{"nrhp_refnum":"92000393","name":"Brown-Moore Blacksmith Shop","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"0.1 mi. W of PA 4020, Luzerne Township","address_restricted":false,"city":"Merrittstown","county":"Fayette County","state":"PA","lat":39.97306379200006,"lon":-79.89843736599994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1992-05-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick blacksmith shop with an attached wood wagon shop in the village of Merrittstown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, on Township Road 326 near Dunlaps Creek. It began operation in 1822 and closed in 1939.","why_significant":"The shop served the village, nearby farms and travellers on the drover's road that passed through Merrittstown. The nomination states that its tools, forges and bellows are well preserved and that it is the best preserved of three blacksmith shops surveyed in Fayette County by the Historic American Engineering Record in 1989-1990. It is also argued to provide information on how blacksmiths and wheelwrights worked in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.","narrative":"Brick blacksmith shop with an attached wood wagon shop, standing in the village of Merrittstown in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, beside Township Road 326, the old drovers road to the west. The shop opened in 1822 and operated until 1939. After George Brown's death, John C. Moore, a blacksmith, wheelwright and wagon maker from Millsboro in Washington County, bought it in 1867. His five sons trained as apprentices there, and the younger sons ran it after he died in 1895. The building has two hand-operated stone forges with bellows, a slack tub, a steel anvil set on wood blocks, and a wagon tire shrinker and tire bender. Many tools date from the nineteenth century. The wagon shop was damaged by fire in 1918 and rebuilt in 1919. The shop served farmers, villagers and travellers, and it is regarded as one of the few surviving shops that documents this trade in the county.","period_of_significance":"1822 - 1939","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"No style","criteria":["A","D"],"status_note":"Closed in 1939 after the death of the last proprietor's health decline; the building is described as in sound condition with tools secured and periodic maintenance provided.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:37.950776-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/92000393.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92000393/39fbae9e91-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92000393/39fbae9e91-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Generic1139","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brown-Moore_Blacksmith_Shop.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Generic1139</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:Brown-Moore_Blacksmith_Shop.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996510","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown-Moore_Blacksmith_Shop","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4975982"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/fayette-county/brown-moore-blacksmith-shop-92000393/"}