{"nrhp_refnum":"74002141","name":"Catherine Furnace","other_names":[],"category":"object","location":{"address":"2 mi. W of Newport in George Washington National Forest","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newport","county":"Page County","state":"VA","lat":38.55783263400008,"lon":-78.63561880099996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-01-21","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A stone iron furnace built in 1836, located about 2 miles west of Newport in Page County, Virginia, on the George Washington National Forest. It is a pyramid-shaped, dry-laid stone structure.","why_significant":"The furnace produced high quality pig iron used in the Mexican War and the Civil War. A cited article says every shot and shell fired at the enemy in the Mexican War of 1846-1847 was shipped from it, and it also made shells for the Confederacy. It was enlarged around the Civil War, greatly increasing output, and was abandoned in 1885.","narrative":"Catherine Furnace is a pyramid-shaped iron furnace built in 1836 of hand-laid stone without mortar, standing about 2 miles west of Newport in Page County, Virginia, within the George Washington National Forest. Its interior was originally 8 feet in diameter and 32 feet high above the firebox. It was loaded from the top with iron ore, limestone and charcoal, and like most Virginia iron furnaces it was built into a hillside. A water wheel powered the air bellows. The furnace produced high quality pig iron used during the Mexican War and the Civil War. A cited article states that during the Mexican War every shot and shell fired at the enemy was shipped from it, and that it made shells for the Confederacy. It was enlarged around the time of the Civil War, greatly increasing its output, though the reasons are unclear. It never returned to blast after the war and was abandoned in 1885. Only the stone stack remains, the related service buildings having disappeared.","period_of_significance":"19th Century","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as in good condition at the time of nomination; the associated service structures are gone. Later correspondence (1978) raised concern about its continued deterioration, and stabilization was proposed in 1979.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.844723-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/34/6824/41682434/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/74002141.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74002141/7cd532242d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74002141/7cd532242d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Kevin M. Byrne","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Catherine_Furnace_2008.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Kevin M. Byrne</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Catherine_Furnace_2008.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41682434","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Furnace","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15208020"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/page-county/catherine-furnace-74002141/"}