The Ironmaster's Mansion is a hostel and event venue located near Gardners, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located within Pine Grove Furnace State Park and is also near the midpoint of the Appalachian Trail.
The hostel is operated by the Appalachian Trail Museum, and is located a few hundred yards away from the Museum.
This mansion was built circa 1829 by Peter Ege when he was ironmaster of the Pine Grove Iron Works, located nearby. Notable owners after Ege were Fredericks Watts, lawyer, Cabinet member in the U.S. Grant Administration and founder of Penn State University, and Jay Cooke, an early American investment banker and financier of the Union during the Civil War. [1]
After the Iron Works closed in 1895, the mansion fell into disuse. In 1913, the Iron Works and surrounding land, including the mansion, were sold to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which owns the mansion to this day. Eventually, it became Pine Grove Furnace State Park.
During the 1920s, the Appalachian Trail was laid out, passing through the park and close to the mansion. [2] The mansion subsequently became a hostel for hikers using the trail. It was operated by a unit of American Youth Hostels for twenty-five years (until 2010). [3]
That year, the Central Pennsylvania Conservancy was granted a lease by the Pennsylvania DCNR, [4] which made extensive renovations to the interior and then operated the mansion as a hotel and events venue.
In 2020, operation of the Mansion was turned over to the Appalachian Trail Museum. [5] The museum continues to operate the mansion as a hostel for hikers and venue for events. [6]
Boiling Springs is a census-designated place (CDP) in South Middleton Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania and is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle metropolitan statistical area. The population was 3,225 at the 2010 census, up from 2,769 at the 2000 census.
Cooke Township is a township in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 179 at the 2010 census, up from 117 at the 2000 census.
Greenwood Furnace State Park is a 423-acre (171 ha) Pennsylvania state park in Jackson Township, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The park is near the historic iron making center of Greenwood Furnace. The park includes the ghost town of Greenwood that grew up around the ironworks, old roads and charcoal hearths. Greenwood Furnace State Park is adjacent to Rothrock State Forest and on the western edge of an area of Central Pennsylvania known as the Seven Mountains. The park is on Pennsylvania Route 305, 20 miles (32 km) south of State College.
Michaux State Forest is a Pennsylvania State Forest in Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry District #1. The main offices are located in Fayetteville in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, USA.
The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) is a volunteer organization that works to maintain hiking trails in the Washington, D.C. area of the United States. PATC was founded in 1927 to protect and develop the local section of the then new Appalachian Trail. It has expanded its mission to oversee over 1,050 miles (1,690 km) of trails, 47 shelters and 39 cabins in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.
Caledonia State Park is a 1,125-acre (455 ha) Pennsylvania state park in Greene Township, Franklin County and Franklin Township, Adams County in southern Pennsylvania.
South Mountain is the northern extension of the Blue Ridge Mountain range in Maryland and Pennsylvania. From the Potomac River near Knoxville, Maryland in the south to Dillsburg, Pennsylvania in York County, Pennsylvania in the north, the 70-mile-long (110 km) range separates the Hagerstown and Cumberland valleys from the Piedmont regions of the two states.
Kings Gap Environmental Education Center is a 1,454-acre (588 ha) Pennsylvania state park in Cooke, Dickinson, and Penn Townships, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania acquired the land in 1973 from the C. H. Masland and Son Carpet Company. Kings Gap Environmental Education Center is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) from Pennsylvania Route 233 on South Mountain.
The Appalachian National Scenic Trail spans 14 U.S. states over its roughly 2,200 miles (3,500 km): Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The southern end is at Springer Mountain, Georgia, and it follows the ridgeline of the Appalachian Mountains, crossing many of its highest peaks and running almost continuously through wilderness before reaching the northern end at Mount Katahdin, Maine.
Big Spring State Park is a 45-acre (18 ha) Pennsylvania state park in Toboyne Township, Perry County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The park is on Pennsylvania Route 274, 5.5 miles (8.9 km) southwest of New Germantown. Big Spring State Park is a hiking and picnic area. A partially completed railroad tunnel in Conococheague Mountain is a feature of the park.
Pine Grove Furnace State Park is a protected Pennsylvania area that includes Laurel and Fuller Lakes in Cooke Township of Cumberland County. The Park accommodates various outdoor recreation activities, protects the remains of the Pine Grove Iron Works (1764), and was the site of Laurel Forge (1830), Pine Grove Park (1880s), and a brick plant (1892). The Park is 8 miles (13 km) from exit 37 of Interstate 81 on Pennsylvania Route 233.
