Hopewell Village
NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE
Pennsylvania chopper for Rutter in 1733. he saved his money Hopewell Furnace on that stream in 1770-71, ware, such as pots and kettles, directly from tised for sheriff's sale in April 1788, and at about and finally went into business for himself. It along the old Birdsboro-Warwick Road. the furnace, in addition to manufacturing pig the same time Bird moved to North Carolina Hopewell Village was in 1740 that he started the construction of The new furnace became the nucleus of Hope iron. The first stove castings were flat plates of where he died in comparative poverty. In the his first forge near the mouth of Hay Creek. well Village, a small manorial settlement of iron with tulips, hearts, Biblical figures, and 1790's, during the brief ownership of James Old National Historic Site The spot was destined to become the center of furnacemen, moulders, colliers, teamsters, wheel mottoes as decorations. Old stoves, marked who succeeded Bird, Hopewell Furnace recov modern, industrial Birdsboro. Within a few wrights, blacksmiths, and wood choppers. Most "Hopewell Furnace," with other representa ered somewhat Irom the economic effects of the tive castings, tools, and furnishings of that war. Castings, especially stoves which then UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR years, William Bird had acquired holdings of these employees lived in tenant houses built DOUGLAS McKAY, Secretary totaling about 3,000 acres along Hay Creek; in at the ironmaster's expense, while Bird or his period, are on display at the site. were coming into great demand, brought better National Park Service, Conrad L. Wirth, Director the hills west of the Schuylkill had built the manager at Hopewell occupied the so-called prices. However, it was under the energetic Hopewell Furnace Turing the mansion which still stands in Birdsboro; and Big House, overlooking the furnace. A common direction of Thomas Brooke, who with his Hopewell Village represents the early manorial iron-making communities, from had put three forges into operation. One of store, tenant gardens, and nearby farms oper Revolutionary War brother, Matthew, and brother-in-law, Daniel which developed the mighty iron and steel industry of modern America. these he called Hopewell Forge, the first known ated by the Bird family supplied all ordinary With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Buckley, acquired the furnace lands in 1800, use of the name in this immediate vicinity. By economic wants. Wagons and other equipment peacetime manufacturing at Hopewell gave way that Hopewell Furnace entered on its era of 1756 his position as an important figure in the were constructed or repaired in the Hopewell to the production of war materials. Mark Bird greatest prosperity. OPEWELL VILLAGE, in colonial times, for the present and future generations a picture social, political, and economic life of eastern shops, and the farm animals and mules used for himself rendered active military service in the H was built around a cold-blast charcoal- of the humble but ingenious beginnings in our The East Years of Hopewell Furnace Pennsylvania was secure. hauling purposes were stabled in the commu patriot cause. In August 1776, he fitted out 300 burning iron furnace and associated structures. country of this basic industrial enterprise and nity barns. men of the Second Battalion, Berks County By 1821, twenty-three types of stoves, besides The community life was in some respects sim will provide a striking contrast for measuring The Establishment of Hopewell The workmen were largely of Anglo-Saxon militia, at his own expense. Later he went to a variety of other castings and pig iron, were ilar to the manors of medieval Europe and was the growth and magnitude of the modern Furnace stock. Some were indentured servants, but most Washington's aid after the Battle of Brandy- manufactured at Hopewell. And in the record largely self-sustaining. This condition prevailed American iron and steel industry. wine, September 11, 1777. The papers of the blast of 1836 (lasting 14 months and 24 days), at Hopewell beyond the colonial period, little When William Bird died in 1761, his son represented free labor. Life was hard and the Continental Congress show that he also sup with well over 150 workmen employed, 720 tons changed, down through the nineteenth century The Early Iron Industry of Mark inherited the family business, which he men literally lived at their jobs. Education, at plied large quantities of food and Hopewell until the furnace was closed permanently in Pennsylvania soon expanded. The following year he went first, was limited to the children of the iron of castings and 459 tons of pig iron were pro iron to the Confederation, and that in so doing duced. Hopewell Furnace remained in operation 1883, after 113 years of activity. The quiet of The iron industry in America began largely into partnership with George Ross, a promi master, who employed a tutor or old school he ran heavily into debt. Bird's efforts to collect until 1883, when it was "blow'd out" for the abandonment gradually settled over the place, on "plantations," often comprising several nent Lancaster lawyer, and together they built master. Later, a school was built for the village even part payment were apparently fruitless. A last time. It was never converted to the hot- and it became a ghost community of another thousand acres of woodland and farm land. Mary Ann Furnace, the first iron furnace west children. Itinerant