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Lackawanna Iron and Coal
Company Furnace
Photograph from the National Register Collection
Interior view of Furnace
Photograph
by Kristen Carsto
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The Lackawanna Iron
and Coal Company Furnaces represent the remnants of an industry
with important statewide significance. As early as 1838, William
Henry was investigating the feasibility of establishing an anthracite
fueled blast furnace along Roaring Brook in the Lackawanna Valley.
Well schooled in the process of making iron, Henry had been
the first American to experiment successfully with applying
a hot blast to the smelting of iron ore at the Oxford Furnace
in Belvidere, New Jersey. In 1840 Henry bought 503 acres in
alliance with his son-in-law Seldon Scranton, George Scranton,
and Sanford Grant. The blast furnace was not completed until
early autumn of 1841. By the summer of 1844 the furnace averaged
five to seven tons of pig iron a day, but the company soon went
into the more profitable business of producing T-rails for the
railroad industry. In 1847, the company listed 800 employees,
including many Welsh, Irish, and German immigrants. In 1853
the firm reorganized again and became the Lackawanna Iron &
Coal Company. The company's assets in 1854 included three furnaces,
the rolling and puddling mills, foundry, two blacksmith shops,
car shop, two carpenter's shops, saw mill, grist mill, office,
company store, 200 dwellings, boarding house, manager's houses,
ore and coal mines, tavern, and a recently completed hotel.
Eventually, due to the cost of shipping iron ore into Scranton
from the Midwest, as well as the changing markets, a decision
was made to move the plant to Buffalo, New York. In 1903 the
Scranton property was sold to the Wyoming Valley Railroad, which
contracted with a Philadelphia company that scrapped all of
the equipment, and tore down all the structures except the stone
blast furnaces. In the late 1960s the furnaces were acquired
by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and were administered under
the State park system. The furnaces were transferred to the
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in 1971. Today
the four connected stone blast furnace stacks are surrounded
by 3.84 acres. The furnaces are set into the south side of a
hillside with a10 foot wide bridge, supported by masonry arches
connecting them to the rock cliff. The two easternmost furnaces,
dated 1848-1849, are built of smooth dressed stone blocks and
stand 40 feet high and are 40 feet wide at the base. No. 3 and
No. 4 furnaces were constructed c.1852 and c.1857 respectively,
and are constructed of rough dressed stone blocks and also stand
40 feet high. Furnace No. 3 is 46 feet wide at the base, and
furnace No. 4 is 48 feet wide at the base. All of the furnace stacks still contain vestiges of their firebrick linings. The
first, third and fourth stacks contain ruins of their 19th-century
hearths.
The Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company Furnaces are located
at 159 Cedar Ave. in Scranton. The Visitor Center building
is open on seasonal schedule. Grounds are open daily, 9:00am
to 5:00pm. For further information about the Iron Furnaces'
hours and programs, call the Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage
Museum at 570-963-3208. Individuals with disabilities who
need special assistance or accommodation to visit this site
should call in advance to discuss their needs. |