Isabella Furnace

Isabella Furnace was a cold blast charcoal iron furnace located in West Nantmeal Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. The furnace was named for Isabella Potts, wife of one of the partners, a member of the Potts ironmaking family. Isabella was the last iron furnace to be built in the county, in 1835, and was operated by members of the Potts family and their partners until 1855, when they lost control of it in a bankruptcy. It returned to the family in 1881, when it was purchased by Col. Joseph Potts , who modernized it. The furnace, the last to operate in Chester County, went out of blast in 1894, a few months after Col. Potts' death, but remained largely intact until after his son's death in 1943. The remains of the furnace complex have been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1991.

The original operators of the furnace were Henry Potts and his brother-in-law John Potts Rutter, who bought a tract of land from Robert Wilson on April 1, 1835 for the furnace site. The land was along Perkins Run near where that stream emptied into the East Branch Brandywine Creek; the tract already included a fulling mill and a sawmill, and the transaction encompassed water rights to dam Perkins Run to power the furnace. The Potts and Rutter families were already extensively involved in the iron business in the vicinity of Philadelphia; Henry's father Joseph was a partner in Glasgow Forge, on Manatawny Creek near Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and Henry was involved in ironmaking there and at Warwick Furnace, owned by his first cousin David Potts, Jr. The furnace was completed by the end of the year and named in honor of Henry's wife Isabella, née Hitner. It proved to be the last sizable furnace erected in northern Chester County.

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