Hopewell Village National Historic Site, Pennsylvania (now Hopewell Furnace)
Kurjack DC. 1954. Hopewell Village National Historic Site, Pennsylvania (now Hopewell Furnace). Historical Handbook Series. No. 8. Washington, D.C.
HOPEWELL VILLAGE, in colonial times, was built around a cold-blast, charcoal-burning iron furnace and associated structures. The community life was in some respects similar to that of the small feudal manors of medieval Europe and was largely self-sustaining. This condition prevailed at Hopewell, little changed, beyond the colonial period, through most of the nineteenth century. The furnace was closed down permanently in 1883, after 113 years of activity. The quiet of abandonment gradually settled over the place, and it became a ghost community of another era. Even though abandoned, except for limited farm purposes, the quaint little group of early industrial structures and the surrounding picturesque houses were preserved because of the isolated nature of the site in the hills back of the Schuylkill River. The restless hand of modern progress scarcely reached this little vale in the lovely forest-covered hills. Hopewell Village tells the story not of a single historical event, but rather of a broad sweep of American growth and productive effort. This story— from the first attempt at iron making in the New World, through the days of '76 when an already thriving industry was able to play its part for independence, down to recent times—is an inseparable part of the American saga. Here is an authentic display of social, cultural, industrial, and economic environment of life in an iron-making community of colonial and early America. Hopewell Village will afford for the present and future generations a picture of the humble but ingenious beginnings in out country of this basic industrial enterprise and will provide a striking contrast for measuring the growth and magnitude of the modem American iron and steel industry.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Kurjack, Dennis
- Date of Issue
- 1954
- Units
- HIST , HOFU
- Keywords
- About Your Visit, Administration, Associated Areas, Clement Brooke, Colonial Iron Industry in Pennsylvania, Cultural Resources, ehistory, Establishment of the Early American Iron Industry, Guide to the Area, History, Hopewell in the Early Nineteenth Century, Hopewell's Decline, How to Reach the Site, Management, Mark Bird's Services in the Revolutionary War, The Brookes and the Buckleys, The Iron Plantations, The Postwar Years, The Technique of Colonial Iron Manufacture, William and Mark Bird and the Founding of Hopewell Furnace