{"nrhp_refnum":"89001714","name":"Vesuvius Furnace","other_names":["Law-290-8"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"Co. Hwy. 29 at Storms Creek in Vesuvius Recreation Area of Wayne National Forest","address_restricted":false,"city":"Ironton","county":"Lawrence County","state":"OH","lat":38.605461674000026,"lon":-82.63007796799997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-06-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Transportation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A nineteenth-century sandstone iron furnace stack, retaining wall and a 1940 stone bridge over Storms Creek in the Vesuvius Recreation Area of the Wayne National Forest, near Ironton, Lawrence County, Ohio. The furnace was built in 1833 by Hurd, Gould and Company.","why_significant":"The furnace is argued to be significant as one of the first American iron furnaces to adopt the hot blast technique and one of the best surviving early furnaces in the Hanging Rock Iron Region. It operated for about 62 years, into the early twentieth century. The WPA-built stone bridge is significant as an unusual example of Depression-era public works with an aesthetic use of stone.","narrative":"Vesuvius Furnace is a four-sided, pyramid-shaped sandstone iron furnace stack in the Wayne National Forest near Ironton, Ohio. Hurd, Gould and Company built it in 1833 using unmortared sandstone blocks. The stack stands 30 feet tall and is backed by a 111-foot retaining wall. It is one of the furnaces of the Hanging Rock Iron Region, which reached into Kentucky and West Virginia. Vesuvius adopted the hot blast technique in the 1830s, among the earliest American furnaces to do so, and it was the last cold blast charcoal furnace still operating in the region in 1903. It ceased operation in 1906 after roughly 62 years of nearly continuous use. Beside it, a 1940 Works Progress Administration bridge over Storms Creek is faced with irregular sandstone pieces and is noted as an unusual example of ornamental Depression-era public works. Today the furnace and bridge form the focal point of a picnic area, and the furnace is regarded as one of the best surviving early stacks.","period_of_significance":"1833-1906 (furnace); 1940 (bridge)","architect_builder":"Hurd, Gould, & Co. (furnace); WPA (bridge)","architectural_style":"No style","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Furnace stack walls are intact and in good condition, interior firebrick is partly intact, metal grates cover the openings, and the site serves as a picnic area in a national forest recreation area.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:14.550944-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/89001714.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71989659","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/lawrence-county/vesuvius-furnace-89001714/"}