Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site

Where the Iron That Armed the Revolution Was Made

848 Wooded Acres, 14 Restored Structures, and the Complete Story of an 18th-Century Iron Plantation in the Chester County Hills

Before Pittsburgh, before Carnegie, before the age of steel — there was charcoal iron. And before almost anyone else in colonial Pennsylvania was making it at scale, there was Hopewell Furnace, pouring cannon shot and stove plates from a cold-blast charcoal furnace on the banks of French Creek in what is now southeastern Berks County. Founded in 1771 by ironmaster Mark Bird and operating continuously through 1883, Hopewell is among the best-preserved examples of a colonial iron plantation in the United States, and one of the earliest units ever admitted to the National Park System.

The park is open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday all year long. During the summer season, generally Memorial Day through Labor Day, the park is open seven days per week.

The site is closed on Monday and Tuesday during non-summer months. The park is open on most federal holidays but closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Day, and Presidents’ Day. Always verify the current schedule at https://www.nps.gov/hofu/ before visiting.

Admission is charged; America the Beautiful passes (Annual, Senior, Access, Military) are accepted and provide free entry. Free parking is available on-site. Picnics are encouraged.

Mark Bird and the Founding of Hopewell

The Bird family were Pennsylvania ironmasters by vocation and patriots by conviction. Mark Bird’s father, William Bird, had established ironworks along French Creek and the Schuylkill River, building one of the most significant iron-producing operations in colonial Pennsylvania. Mark took over the family business in 1761 after his father’s death, expanded the operation from 3,000 to 8,000 acres, and in 1771 completed the Hopewell Furnace — a cold-blast charcoal furnace positioned to take advantage of French Creek’s waterpower, the surrounding forests’ charcoal supply, and nearby iron ore deposits.

When the Revolution came, Hopewell Furnace was ready. As Deputy Quartermaster General of Pennsylvania and a colonel in the Berks County militia, Mark Bird committed his furnace’s production capacity to the Continental cause, supplying cannon and shot to the Continental Army and Continental Navy. He served in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, signed documents of correspondence with the revolutionary government, and threw the weight of his considerable industrial operation behind American independence.

The cost was ruinous. Congressional payments were insufficient to cover Bird’s expanded wartime operation, the post-war economic collapse hit hard, and by 1784, Bird was forced to close his Berks County ironworks. He later noted, with some bitterness: “I was Ruined, by the Warr, it was not Drunkenness, Idleness or want of Industry.” The furnace passed through several owners — including a man named James Wilson who bought the operation in 1794 and promptly fled to North Carolina to avoid his creditors — before the Buckley and Brooke families purchased it in 1800 and operated it as a family business for the next 83 years.

Trivia: The town of Birdsboro, Pennsylvania — about 8 miles northeast of Hopewell — was named for the Bird family and their ironworking legacy. Mark Bird’s descendants have visited the site in recent decades, connecting the furnace’s 18th-century founding story to living family history.

The Iron Plantation System

“Iron plantation” is the accurate historical term for what Hopewell represented — and it carries a meaning that differs significantly from the Southern plantation model most visitors will have in mind. A Pennsylvania iron plantation was a self-contained industrial community built around a blast furnace. It required:

Charcoal — enormous quantities of it, produced by teams of colliers who “coaled” surrounding forests by carefully controlled burns. Hopewell’s furnace consumed about 1,000 acres of woodlands per year, which is why the operation required thousands of acres of forest land to function sustainably. The 848 acres of mostly wooded parkland today represent a fraction of what the working furnace required.

Iron ore — mined from deposits near the furnace and transported by wagon or sled.

Water power — French Creek provided the motive force for the bellows that blasted air into the furnace to maintain combustion temperatures.

A resident workforce — ironmasters, founders, molders, fillers, guttermen, miners, colliers, teamsters, clerks, and laborers, many of whom lived in company housing on the furnace property and received wages and goods from the company store.

Hopewell at its peak (1820–1840) produced primarily cast iron stove plates — the decorative, functional plates used in the Pennsylvania five-plate and ten-plate stoves that heated homes across the mid-Atlantic region. The furnace also produced hollowware (pots, kettles) and, during the Civil War, returned briefly to military production before the shift to anthracite-fueled steel mills rendered charcoal furnaces permanently obsolete. Hopewell fired its last cast in 1883.

The 14 Restored Structures

The Hopewell complex preserves 14 restored historic structures demonstrating every dimension of the iron plantation’s operation and community life:

The Furnace Stack, Water Wheel, Blast Machinery, Cast House, and Charcoal House — the industrial heart of the operation, where iron ore, charcoal, and limestone were combined under intense blast air to produce molten iron that was cast into molds in the sand floor of the cast house.

The Ironmaster’s House (the “Big House”) — the substantial residence of Hopewell’s ironmaster, reflecting the social hierarchy of the plantation community in its scale and appointments.

The Ironmaster’s Office/Company Store — where workers purchased goods, received wages (often in store credit), and conducted the commercial business of the plantation.

The Blacksmith’s Shop — supporting the ironworks’ daily operational needs.

The Barn, Spring House, and Smoke House — agricultural and domestic support structures.

Worker’s Houses — preserved examples of the modest housing provided to Hopewell’s resident workforce.

Living History Demonstrations

Hopewell Furnace offers active living history programming throughout its operating season:

• Sand-mold casting demonstrations in the Cast House, showing how stove plates were produced using traditional sand molding and aluminum casting techniques
• Blacksmithing demonstrations
• Charcoal-making demonstrations
• Apple harvest and cider pressing — Hopewell’s apple orchards produce a seasonal harvest, and cider pressing demonstrations are offered in fall
• Sheep Shearing Day (annual, Mother’s Day weekend) — visitors can observe 19th-century shearing techniques and meet newborn lambs

Hopewell in Context

Hopewell Furnace sits within the Hopewell Big Woods, bordered on three sides by French Creek State Park — making it a natural pairing for hikers, campers, and nature photographers spending time in the park. The site is approximately 12 miles north of Elverson on Route 345, and about 20 miles northwest of the Brandywine Valley museum corridor. The Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville is about 12 miles southeast.