Musselman – Vesta Furnace

---

Preservation PA, Historic Preservation Award Winner

The restoration of this 1868 office building has brought new life to a once-booming iron furnace campus, now the site of the Chickies Rock County Park. Located along the Susquehanna River in Marietta, Pennsylvania, the furnace was the last of 8 anthracite-fired hot blast furnaces built between Columbia and Marietta and the last complete furnace constructed in Lancaster County. Production of iron here ended in the 1930s and the furnace was dismantled in 1934.

The restored office building now serves as a visitor’s center focusing on the local iron industry. The restoration, following the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation, included structural reinforcement, a new roof, repointing and stucco finish on the exterior stone walls, window restoration, new woodwork, and all new mechanical and electrical systems.
Historic lithographs were used as detail sources for the many unique architectural details.