Richmond Furnace: The Last Blast Furnace in Massachusetts
Near Lenox, Massachusetts
In the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts, where hematite ore lay close to the surface and hardwood forests could be burned into charcoal, an iron industry took root early. Grist and sawmills were operating here by seventeen sixty-three. In eighteen twenty-nine, three brothers named Coffing, John, Charles, and George, established the Richmond Iron Works and fired up a charcoal blast furnace to smelt the local ore.
The furnace was rebuilt in eighteen sixty-three and overhauled again in nineteen oh five to squeeze out more capacity. It ran until nineteen twenty-three. The site is now the Richmond Furnace Historical and Archeological District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in nineteen ninety-nine. The stone foundations, the furnace stack, and the industrial landscape along Cone Hill Road survive as a reminder of the region's iron industry.
