Ironmaster's Mansion & Grounds

The "Big House" served as the home for the Ironmaster and his family. The Ironmaster was usually part owner of the ironworks and manager of the entire operation. It was the Ironmaster's responsibility to make sure that the furnace made a profit, taking in more money from selling its iron products than it cost to make them. If the company did not make a profit, the furnace would be shut down and many people would be out of work. The Ironmaster, naturally, was the highest paid in the company.

The Big House has nineteen rooms and four floors. The Ironmaster needed a large home; his family, several servants and sometimes single workers lived here. Since there were no hotels near Hopewell, travelers and merchants often spent the night. The Ironmaster's wife received money from the company to pay for the expense of lodging and feeding visiting buyers of the furnace's products. Today, the house looks much like it did when Hopewell Furnace was most profitable.

A small bridge crosses the east headrace. Like the west headrace, this ditch brought water to the waterwheel by diverting nearby streams. The east headrace is over a mile long! Beyond the headrace is the Ironmaster's garden.

Stone walls, hedges, and picket fences once lined the Ironmaster's gardens. On three terraces, and in the old greenhouse whose ruined wall can be seen to the right, were grown vegetables for food, spices and herbs for flavor and flowers for beauty. Vegetables and fruit helped vary the diet, and apples from the large orchard above were used in many ways. Beehives in the garden provided honey for cooking and medicinal use. Ice was stored in an underground pit beneath the summer house; an open building where the Ironmaster and his family enjoyed cool summer breezes.

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The Ironmaster's Mansion is where Hopewell's Ironmaster, who was in charge of all operations, lived. He and his family used the building as their home, as well as a place to entertain business travelers.

 

Inside the Ironmaster's Mansion.

 

The herb gardens on the grounds of the Ironmaster's Mansion.