Minutes from Annville Inn Bed & Breakfast is Cornwall, site of the nation's only surviving completely intact charcoal fueled iron making furnace. The historical buildings are a wonder of architecture, constructed of locally quarried brownstone. We are posting a few photographs to pique your interest. 
The site is also the location of one of the nation's largest iron ore mining facilities, in operation until 1972 when the mines flooded and Bethlehem Steel shut down operations. Nearby is a housing area that makes one feel they have been transported to England. The original charcoal mill, mine, and other operations originated
with a settler from England, and later transferred to the Coleman family, which built up vast fortunes. The Coleman empire included enormous mansions throughout our area, and into Lancaster, many churches constructed of brownstone, and railroads. Our favorite Rails to Trails project is along a railroad bed once owned by the Coleman empire.
The Cornwall Iron Furnace, part of a National Historic Landmark District, is America’s most complete charcoal fueled iron making complex. According to Robert Vogel of the
Smithsonian Institution, “With the exception of a mere handful of similar preservations in Sweden and Germany — and possibly a few in eastern Europe — I doubt that elsewhere in the world is there a 19th century iron furnace complex with the degree of historical integrity to be found at Cornwall…”Cornwall Furnace is indeed a unique survivor of the early American iron industry. Originally built by Peter Grubb in 1742, the furnace underwent extensive renovations in 1856-57 under its subsequent owners, the Coleman family, and closed in 1883. It is this mid-19th century iron making complex which survives today.
At Cornwall, furnace, blast equipment, and related buildings still stand as they did over a century ago. Here visitors can explore the rambling Gothic Revival buildings where cannons, stoves, and pig iron were cast, and where men labored day and night to satisfy the furnace’s appetite for charcoal, limestone, and iron ore.
Cornwall Iron Furnace is part of a National Historic Landmark District by the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. It has also been designated a National Historical Landmark by the American Society of Metals, and a
National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, citing Cornwall Furnace as “the only one of America’s hundreds of 19th century charcoal fueled blast furnaces to survive fully intact.”Stay at Annville Inn Bed & Breakfast and explore the area around Cornwall. Here are some of our favorite sites regarding the Furnace:
- Cornwall Iron Furnace complex
- Mansion at Cornwall Manor, adjacent to the Furnace
- The miner's village, a step out of the pages of English history
- The Blue Bird Inn, one of the oldest restaurants continuously operating in the U.S.A. This restaurant is in the country, all by itself, and has had a remarkable restoration and expansion this past winter. Wonderful outdoor decks. Being in the country, when you eat on the deck, you aren't looking at industrial sites across the street; you are
instead enjoying wide open countryside. - Rails to Trails--an excellent, well maintained trail that grows yearly. It is now extensive, running from Elizabethtown, Pa. to Lebanon, Pa. There is a trail head marked by a giant "root beer barrel" the size of a one-room house, which serves as an info center. You pass right by it on the way to the Furnace. ALL SEASON: Great for cross country skiing.
- Alden Place shops, located in the carriage house of one of America's grand mansions, built by famed "guilded age" architect Stanford White. The mansion is not open to the public, but the carriage house is. As of this writing, the Buzz Coffee shop is closed, but we hear a new one is moving in to take its place. Beautiful outdoor deck to enjoy an espresso before heading to the Rails to Trails project.
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