The Phoenix In Phoenixville
By Michael Pillagalli
It appears historically that the first inhabitants of what is today called Phoenixville were the Lenape American Native Americans. They lived for centuries along the Sankanac River, today called the French Creek and the Manaiunk, now the Schuylkill River. They were able to survive successive generations through the abundance of food from the rivers and the fields and forests of the areas.
Photo courtesy of the Bowery Boys
In the late 1600’s, when it appeared that Philadelphia had been settled, Charles Pickering, who crossed the Atlantic Ocean with his friend William Penn, traveled up the Schuylkill River to the Chester County area in search of treasures he believed were there for his discovery. Panning in a stream, now known as Pickering Creek, he found what he believed were traces of silver. He went back to his friend William Penn and procured a land grant from Penn for several thousand acres in that area of Chester County. He returned to the area of discovery with a miner friend and carved a cave into the side of a hill, laid a floor, erected a roof, and began mining the waters. This dwelling is said to be one of the first real dwelling sites for a European settler in the area.
Shortly after this adventure started, Charles Pickering died, and he left his 5,386 acres to sixteen of his friends. His acreage was called the Pickering Tract and Mine Hole Tract. One of the 16 tracts was received by David Lloyd; he was the first Justice in Chester County and Speaker of the Assembly. His share was 1000 acres which he named Manavon for his home parish in Wales. He sold 650 acres of his parcel to Francis Buckwalter in 1720. Then in 1731, Moses Coates purchased 150 acres of land from Lloyd and built a frame house. Shortly after that time, Coates convinced a friend, James Starr and his two sons, living in New Castle, Delaware, to purchase a parcel. When the deal was made, the Starr’s erected a dwelling and a grist mill, the first business to be built upon the French Creek which utilized the river for waterpower. The Starr home, erected in 1732, is still standing and is the oldest structure in the town today.
In 1785, Benjamin Longstreth bought and renovated the Starr’s old grist mill and added a dam across from it on the French Creek. And, in 1790, he reopened it as the French Creek Nail Works.
At that point in time, they were innovative enough to convert from water power of the French Creek to coal power since mining of Anthracite coal in upper Pennsylvania was prominent at that point for energy usage. This business made them the largest producers of nails in the colonies. In 1813, German engineer, Lewis Wernwag, bought the French Creek Nail Works and added a blast furnace to the industry. He renamed it Phoenix Iron Works in 1855. The name came from his seeing the image of a Phoenix rising from the chimneys of the foundry and the fact that the business was coming up from the ashes.
At this moment in time the area was still known as Maravon. Its largest group of residents and workers in 1815 were immigrants from Donegal, Ireland. 45% of the population was of Irish descent by the 1860’s. They came in droves to work in digging the Schuylkill Canal then to create the Black Rock Tunnel which is still the second- oldest continuously used tunnel in the United States.
Lewis Wernwag got the idea that with Maravon becoming so established with businesses and new residents that it was time to split from Schuylkill Township to become its own borough. That idea was toyed with by the population and finally in 1849, it was Isaac Pennypacker who would spearhead an effort to change the name of the new municipality to Phoenixville- named after the main source of income to its residents- and be recognized as an incorporated borough. He became its first mayor. At that point the Phoenix Iron Works was making the first big production of rails for the expansion of the railroads across America. It went on in 1861 to 1864 to produce The Griffin Gun, which supplied the United States with 1200 cannon barrels which were used by almost 50% of the Union Artillery during the Civil War. In 1862, its next big production was for The Phoenix Column which was used in high rise buildings, bridges, and elevated train lines of that time period. This product was utilized in the construction of the Washington Monument as well as City Hall in Philadelphia. It was incorporated into the structures of over 1400 bridges built around the world.
Along with the new boroughs major source of income from iron production, Phoenixville thrived through other profitable businesses as well as silk and cotton mill production, underware and hosiery factories, a wooden match factory, and the ever popular Etruscan Majolica business. There were over 2,500 workers at the iron mill alone. The Majolica China, highly collectable today, was a style of china service and tableware which was from Germany and England and through the town’s immigrants, production was started in the town due to the unique quality of clay found in the river and creek beds of the surrounding areas. Beautiful glazes and patterns made this a special art of the area. The production lasted until 1890 when the production of the popular china stopped due to a massive fire on Starr Street which almost took away their whole production areas.
Isaac Pennypacker, who was instrumental in getting the town incorporated into its own identity in 1849, had a descendent, Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker, who became the Governor of Pennsylvania in 1903 to 1907. He was responsible for the creation of our Pennsylvania State Police Department. He also signed into Law the Child Labor Act of 1905. He oversaw the completion of Pennsylvania’s State Capitol Building, approved the state’s purchase of over a half a million acres for tree nurseries and state forest lands, as well as establishing 12,000 acres of state game lands which we enjoy today.
Due to increased domestic and foreign production of steel, in 1949 with local production dwindling, The Phoenix Iron Company, was purchased by the Barnum Steel Company and renamed The Phoenix Iron and Steel Company and then later just called Phoenix Steel Corporation in 1955. Phoenix Steel eventually closed, and its last day of production was November 18, 1976. The company closed the gates to the mills finally in 1987. Phoenix Steel Corporation also operated an auxiliary plant in Claymont, Delaware. That closed at the same time as the main plant and in 1988, an investment group, CITIC, from the People’s Republic of China bought the Delaware facility for $13 million. CitiSteel was born and after a $25 million refurbishment of the Delaware production facility was changed, it went from a low-volume, high-cost production to a high-volume, low-cost facility.
The town experienced some difficult financial times upon the closing of the mill as thousands of jobs were lost, but today Phoenixville has come back from its second ascension of ashes rising in the form of a Phoenix and letting the town shine again. In 1998, the Phoenixville facilities were taken over by the Phoenixville Area Economic Development Corporation and renovations took place under the guidance of the National Park Services which converted some of the foundry space as the Schuylkill River Heritage Center. In 2006, it was turned into an 18,000 square foot event space by a private concern.
Today, most of the other original buildings are gone and what is left of the vast complex are the foundry and offices spaces. The town of Phoenixville is thriving due to the influx of homebuyers and businesses. There are no less than ten craft breweries, a distillery facility, wine tasting rooms, the shops of its main street, the ever popular Colonial Theatre and the movie The Blob, and a pleasant rural feel to this once bustling town. It has been listed in a travel magazine in 2021 as one of “The Most Charming Small Town’s and or Cities in Pennsylvania”.