CARRIE FURNACE: READY FOR A RISING?

Don’t you just love the grit of industrial heritage? Well, if you’re one of the growing number of heritage travelers who do, you’ll want to take a trip to the Carrie Furnaces in Rankin, PA, right outside of Pittsburgh. Since the site isn’t open to the public, you’ll need to make arrangements to visit before you go. Contact the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area for information.

I was lucky enough to tour the deserted facility a little over a year ago, in October 2008, and I came away with a lot of questions. First and foremost, are the furnaces industrial heritage, public art, or have they just been vandalized and left to deteriorate? And — is planned redevelopment in keeping with the historical authenticity that the site demands?

The blast furnaces at the Carrie Furnace site were designated  a National Historic Landmark on September 20, 2006. Now they are central to a proposed Homestead Works National Park. However, many question whether the cost involved in preserving the furnaces is prohibitive.  And even preservationists are confused about what to do with the graffiti that many consider public art. For a good look at what I’m talking about see my photographs on FLICKR. (If you have any problems, just search for ‘ordinarystories’.)

Homestead Works is located in the heart of the Monongahela River valley where steel making dominated the landscape for 125 years. Built in 1907, the furnaces towered 92 feet over the river, and produced iron for the ‘Works’ from 1907 to 1978.

A hot metal bridge, built to connect Carrie Furnace to Homestead Works, delivered the molten iron that four generations of steelworkers shaped into the skeletons of skyscrapers, landmarks, and battle tanks.

During the 1920s, 1930s,and 1940s, Carrie 6 and 7 consumed approximately four tons of raw materials comprised of iron ore, coke, and limestone for every ton of iron produced. The cooling system for the blast furnace required over five million gallons of water a day. These furnaces reached their peak production in the 1950s and 1960s when they were producing 1000 -1250 tons of iron a day.

Carrie Furnaces 6 and 7 are extremely rare examples of pre World War II iron-making technology. Since the collapse of the region’s steel industry in the 1970s and 1980s, these are the only non-operative blast furnaces in the Pittsburgh District to remain standing.

Allegheny County purchased the site in 2005 for $5.75 million, saying that it saw in it the potential for a major income generator for nearby communities. The county’s construction plan calls for the establishment of a steel heritage museum to showcase the existing furnaces on a 25-acre section that the federal government already has declared a historical site. The remainder of the site will be open for redevelopment.

Carrie Furnace boasts one of the best urban riverfront land development prospects in the country: 250 acres of underutilized land, including 135 acres of vacant land and a prime riverfront location. The county plans riverfront housing, light industrial manufacturing, and office space.

Under the plan, Carrie Furnaces 6 and 7 will undergo a $78 million stabilization and renovation that would allow visitors to climb a series of walkways around these industrial giants and see at close hand the furnaces that set world records in the production of iron.

Today, Carrie Furnace is marked by abandoned buildings littered with colorful graffiti. Surrounded by overgrown fields, the site is more reminiscent of a cemetery than an industrial powerhouse. Are the plans for its future overly optimistic? More importantly, are they consistent with the hopes and dreams of generations of steel workers? Just what is the Spirit of the Place?

Post written by Lisa Reynolds Wolfe.

Photograph by Lisa Reynolds Wolfe.