On May 2 and 3 Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site will celebrate the end of the Civil War and mourn the death of President Abraham Lincoln. Over 60 reenactors from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, and Delaware will participate.
It is early May 1865. The war has ended less than a month ago and soldiers are starting to come home to resume their former lives at and around Hopewell Furnace. Two weeks ago, in April 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated the country is still in mourning.
The weekend will include Hopewell Furnace workers and their families continuing on with daily life just after the Civil War. Many in the village will be in mourning for Lincoln and trying to understand what comes next for the country. Soldiers will be newly returned home, children will be playing, business will be conducted, food will be cooked on the hearths, fires pits and bake ovens, and people will go about their daily lives interacting like they would have in 1865.
Hopewell Furnace and its community supported the Union war effort in a variety of ways. Many furnace workers enlisted in the army, with some paying the ultimate price, others worked long hours in industrial support of the army, and still others volunteered time and material to send boxes of food and medical supplies to the front. All, of course, worried about loved ones and neighbors engaged in the action.
Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site preserves and interprets an early American industrial landscape from natural resource extraction to enlightened conservation. The site is surrounded by the 73,000 acre Hopewell Big Woods, the largest forest in Southeastern Pennsylvania.
The park is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday including Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day and Veterans Day. It is closed on other federal holidays. On Mondays and Tuesdays while the Visitor Center and historic village are closed, the grounds and restrooms remain open. Hopewell Furnace is located five miles south of Birdsboro, PA, off of Route 345. For more information stop by the park’s visitor center, call 610-582-8773, visit the park’s web site at www.nps.gov/hofu, or contact us by e-mail at hofu_superintendent@nps.gov. Visitors with specific needs may contact the park for assistance in advance of their visit.