Coventryville Historic District | |
 Coventry Hall, built c. 1730. | |
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| Nearest city | Pottstown, Pennsylvania |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°10′12″N75°41′32″W / 40.17000°N 75.69222°W |
| Built | 1731 |
| Architectural style | Georgian, Federal |
| NRHP reference No. | 78002378 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | January 31, 1978 |
The Coventryville Historic District is a historic district and historic village in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States that enjoyed a significant role in the early American metal industry.
Coventryville's origins lie in the iron forge founded in 1717 by Englishman Samuel Nutt, an early American industrialist and member of Pennsylvania's Assembly in 1723–26. Named for his native home of Coventry, England, Coventry was the first forge in Chester County and was located at the confluence of the north and south branches of French Creek a short distance from rich iron deposits.
In 1723, Nutt formed a partnership with Mordecai Lincoln (great-great grandfather of Abraham Lincoln), and iron pioneer William Branson and expanded the operation to include two furnaces, Warwick and Reading. It was at Reading Furnace under Branson's operation that same year that experiments led to the production of early steel.
After Nutt's death in 1737, Coventry passed to his nephew Samuel Nutt Jr. whose wife, Rebecca Savage inherited the site upon his death. Upon her marriage to Robert Grace, Coventry and Warwick were joined to become Rebecca Nutt and Company. It was Robert Grace's close friendship with Benjamin Franklin that led to the popular legend of the Franklin Stove prototyped at Grace's home, Coventry Hall.
In 1757, Coventry and Warwick passed to Thomas Potts, Rebecca's son-in-law and father of John, founder of nearby Pottstown. By the time of the Revolution Coventry had passed his brother Samuel and Thomas Rutter. It was under the Thomas Potts/Rutter ownership that Coventry and Warwick supplied munitions for the Continental Army.
In the early 19th century, Coventry forge was enlarged and re-equipped and much of the present village was constructed. During this time, however, anthracite coal began to replace charcoal as fuel and new techniques for manufacturing iron and steel were developed. Smaller operations like those at Coventry and nearby Hopewell lay far from coal deposits and outside rail transportation centers and declined with only brief peaks in production during the American Civil War. Coventry Forge ceased operations entirely in 1871.
The village today consists of structures dating from the early 18th century until the mid 19th including workers housing, the Inn, the ironmaster's house (Coventry Hall) and the mid 19th century Methodist church. While the realignment of Route 23 to the south of the village in 1959–1960 obliterated a portion of the forge site, the Coventryville Historic District remains an intact concentration of original eighteenth and nineteenth century structures. The community was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. [2]
East Nantmeal Township is a township in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,832 at the 2020 census. Along with West Nantmeal Township, it was originally part of a single Nantmeal Township, which was divided in 1739.
North Coventry Township is a township in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 7,866 at the 2010 census.
Phoenixville is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located 28 miles (45 km) northwest of Philadelphia at the junction of French Creek and the Schuylkill River. It is in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. According to a 2022 estimate, the population was 19,354.
Warwick Township is a township in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,507 at the 2010 census.
Pottstown is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. Pottstown was laid out in 1752–53 and named Pottsgrove in honor of its founder, John Potts. The old name was abandoned at the time of the incorporation as a borough in 1815. In 1888, the limits of the borough were considerably extended. Pottstown is the center of a productive farming and dairying region.
The Village of Valley Forge is an unincorporated settlement. It is located on the west side of Valley Forge National Historical Park at the confluence of Valley Creek and the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania. The remaining village is in Schuylkill Township of Chester County. It once spanned Valley Creek into Montgomery County.
George Taylor was an American ironmaster and politician who was a Founding Father of the United States and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Pennsylvania. His former home, the George Taylor House in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, was named a National Historic Landmark in 1971.
Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site in southeastern Berks County, near Elverson, Pennsylvania, is an example of an American 19th century rural iron plantation, whose operations were based around a charcoal-fired cold-blast iron blast furnace. The significant restored structures include the furnace group (blast furnace, water wheel, blast machinery, cast house and charcoal house), as well as the ironmaster's house, a company store, the blacksmith's shop, a barn and several worker's houses.
Saint Peters is an historic, nineteenth-century, industrial, company village that is located in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. Built near the Falls of French Creek in Warwick Township, it is situated in the Hopewell Big Woods.
John Potts was the founder of Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He was also an ironmaster, merchant, and English Quaker.
Warrenpoint is an historic home located in Knauertown, Pennsylvania, in Chester County. The house was built in 1756 in the Georgian Colonial style by William Branson. Branson was recorded as Samuel Nutts partner who both owned Reading Furnace and Warwick Furnace Farms. William Branson and his Reading property are also associated with the Franklin Stove. William Branson's grandson Samuel Van Leer would play an important role in the American Revolutionary War and would take over the family business.
The Elkridge Furnace Complex is a historic iron works located on about 16 acres (6.5 ha) at Elkridge, Howard County, Maryland.
Isabella Furnace was a cold blast charcoal iron furnace located in West Nantmeal Township, Pennsylvania. The furnace was named for Isabella Potts, wife of one of the partners, a member of the Potts ironmaking family. Isabella was the last iron furnace to be built in the county, in 1835, and was operated by members of the Potts family and their partners until 1855, when they lost control of it in a bankruptcy. It returned to the family in 1881, when it was purchased by Col. Joseph Potts, who modernized it. The furnace, the last to operate in Chester County, went out of blast in 1894, a few months after Col. Potts' death, but remained largely intact until after his son's death in 1943. The remains of the furnace complex have been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1991.
The Warwick Furnace Farms is a historic district that is located in northern Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States that includes the ruins of an early iron furnace that was owned by Anna Rutter Nutt, widow of Samuel Nutt.
The Lahr Farm is an historic home and farm complex that is located in Warwick Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. It was originally owned by a wealthy Quaker ironmaster William Branson and part of his Reading Furnace estate.
The Reading Furnace Historic District is a national historic district that is located in Warwick Township and East Nantmeal Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania.
The Hopewell Big Woods is the largest contiguous forest in southeastern Pennsylvania. Spanning northern Chester County and southern Berks County, the region is approximately 73,000 acres or 114 square miles. Most of the forest is located in the Schuylkill River watershed.
Captain Samuel Van Leer was a military officer from Pennsylvania who served as a captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and as a lieutenant in the Chester County Light Horse Volunteers from 1781 to 1785. After his retirement from the military, he owned the Reading Furnace ironworks.
Thomas Rutter was an American ironmaster and abolitionist who constructed the first blast furnace and the first iron forge in the Province of Pennsylvania. Now known as Pine Forge Mansion and Industrial Site, the location of Rutter's mansion and iron plantation was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. The site has been the campus of Pine Forge Academy since 1945.
John Templin Potts was an American politician from Pennsylvania. He served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing Chester County from 1881 to 1884.
