Centre Furnace Mansion Tour

The Centre County Historical Society has also restored the grounds of the Mansion to the period when the Thompsons lived there.

There are extensive gardens at the Mansion planted with plants that would have been grown in the 19th century. When the Thompsons lived here they would have had large vegetable gardens as well. Centre Furnace lands included farms that supported all the furnace workers and their families.

The most obvious feature on the grounds is the grand sycamore – an old tree that was on this site long before anyone came to the area to find iron. It was about 40 years old when Centre Furnace was founded in 1791. When the iron industry began in this area, the county was heavily forested. The trees made good fuel for making charcoal iron. This particular sycamore tree is so big, it takes at least five children and an adult to get their arms around it.

This is a closer view of the back porch. This part of the Mansion (the upper kitchen, the room with the Miniature Mansion, and the full attic) was added on in 1846. We know that because one of the builders put his initials and the date on a rafter in the attic. You can see the springhouse on the left.

Springhouse

The springhouse was a cool storage place for milk, butter, and eggs, since the Thompsons had no refrigerator or freezer. It had to be right outside the kitchen, so that cooks and servants had easy access to their cold ingredients.

Outbuildings

These two outbuildings behind the Centre Furnace Mansion were restored by a Penn State class learning about historic preservation and restoration. The class tried to figure out how each building was used, but there is no definite agreement. One idea is that the outbuilding on the left may have been a garden house to dry seeds and flowers, and prepare flower bouquets; and the other may have been used for storing gardening supplies and equipment. We do know that there used to be an orchard behind the outbuildings.

Centre Furnace Stack

This is the Centre Furnace stack, which you can see on the corner of College Avenue and Porter Road in State College. It was the beginning of the charcoal iron industry in what is now Centre County. It is the only extant structure of what was once a vast ironmaking village.

View of Centre Furnace in the early 1900s