Bessemer Adisintegrated, Mark Bird, already an important figure i the building of more ironworks, Americans simply defied th nation, and he also suffered financial reverses with the genera steel production process, particularly—and development of ur- the booming colonial iron industry, built Hopewell Furnace in law. They both cast iron and refined it into wrought iron, fro economic depression that followed the peace settlement. A 1786 ban steel factories doomed Hopewell’s operations. Hopewell eastern Pennsylvania in 1771. When the American Revolution which they made a broad range of competi- flood further added to Bird s financia Furnace went out of blast for the last time on June 15, 1883. erupted in 1775, England’s ministers regretted not having reined tive products. At the onset of the Revolu- woes, and in 1788 Hopewell Plantation in American ironmasters more successfully. They knew the iron tionary War, American furnaces, forges, and Both rural Pennsylvania was sold at a sheriff’s sale. New owners The property remained a summer home for descendants of the industry would now be turned against the mother country. Ever mills were turning out one-seventh of the converted to peacetime production, but Brooke family, the last owners of the furnace, until 1935 when since colonists carried blast furnace technology to America in the world’s iron goods. community and iron the operation remained unprofitable it was sold to the federal government. Originally made part of mid-1600s, England had been worried by the industry’s rapid ex- Natural disasters, national recession, and the French Creek Recreational Demonstration pansion and American ironmasters’ increasing skill at turning out With the advent of war, the Pennsylvania plantation, Hopewell litigation closed the furnace in 1808. Area, 214 acres of historic furnace lands were cast and wrought iron products. Abundant natural resources in iron industry played a critical role in supply- set aside on August 3, 1938 as a national his- the colonies also favored the creation and expansion of an iron ing the new nation’s army. In fact, George turned out products for By 1816 protective tariffs and better toric site. Today Hopewell has again taken industry. It took an acre of woodlands to make enough charcoal Washington took his army to Valley Forge transportation systems had brightened its place as the center of a wider community to run an iron furnace for just one day. Pennsylvania’s ancient in part to protect the supply lines for the a growing nation. Hopewell’s future. The imaginative lead- as it joins state, county, and local agencies in forests proved ideal for such high demand. products from the iron furnaces along the ership of Clement Brooke, the furnace’s the creation of the Hopewell Big Woods . At Hopewell, Mark Bird resident manager from 1816–1831, project. The goal is to preserve 72,000 Crown officials wanted to limit the colonies’ iron industry to pr - turned from casting stove plates to supplying cannon and shot to brought Hopewell’s best years, supplying iron products up and acres of open land in southeast ducing raw pig iron (rough cast bars). The bars would then be the Continental Army and Navy. Unfortunately, like many Ameri- down the East Coast. But the financial Panic of 1837 undermine Pennsylvania. Mark Bird’s 15,000 shipped to England and processed into profitable goods—tha can patriots, he suffered economic setbacks because of his sup- prosperity, and the iron operation never again matched its early acres form the core of this ambi- could be sold back to America. But the colonies weren’t about to port for Independence. success. The Civil War brought some relief in the 1860s, upping tious project. Clement Brooke NPS

Touring the Park Enjoying Hopewell Furnace

1 The anthracite furnace was Hopewell Furnace is five a failed at­tempt at hot- miles south of Birdsboro blast technol­ogy. on Pa. 345. It is 10 miles from the Pennsylvania 2 At hundreds of charcoal Turnpike’s Morgantown hearths colliers turned interchange, via Pa. 23 5,000 to 6,000 cords of East and Pa. 345 North. wood a year into charcoal. The park visitor center 3 Teamsters dumped char- coal in the cooling shed 9 and historic buildings are before moving it to the open Wednesday through charcoal house. 8 Sunday and Memorial, In- dependence, Labor, and 4 Fillers carted charcoal, lime­ Columbus days. Summer stone, and iron ore via the activities depict village connecting shed to the occupations. (GPS coordi- bridge house. At the base 2 nates: lat. 40.20864 N and of the furnace the water long. 75.767660 W) 1 wheel drove the blast ma- 4 chinery (not visible). 7 6 (610-582-9680) offers 5 Workers’ purchases at the picnicking, camping, and office sto e were charged swimming (see map). against credits for work. 3

6 In the cast house sur- 5 Hopewell Restored rounding the furnace By the 1930s Hopewell stack, moulders cast iron and surrounding lands into stove plates and other had little market value. products. In 1935 Louis Clingan Brooke sold the decaying 7 The blacksmith shop pro- 10 property to the U.S. Gov- vided hardware and horse- 12 ernment to be included shoes and was an informal in the French Creek Rec- gathering place. reational Demonstration Area (RDA). 8 A schoolhouse (foundation visible) education was dem­ RDAs were a Depression- o­cratic but rudimentary. 11 era program to provide poor urbanites with out- 9 Some workers with families door recreation. But a rented company tenant Civilian Conservation houses. Single men board- ed with them or in a board- Corps (CCC) architect, ing house across the road. Gustavus Mang, recog- nized the iron planta- 10 The barn sheltered up to tion’s historic value. CCC 36 draft animals and held Camp 2213 moved into More information For Your Safety Hopewell Furnace is a year’s worth of feed. the area and stabilized Hopewell Furnace Beware of bees. Please one of over 390 parks five structures. Thank National Historic Site stay off unstable fur- in the National Park 11 In the springhouse and to the CCC, Hopewell 2 Mark Bird Lane nace ruins, fences, and System. To learn more smokehouse, maids stored Furnace National Historic Elverson, PA 19520 the other historic struc- about parks and the and cured foods. Site was established on 610-582-8773 tures. Sharp slag can National Park Service August 3, 1938. Directed TTY 610-582-2093 cut severely. Do not en- programs in America’s 12 The ironmaster’s mansion, by the National Park Serv­ www.nps.gov/hofu ter fenced areas or feed communities, visit built in three stages, start- ice, research and restora- hofu_superintendent or handle livestock. Do www.nps.gov. ing ca. 1770–1800, was re- tion continues today. @nps.gov. not smoke in the his- ✩ modeled as late as 1870. Ill ustration NPS / L . Kenneth Tow nsend GPO:20xx—xxx-xxx/xxxxx Reprint 20xx toric area. Printed on recycled paper.

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