Like all communities of its time, Hopewell Furnace depended upon animals to provide it with power and foodstuffs needed to maintain their business and themselves. The barn served as home for many of the animals that sustained the furnace community as well as a store house for the materials that sustained the animals. The furnace company’s horses and miles were housed in stalls on the barn’s lower floor. A few cows were also kept and milked on this level, too. Smaller animals such as sheep, pigs and fowl were housed in separate pens and shelters nearby.
