Hopewell Village

Exeter Township, PA · est. 1947

A few miles south of here stood Hopewell, one of the great charcoal-iron plantations of southeastern Pennsylvania—its forge dating to 1744 and its furnace to 1770. Around the furnace grew a self-contained community of ironmasters, molders, colliers, and their families whose lives ran to the rhythm of the blast. The furnace and its village survive today under the National Park Service as a window into early American industry.

Douglass Township, PA · est. 1982

Thomas Rutter, an ironmaster who died in 1730, built Pennsylvania's first ironworks nearby in 1716 and went on to raise Pine Forge and this mansion in the decade that followed. Remarkable for his era, he was an outspoken opponent of slavery. Generations later, in the 19th century, the house served as a stop on the Underground Railroad, sheltering freedom seekers; an academy was founded on the grounds in 1945.

Cumru Township, PA · est. 1950

For most of the 19th century, before railroads dominated, Pennsylvania moved its goods by water. The Union Canal, opened in 1828, stitched together two of the state's great river systems — linking the Schuylkill at Reading to the Susquehanna at Middletown — so boats could carry freight all the way toward Philadelphia. Near this spot, at the tip of Fritts Island, the ruins of the canal's easternmost lock still hint at the engineering that once lifted vessels across the watershed.

Reading, PA · est. 1951

This winding road from City Park up to Reading's landmark Pagoda takes its name from Charles E. Duryea, an automobile pioneer who used its slopes from 1900 to 1907 as a proving ground for his cars. Duryea built one of America's first successful gasoline automobiles, and the hill let him test the machines' power against the very grades that stymied early motorcars.