Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site
Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site | |
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Map of the US state of Pennsylvania showing the location of French Creek State Park
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Location | Union Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, USA |
Nearest city | Reading, Pennsylvania |
Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
Area | 848 acres (343 ha) |
Established | August 3, 1938 |
Visitors | 49,980 (in 2005) |
Governing body | National Park Service |
Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site in southeastern Berks County, near Elverson, Pennsylvania, is an example of an American 19th century rural "iron plantation". The buildings include a blast furnace, the ironmaster's house and auxiliary structures including a blacksmith's shop, a company store and several worker's houses.
Hopewell Furnace was founded in 1771 by ironmaster Mark Bird, Son of William Bird, for whom Birdsboro was named. The site's most prosperous time was during the 1820–1840 period with a brief boom in production during the American Civil War. In the mid 19th century changes in iron making, including a shift from charcoal to anthracite rendered smaller furnaces like Hopewell obsolete. The site discontinued operations in 1883.
Today, Hopewell Furnace consists of 14 restored structures in the core historic area, 52 features on the List of Classified Structures, and a total of 848 mostly wooded acres. Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site is located in the Hopewell Big Woods and surrounded by French Creek State Park on three sides and the State Game Lands to the south which preserves the lands the furnace utilized for its natural resources.
Contents
Gallery
See also
References
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External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hopewell Furnace. |
- Official website
- History of Hopewell Furnace
- African-Americans at Hopewell Furnace
- Hopewell Village National Historic Site
- Hopewell Furnace: A Pennsylvania Iron-making Plantation, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
- Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No. PA-5157-A, "Hopewell Village, Furnace & Bridge House", 2 photos, 1 photo caption page
- Use mdy dates from April 2012
- Articles using small message boxes
- Commons category link is locally defined
- Official website not in Wikidata
- National Historic Sites in Pennsylvania
- Historic American Buildings Survey in Pennsylvania
- American Revolutionary War museums in Pennsylvania
- Museums in Berks County, Pennsylvania
- Industry museums in Pennsylvania
- Open-air museums in Pennsylvania
- Parks in Berks County, Pennsylvania
- Foundries in the United States
- Schuylkill River National and State Heritage Area
- Industrial buildings and structures in Pennsylvania