Continental Stove Works

Brick industrial complex in Royersford, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, built by the Buckwalter Stove Company for its Continental Stove Works. The first plant has 18 numbered buildings erected between 1876 and 1924, and the second plant has seven buildings dating from the decade between 1898 and 1908. The founding firm, Francis, Buckwalter & Company, was organized on 1 January 1866 under Joseph Addison Buckwalter, and the plant was sited on the Schuylkill River and the Reading Railroad main line. The main foundry, Building 9, grew to about 352 feet long and is the most important structure in the complex. The works is regarded as the catalyst for the formation of Royersford Borough, drawing workers and sponsoring homes and service organizations. Its buildings are the only stove manufacturing buildings still standing in the borough, and the plant is significant for the local stove industry that declined in the 1930s. The complex is listed for its role in industry.