{"nrhp_refnum":"78002440","name":"Little Buffalo Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"SW of Newport off PA 34","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newport","county":"Perry County","state":"PA","lat":40.45548251450006,"lon":-77.16989795694855,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-04-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district within Little Buffalo State Park in Perry County, Pennsylvania, along Little Buffalo Creek near Newport, comprising the remains of an early 19th-century iron community known as Juniata Furnace together with later structures.","why_significant":"The district preserves the remnants of an iron plantation that developed around 1808 with a furnace reputedly the first iron works in Perry County. Its surviving features, including Shoaff's Mill, the Blue Ball Tavern, a cemetery and a superintendent's house, together show the layout of the iron community with little modern intrusion.","narrative":"Little Buffalo Historic District lies in a valley between Middle Ridge and Buffalo Ridge, along Little Buffalo Creek in Perry County, Pennsylvania. Its origins lie in Juniata Furnace, an iron community established around 1808 when William Power and David Watts built a small furnace on Limestone Run, reputedly the first iron works in the county. The surviving features include Shoaff's Mill, begun around 1832 and completed by 1840, the ground-level section of the Blue Ball Tavern, several outbuildings, and a cemetery holding graves of members of the Gantt and Kough families. Later additions include a superintendent's house dated 1861 and a Burr arch covered bridge. The district's combination of early and late features, with few modern intrusions beyond a road, gives it a notable degree of integrity for the area and reflects the economic life of the region in the nineteenth century.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Shoaff's Mill is presently being restored; much of the iron complex has been destroyed.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:13:04.4178-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/78002440.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002440/12aa495655-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002440/12aa495655-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"JERRYE &amp; ROY KLOTZ MD","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LITTLE_BUFFALO_HISTORIC_DISTRICTY.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">JERRYE &amp;amp; ROY KLOTZ MD</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:LITTLE_BUFFALO_HISTORIC_DISTRICTY.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996745","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Buffalo_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6649364"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/perry-county/little-buffalo-historic-district-78002440/"}