Saugus Iron Works NHS Landscape: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site

Weber, Ella

The Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site (NHS) is located in Essex County in the Town of Saugus, Massachusetts, approximately ten miles north of Boston. The 12.58-acre park preserves the archaeological remains of the first integrated iron works in America, operational from 1646 until ca.1670; the Iron Works House constructed by a gentleman farmer in ca.1689 and restored by antiquarian Wallace Nutting in 1915; a museum building that originally served as Nutting’s workshop; and the reconstructed iron works plant that was completed in the early 1950s. The park is situated on the east and west banks of a fall in the Saugus River at the upper end of the Saugus River estuary. The iron works industrial complex (originally developed in 1646) features five reconstructed stone and wood industrial buildings – a blast furnace, forge, rolling and slitting mill, wharf, and warehouse – and a pile of slag, itself a legacy of early industrial waste products, extending into the river. Paths and footbridges pass alongside the sluiceways and tailraces that power functioning waterwheels, which along with a blacksmith forge, complement the interpretation of the reconstructed industrial core. On a bluff above the river is the Iron Works House and museum, set within lawns dotted with shade trees and shrubs. The house reflects Nutting’s conjectural reconstruction of the First Period style, while the museum includes a collection of 60,000 items includes pre-contact and contact items, as well as major collections related to the Colonial era of the iron works and the 20th-century Colonial Revival and preservation movements. The park is also a critical archeological resource, having not only further potential to provide evidence of the beginnings of the American iron industry, but also an understanding of colonial society and Native American-related settlements. Annual visitation is about 20,000-25,000 per year within the months of May-October when the waterwheels can be operated. The visitor center is located in the Iron Works House, and visitors can take a guided tour of the grounds, though self-guided exploration is also possible (without viewing machinery in operation). Overall, visitation has been increasing with the park’s role as the southern gateway to the Essex National Heritage Area.

Saugus Iron Works NHS Landscape: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site

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