The South Mountain Railroad was a southcentral Pennsylvania railway line for "connecting the Pine Grove works to the Cumberland Valley R. R." and which provided mining and passenger services via a southwest section from Hunter's Run, Pennsylvania, and a northern section from Hunter's Run to the CVRR junction northeast of Carlisle. The northern section merged with the Gettysburg & Harrisburg Railroad line south from Hunter's Run to the Gettysburg Battlefield in 1891 to create the Gettysburg & Harrisburg Railway line, while the branch southwest from Hunter's Run became the Hunter's Run and Slate Belt Railroad line.
The Hunter's Run and Slate Belt Railroad was a railway line from the Hunter's Run junction of the Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railway that ran southwestward along the south side of Mountain Creek to the Pine Grove Iron Works. The line serviced facilities for mining, for manufacturing, and for recreation. Portions of the railbed are a section of the Appalachian Trail as well as the majority of the Cumberland County Biker/Hiker Trail and the entire "Old Railroad Bed Road" that is the southeast border of Pine Grove Furnace State Park.
The Pine Grove Iron Works was a smelting facility in southcentral Pennsylvania during the Industrial Revolution. The works is notable for remaining structures that are historical visitor attractions of Pine Grove Furnace State Park, including the furnace stack of the Pine Grove Furnace. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 13, 1977 for its significance in architecture and industry. It includes seven contributing buildings, two structures, fourteen sites, and two objects.
The Cumberland County Biker/Hiker Trail is a Pennsylvania rail trail at Pine Grove Furnace State Park and is almost entirely on the "Old Railroad Bed Road" between Fuller Lake and Laurel Lake. The trail is a pleasant 2.2 miles within the Pine Grove Furnace State Park located in the Michaux State Forest. The park is home to many species of wildlife and is a common attraction for locals and tourists alike. Walking, hiking, and biking are the opportunities offered by the trail year round. The biker/hiker trail shares roughly half of its trail with the Appalachian Trail and is a very popular route within the State Park.
The Pine Grove Railroad Station was the end of the line for the 1870 South Mountain Railroad, which transported materials from limestone pits and three operating ore mines for the Pine Grove Iron Works. The station had a roundhouse and, by 1872, a depot with siding "Pine Grove" was listed on the Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad's passenger schedule of April 21, 1884; and the SMRR railroad offices and repair shops were transferred to the 1891 Hunter's Run and Slate Belt Railroad with the station servicing the 1892 Fuller Brick and Slate Company south of the tracks Despite a 1902 forest fire in the area that destroyed buildings, both "Pine Grove Furnace" and "Pine Grove Park" were listed as 1904 HR & SB RR railway stations, and in 1912 new Reading Company track was laid to Pine Grove on "the former Hunters Run and Slate Belt Line". The Pine Grove area was sold to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1913, the tracks and ties have been removed, and the station area is part of the Pine Grove Furnace State Park.
The Appalachian Trail Museum is located in Pine Grove Furnace State Park near Gardners, Pennsylvania, United States, and commemorates the builders, maintainers and hikers of the Appalachian Trail, including those in the Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame. Features include a 1959 trail shelter from Peters Mountain built by Earl Shaffer, the first A.T. thru-hiker, vintage hiking and trail building equipment, historic A.T. signs, A.T. displays on permanent loan from the Smithsonian Institution, a recreation of A.T. founder Benton MacKaye's Sky Parlor office and a display on the National Trails System Act of 1968. The museum also has an extensive research library.
Pine Grove Park was a South Mountain Railroad excursion park "in a grove of magnificent trees" established by Colonel Jackson C. Fuller c. 1881 It was located east of the Pine Grove Iron Works near Toland in Cumberland County, south-central Pennsylvania It was in the South Mountain Range of the northern Blue Ridge Mountains System.
Boiling Springs Historic District is a national historic district located at Boiling Springs, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. The district includes 127 contributing buildings, 1 contributing site, and 1 contributing structure associated with its role as an early iron manufacturing center and surrounding residential areas of Boiling Springs. Most of the contributing buildings date to the mid-19th century starting in 1845, with a few dated to the early period of development. The oldest buildings are a grist mill, the ironmaster's, Michael Ege, mansion (1795), and the restored Boiling Springs Tavern (1832). Other notable non-residential buildings include the former stone stables (1829) and forge building (1850s). Residential areas include notable examples of the Bungalow/craftsman, Late Victorian, and Federal styles. The contributing structure is a stone three-arched bridge (1854).
The Swatara Furnace is a historic iron furnace and 200-acre national historic district located along Mill Creek, a tributary of the Swatara Creek in Pine Grove Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.
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