West Middlesex, PA: 1873 Fannie Furnace

(Satellite, streets have been added to repurpose the land)

The Way It Was - Newspaper Companion Page posted two photos with the comment: "Fannie Furnace West Middlesex - Furnace built in 1873."

Ian Armitage: I found the second picture on Flickr, and it was dated 1910ish. The tender design on the locomotive is called a Vanderbilt Tender. The design was patented in 1901, so the 1910 date makes sense. Can't quite tell what railroad the locomotive belonged to, but that side of the river was where the Erie Railroad tracks ran.

Victoria VanHoose: This photo was taken across the bridge on the west side looking east. If you stood there today you would be looking at the Wesex building, ONeill's, the little plaza and Sereday's. There are a little bit of remnants of the blast furnace in the lawn of the little plaza next to Marchelloni's.. the are also a couple round brick structures closer to the river behind Wesex. People don't realize West Middlesex was a busy , booming factory town back in the 1800s, early 1900s. By the 40s it quieted way done and has never been at its height as it was in the 1800s.

Gary Dufford: Victoria VanHoose Around 1850 or so it became the center of the world. This is where the original McConell's mill was built. This was a revolutionary design. It was a water powered mill that produce way more RPM and torque than anything previous. It became world famous. McConell would give away the design for it to anyone who ask. He said there were somethings too important to make a profit off of.

Sean Balawender shared

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The streets west of Erie Street, including Garfield Street, have been added since 1958. The Erie Railroad was on the east side of the river and the Pennsy was on the west side.

1958 Sharon East Quad @ 24,000

I presume this half-circle is the blast furnace remnant that Victoria mentioned.

Satellite

A 1919 photo of the Pennsy depot with the Fannie Furnace in the background.

Image via west2k

With the four hot stoves and the skip hoist, the furnace in the photo looks a lot more modern than the 1873 date. This 1886 Sanborn Map confirms that the original furnace was much smaller.

LoC

From a 1909 history: "For many years West Middlesex has been one of the centers of the iron industry along the Shenango valley. The two industrial concerns of note are the Ella and Fannie furnaces, owned and operated by separate corporations. The Fannie is the older of these furnaces, having first been put in blast in 1873, and was remodeled in 1885. The Ella furnace was built in 1882, on the site of two furnaces that had been constructed in 1859 and had mutable fortunes. E.A. Wheeler of Sharon was for many years manager of the Ella and Wheeler furnaces. In 1896 the United Iron and Steel Company, of which Edwin N. Ohl of Pittsburgh is president, bought the Fannie furnace and have since operated it. The product is basic and all kinds of pig iron, and the average number of employees is 120. The Ella furnace has been recently dismantled, to be replaced by a new stack with all modern improvements. West Middlesex was one of the first places along the Shenango valley to become a center of the iron business, and the old Middlesex furnace, erected in 1845, was a charcoal burning plant that smelted the native ores. The modern furnaces here, however, have all been constructed for coke and Lake Superior ore." [LivingPlaces]

"A furnace introduced to the Valley by Mr. E. A. Wheeler of West Middlesex, to a certain extent resembled the blast furnace of today. This furnace was called the “Fanny Furnace”, perhaps better known as the “wonder of the times” because it was the first really large furnace to be built in this vicinity. It was in every way the best furnace the Valley had until the modern blast furnace came into being.

"This period of iron and steel expansion saw four furnaces built in Wheatland, all manufacturing “T” rails for the Northern Pacific and Texas Pacific Railroads. The James Wood Sons and Company, the firm responsible for these mills, was very sound financially for a number of years, but the famous panic of 1873 combined with the use of Gessemer Steel for rails instead of the old iron rails eventually forced the Wood Company out of business.

"Until 1875 the blast furnaces of the district increased in number. During the last quarter of the century, however, there was a sharp decline, and by 1887 the number of furnaces in use had dropped from thirty to seventeen." [PedasFamily]