Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site Administrative History
Glaser L. 2005. Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site Administrative History. Park Administrative Histories. National Park Service - Northeast Regional Office. Philadelphia, PA
This study recounts the more than thirty-year effort to define and return the park to its historic appearance, culminating in the major infrastructure development of the site during the Park Service’s “Mission 66” era; and it tells the full history of the site’s operation. It is an important case study of the Park Service’s efforts to accurately recreate and depict iron making and life in an iron-making community within the context of evolving historic preservation policies. In particular, during the long period of restoration and reconstruction, the NPS struggled over how most accurately to represent Hopewell Furnace’s historic appearance; and the NPS has continuously debated the issue of “furnace” versus “village”—whether technology or social history took precedence. Through World War II, the historic site still contained all the approximately 6,000 acres that would be permanently separated into a small national historic site surrounded by a large state park (French Creek State Park) after the war. In 1985 the park was renamed Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site to re-emphasize the importance of its iron-making story. It has long been recognized that the park needed an Administrative History to tell its important story. The park’s current General Management Plan effort provided the impetus to fund the project. This study was undertaken through the Park Service’s cooperative agreement with the Organization of American Historians (OAH). The collaboration between the NPS and the OAH has been particularly fruitful in bringing cultural resource management and historical scholarship together. We would like to give special thanks to Susan Ferentinos, the Public History Manager for the OAH, who managed the project on behalf of the organization; and we would like to thank Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site Superintendent Bill Sanders and his staff for their assistance.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Glaser, Leah
- Date of Issue
- 2005-08
- Publisher
- National Park Service - Northeast Regional Office
- Units
- HIST , HOFU
- Keywords
- 1936-1941; WWII Occupation and the Administration of a Multi-use Park, 1942-1947; The Golden Age: The Restoration of Hopewell Village in the Post-war Era, 1947-1965; What Now? Preservation and Celebration in the Post-Restoration Period, 1966-1988, and Roads: Conflicts in Resource Use, Conservation and Preservation: The French Creek Recreational Demonstration Area, Cultural Resources, Development and Establishment of a National Historic Site, ehistory, Facts and Artifacts: Research and Collections at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, From a Village to a Furnace: Interpretive Programs and Visitor Services at Hopewell, History, Mark Bird, Preserving the Rural-Industrial Landscape: National Resource and Cultural Landscape Management, Recreation, Religion, Restoration