Stiegel Glass Manufactory
Manheim, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
On this site, from 1763 to 1774, "Baron" Henry William Stiegel made the glass for which he is famous. Erected in 1763, the building was torn down in 1813.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
On this site the flamboyant ironmaster and entrepreneur Henry William Stiegel — who styled himself "Baron" — built a glassworks that operated from 1763 to 1774. His tableware and decorative glass were among the finest produced in colonial America, prized then and treasured by collectors ever since. The original building stood until 1813, long after Stiegel's overreaching ventures collapsed into debt.
Why it matters
Stiegel glass stands among the first American-made luxury goods to rival European imports, an early sign of the manufacturing ambition that would define the nation.
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Related people
- · Henry William Stiegel
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Baron Stiegel
Manheim, PA · est. 1947
In the mid-1700s, German immigrant Henry William Stiegel — known in his heyday as "Baron" Stiegel — turned a Lancaster County iron furnace into one of colonial America's most ambitious industrial ventures, laying out the town of Manheim in 1762 and opening a celebrated glassworks two years later. His fine flint glass rivaled European imports and made his name, even as his lavish living later ruined him. His famous gift of church land carried a nominal rent of one red rose a year, a token still paid to his heirs.
John A. Sutter
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Hopewell Forge Mansion
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Around 1740, ironmaster Peter Grubb built this house amid the forges and furnaces that made Pennsylvania a colonial iron powerhouse. Grubb had opened the nearby Cornwall Furnace, tapping the region's rich ore, while the Upper and Lower Hopewell Forges hammered pig iron into usable bar iron along Hammer Creek. The dams that once powered those forges can still be traced in the water below the mansion.
Peter Grubb's Upper Hopewell Iron Forge
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