Poole Forge

Poole Forge is an iron complex in Caernarvon Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on a bend of the Conestoga Creek south of Route 23. James Old erected the forge around 1779, and the property had earlier held a grist mill. The forge produced charcoal blooms and bar iron from pig iron supplied by the Elizabeth Furnace, and the iron was distributed to Philadelphia and Reading. Ownership passed through the Old family to Cyrus Jacobs in 1799, and then to his grandson Hanson Bentley Jacobs, under whom the forge operated into the 1850s. The complex includes the Ironmaster's Mansion, a two-and-a-half-story stone house of brownstone and ironstone with a Federal style staircase, mantel and dormers, along with a springhouse, the Paymaster's Building, tenant houses and lime kiln ruins. Its buildings are regarded as unusually complete evidence of an eighteenth century iron plantation community in southeastern Pennsylvania.