NRHP Reference # 76001627 Area 3.182 km² Added to NRHP 13 September 1976 | Designated PHMC May 12, 1948 Year built 1738 Nearest city Knauertown | |
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Warwick Furnace Farms is a historic district in northern Chester County, Pennsylvania that includes the ruins of an early iron furnace, the ironmaster's house and workers' houses, as well as a historic farm house and barns now used in the operation of a working farm. The furnace was a center of colonial iron making and is associated with the introduction of the Franklin Stove, and the retreat of George Washington's army following its defeat at the Battle of Brandywine. The furnace operated through the 1860s and supplied the iron used in the iron-clad ship the USS Monitor during the Civil War. The 786 acre historic district was listed by the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
A historical marker on the site reads:
Warwick Furnace built here 1737 by Mrs. Samuel Nutt was the third blast furnace in Chester Co. The first Franklin stove was cast here and also cannon and cannon balls for the Revolutionary Army. Its last iron was made in 1867.
Marked 1910 Chester Co. Historical Society
Several other sites listed by the National Register of Historic Places are within a couple of miles of the site, including Hockley Mill Farm, to the east on Warwick Furnace Road, Warrenpoint to the north, Warwick Mills to the west, and Brower's Bridge upstream (west) on the South Branch of French Creek.
In 2015, the French & Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust permanently protected the 553-acre Warwick Furnace Farm through conservation easements and the acquisition of 108 acres, which will be the future home of a public preserve.