BECAUSE YOU LIVE HERE I BY LIZ REPH


LOCK RIDGE FURNACE MUSEUM & PARK


Located off Franklin Street in Alburtis, the 59-acre Lock Ridge Furnace Museum and Park is perhaps the best-preserved example of the many iron-producing plants that once dominated the Lehigh Valley’s industrial landscape.


Built in 1867-68, near the newly completed junction of the Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad with the East Pennsylvania Railroad, the fi rst of Lock Ridge’s two blast furnaces was put online in March of 1868, with the second following in July of 1869. Shortly after beginning production, Lock Ridge was purchased by the Thomas Iron Company, which at the time was one of the Lehigh Valley’s largest iron-producing conglomerates. Be- cause Thomas’ main plant in Hokendauqua already included six furnaces, designated No. 1 through No. 6, the Lock Ridge furnaces became known as No. 7 and No. 8.


Like many Pennsylvania iron plants, Lock Ridge’s furnaces were fueled by anthracite, or “hard coal.” An extremely dense, relatively clean variety of coal that burns slowly and emits little smoke, anthracite is very rare and accounts for less than 2% of all coal de- posits in the United States. In Northeastern Pennsylvania, however, the state’s “Coal Re- gion” – a large tract of land in the central Appalachian Mountains – contains the largest


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known deposits of anthracite in the coun- try. This proximity made it a viable fuel for the industrial plants of the Lehigh Valley.


The opening of the Lock Ridge complex spelled both prosperity and growth for the surrounding community. To accommodate the infl ux of people, many new homes and public facilities were built. By 1869, a grand superintendent’s residence, two large fore- men’s homes and several brick double and four-unit houses for the furnace workers and their families had been constructed.


In 1870, a new school was built, followed by an even larger one four years later. Accord- ing to the local reverend Frank P. Laros, by the early 1910s, the community was home to “two churches, a post offi ce, a railway de- pot, express and telegraph offi ce, a school house, a feed store, a feed, lumber and coal yard, one saddler shop, three grocery and


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