preachers provided what flood on Hay Creek added to the ruin of his blast process, which came into general use after era. Fortunately, the quaint little group of early One of its early centers was the Schuylkill Val of the Susquehanna River. Probably as a conse there was of religious instruction. property, and currency depreciation struck the 1850 and inaugurated a new era in the iron in industrial structures and the surrounding pic ley of Pennsylvania, where extensive resources quence of discovering a convenient deposit of Nearly all of the early Pennsylvania furnaces, final blow. Hopewell Furnace was finally adver dustry. Castings continued to be made at the turesque houses were preserved, even though of limestone, iron ore, water power, and timber iron ore not far from French Creek, Bird erected Hopewell included, cast stoves and hollow abandoned except for limited farm purposes, for the making of charcoal (all necessary in the because of the isolated nature of the site in the cold-blast process of iron manufacture) were "Big House," Furnace Office, and Furnace. hills back of the Schuylkill River. The restless found within easy reach of navigable rivers and Finch Photo. hand of modern progress scarcely reached this streams. In this region, near Pottstown, Penn little vale in the lovely forest-covered hills. sylvania's first bloomery forge was built in Hopewell Village tells the story not of a 1716; and 3 or 4 years later the first blast fur single historical event, but rather of a signifi nace, Colebrookdale, began operations. Two cant phase of American growth and productive men, Thomas Rutter and Thomas Potts, led effort. From the first attempt at iron-making in the way in these enterprises, and others soon the New World (near Jamestown, in 1619), followed. By 1771 there were more than 50 iron through the days of '76 when an already thriv forges and furnaces operating in Pennsylvania. ing industry was able to play its part for inde Among the farseeing men whose imagina pendence, down to recent times, this story has tions were fired with the idea of building an been an inseparable part of the American saga. American iron empire was William Bird, who "Big House," Ironmaster's Residence. Here is a life-size and authentic display of the came to Pennsylvania in the early eighteenth social, cultural, industrial, and economic en century. His exact antecedents are unknown, Hallman Photo. vironment of life in an iron-making community although it is believed that he was born in of early America. Hopewell Village will afford Raritan, N. J., in 1703. Working as a wood
Blacksmith Shop. Finch Photo. Tenant House. Hallman Photo. 1772 Hopewell Stove Plate. village until about 1845. After this, under the How To Reach the Site management of Dr. C. M. Clingan, nearly all Hopewell Village National Historic Site is Hopewell pig iron went into various forges in situated 5 miles southeast of Birdsboro, Pa., and Pennsylvania, bringing prices ranging from $28 is reached from the north by U. S. No. 422, to $45 a ton, except in 1864, when demand for State Route 82, and a hard-surfaced county road. it, brought about by the Civil War, skyrocketed From the south it is reached over State Route the price to $99 a ton. From 1870 to 1883, the 23 and a hard-surfaced county road. There is a entire Furnace output went to a Philadelphia station of the Reading Railroad at Birdsboro. carwheel manufacturer. It is probable, therefore, that Hopewell iron has rolled over several of Service to the Public the Nation's transcontinental railroads. Hopewell Village is open to visitors daily After 1883, when the making of cold-blast from 8 a. m. to 4:45 p. m. (from 9 a. m. to 6 p. m. charcoal iron ceased to be profitable and the on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, from May works closed down, the adjoining woodland through October). Exhibits of original iron cast continued to yield good returns in marketable ings produced at Hopewell Furnace, objects and charcoal for several years. The active days at tools associated with the operation of an eight Hopewell were over, however, leaving behind eenth and nineteenth century cold-blast char them but a memory of its colorful and useful coal furnace establishment, as well as original past. records, are on display in a temporary set-up. Services of a historian are available. Organiza Hopewell Village Today tions and groups are given special service if Hopewell Long years of inactivity and neglect have left arrangements are made in advance with the their mark on Hopewell Village, but enough of superintendent. it survived to justify the establishment, in August 1938, of Hopewell Village National Administration Village Historic Site as a unit in the National Park Sys Hopewell Village National Historic Site is a tem. The area contains 848 acres and many of part of the National Park System and is admin the old structures are still preserved, including istered by the National Park Service of the the furnace stack, a large charcoal house, the United States Department of the Interior for blacksmith shop, some of the old tenant houses, the benefit and inspiration of the American NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE and the Big House and several of its outbuild people. Communications should be addressed U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE REPRINT 1953 O-F—26381 1 ings. The water raceways to and from the to the Superintendent, Hopewell Village furnace are also in evidence. National Historic Site, Birdsboro, Pa. Pennsylvania