Bellefonte Forge House: The Ironmaster's Home

Just south of Bellefonte stands a Federal-style stone house built in eighteen oh three by ironmaster John Dunlop, one of the most energetic figures in the early American iron trade. Over his career, Dunlop built or operated four separate iron works in this valley, Harmony Forge in seventeen ninety-five, Belle Font Forge in seventeen ninety-seven, Logan Furnace that same year, and Washington Forge in eighteen ten. The house he built in eighteen oh three overlooked his forge operation on Logan Branch of Spring Creek.

Dunlop did not live out his success peacefully: in eighteen fourteen he was killed when an iron mine collapsed on him, leaving behind his wife and four daughters. The house survived and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, recognized both for its Federal domestic architecture and for its connection to the early iron industry that made central Pennsylvania a foundational region of American industrial history. The forge across the road gave Bellefonte its name.

In seventeen ninety-seven Dunlop bought land and gave it to his father and his brother-in-law to lay out a town named for the forge. One local historian argues that font here refers to casting, a sign that the finest iron was made there. Dunlop built Harmony Forge with three uncles, Miles, Patton, and Boggs.

His forge was later called Valentine Forge and then Cerro Copper and Brass. The Forge House stands on Axemann Road, and the National Register listed it on August twentieth, nineteen ninety-nine.