Centre Furnace Forges a Community

Centre Furnace Forges a Community. . , Iron manufacturing on this site launched Centre County industry, settlement, and the establishment of a major university-Pennsylvania State University., In 1791, ironmasters Samuel Miles and John Patton bought over 16,000 acres to found Centre Furnace. Local quarries and forests provided the iron ore, limestone and charcoal used to make the metal bound for Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Today, these lands would cover much of State College and University Park, as well as parts of Benner, College, Ferguson, Halfmoon, Harris and Patton townships., Centre Furnace Village included the still-standing ironmaster's Mansion and furnace stack. Houses for the iron and farm workers, as well as a church, post office, company store, school, blacksmith shop, gristmill and sawmill have since crumbled into history., This busy community of a few hundred people began at Thompson Spring located across East College Avenue, near the Duck Pond. It ran along Thompson Run to Millbrook Marsh, about a mile to the east., Miles and Patton's successors, ironmasters James Irvin and Moses Thompson, gifted 200 acres of Centre Furnace to the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society following a dinner held at the Mansion in 1855. Upon that donated land the Agricultural Society built the Farmers High School, now known as the Pennsylvania State University., In 1842 ironmaster Moses Thompson moved into the Centre Furnace Mansion with his family. Although Centre Furnace ceased production in 1858, a member of the Thompson family lived in the Mansion until 1912., The historical significance of Centre Furnace Village reemerged in the early 1980s, after the Centre County Historical Society inherited the stately home. Ongoing projects by the Society strive to interpret the last half of the 19th century, when furnace operations declined but the Mansion remained the family home of the influential Moses and Mary Irvin Thompson, the county's largest landowners., [Top left photo caption reads] Students working next to Old Main circa 1860., The shady canopy of the Mansion's backyard sycamore is a favorite with visitors. This massive tree with the mottled bark is believed to have sprouted in the mid-18th century. The 19th century trend toward maintaining a natural landscape likely saved this living treasure. The native sycamore is a long-lived species. This tree may survive another 250 to 350 years.