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Survey of
Historic Sites and Buildings

	HOPEWELL FURNACE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE (formerly Hopewell Village NHS) Pennsylvania	Hopewell Furnace NHS
Location: Berks County, 5 miles south of Birdsboro; address, R.D. No. 1, Elverson, Pa. 19520. Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site Historical Handbook

Hopewell Village was founded in 1770 by ironmaster Mark Bird and is typical of the ironmaking villages that dotted the Colonies during the 18th century. The vicinity afforded an abundance of iron ore, hardwood for charcoal, and labor. The undertaking prospered, and Hopewell became the thriving center of a larger community. The ironmakers supplied Washington's army with cannon and shot during the Revolution, and Bird himself served in the field as a colonel of militia. The village and its industry continued to expand after the war and, passing through a succession of owners, turned out iron products until new industrial techniques after the Civil War made it obsolete.

The ironmaster's house, Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, Pa. (National Park Service)

Although the buildings deteriorated thereafter, they remained basically sound. In 1935 the Federal Government acquired the site, now 848 acres, and since 1950 has been carrying out a program of restoring the historic structures to their 19th-century appearance. Today the restored ironmaster's house, charcoal house, furnace, blacksmith shop, office-store, and barn of Hopewell Village provide an outstanding illustration of an early American industrial community.

Abandoned employees' houses, Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, Pa. (National Park Service)