National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form: Hanover Furnace (Revised)

Summary

This is a revised nomination form for the historic site of Hanover Furnace to the National Register of Historic Places Inventory.

Hanover Furnace is located on the North Branch of the Rancocas Creek within the Fort Dix military reservation. It is unoccupied except for an adjacent firing range.

Hanover Furnace dates from the post revolutionary period of the eighteenth century. In its early history it contained an iron furnace, iron master's house, workers houses, and a sawmill. The adjacent pine woods and swamps supplied the ore and fuel (charcoal) for the production of cast iron. The furnace supported a community of over 200 people and lasted until the raw materials were depleted in the 1840's.

Today the area has reverted to forest. There are no structures to indicate the town once existed. The iron master's house site is covered with brambles. The furnace is a mere pile of rubble. Roads now deadend which were once busy. Gone are the noises of the furnace, the commotion of the town, and the people who created it. Yet beneath the brambles, the overgrowth and the pile of rubble there exists the archaeological evidence of a town as important as any of the furnaces that supplied our young nation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Fort Dix Archaeology and Cultural Resources Archive

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Air Force Base

Prepared By(s): Louis Berger & Associates

Submitted To(s): United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service

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