Juniata Iron Works

Six buildings survive from the Juniata Iron Works, a complex on the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River one mile east of Alexandria, Huntingdon County. The works began in 1838 with a forge and rolling mill founded by Abraham and Samuel Hatfield, and moved to the north bank of the river in the late 1840s. Production in 1850 employed 60 men. The surviving group includes two ironmasters' mansions, the first built in 1841 and the second in 1867, along with a store and post office, a grist mill dating from 1856, and two workers' houses from the 1840s. The complex declined after the Pennsylvania Canal closed in 1875, which had carried its products. Only the grist mill kept operating, later known as Hellyer's Mill. The district is regarded as locally significant for its industrial history and for the architecture of its two mansions, which are described as fine examples of ironmasters' residences influenced by the Federal and Georgian styles. The survival of two workers' houses is considered unusual in Huntingdon County.