West Point Foundry
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name = West Point Foundry
| nrhp_type = Historic District
| nocat = yes
| image = Locomotive engineering - a practical journal of railway motive power and rolling stock (1897) (14574929808).jpg
| caption = Scenes of the West Point Foundry in the 1890s
| location = 68 Kemble Avenue, Cold Spring, NY 10516
| nearest_city = Beacon
| coordinates = {{coord|41|24|51|N|73|57|22|W|display=inline,title}}
| locmapin = New York#USA
| added = April 11, 1973
| area = {{convert|93|acre}}
| refnum = 73001250{{NRISref|version=2010a}}
}}
The West Point Foundry was a major American ironworking and machine shop site in Cold Spring, New York, operating from 1818 to about 1911. Initiated after the War of 1812, it became most famous for its production of Parrott rifle artillery and other munitions during the Civil War, although it also manufactured a variety of iron products for civilian use. The increase of steel making and decreasing demand for cast iron after the Civil War caused it to become bankrupt gradually and cease operations during the early 20th Century.{{cite web | url = https://cris.parks.ny.gov/ | title = Cultural Resource Information System (CRIS)| publisher = New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation| format = Searchable database| accessdate = 2015-11-01}} Note: This includes {{cite web | url =https://cris.parks.ny.gov/Uploads/ViewDoc.aspx?mode=A&id=31127&q=false | title = National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: West Point Foundry| accessdate = 2015-11-01 | author =Lynn Beebe Weaver| format = PDF| date=November 1972}} and [https://cris.parks.ny.gov/Uploads/ViewDoc.aspx?mode=A&id=31126&q=false Accompanying photographs]
History
=Founding and early products=
The foundary began operation in 1817. Its establishment had been encouraged by President James Madison, who, after the War of 1812, desired domestic foundries to produce artillery. Cold Spring was an ideal site: there were many local iron mines, timber for charcoal to fuel a forge was abundant, and the nearby Margaret's Brook provided water power to drive machinery. The site was guarded by the Federal government's formidable West Point, across the Hudson River, and the river provided transport for finished products.{{cite web | url=http://www.scenichudson.org/land_pres/wpfp_research.htm | title=History of West Point Foundry (archived) | accessdate=2006-12-14 |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070629101949/http://www.scenichudson.org/land_pres/wpfp_research.htm |archivedate = 2007-06-29}}
The West Point Foundry Association was incorporated by Gouverneur Kemble, who was of a merchant family in New York City (his mother's family had associations in Putnam County), and the foundry followed in 1817. Artillery was tested by shooting across the Hudson at the desolate slopes of Storm King Mountain (which would later have to be swept for unexploded ordnance as a result after some of it exploded during a 1999 fire).{{cite web | url=http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/cepa/pubs/apr01/story7.htm | title=Corps of Engineers Cleanup Projects | accessdate=2006-12-14 |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20061210050017/http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/cepa/pubs/apr01/story7.htm |archivedate = 2006-12-10}} The platform used for mounting artillery for proofing was uncovered during Superfund work in the early 1990s.{{cite web | url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/archeology/cg/fd_vol7_num2/caliber.htm | title=Foundry Cove Archaeology | accessdate=2006-12-14}} Besides artillery, the foundry also produced iron fittings for civilian uses, such as pipe for the New York City water system and shipment to sugar mills in the West Indies. A number of early locomotives were built at the foundry, including the Best Friend of Charleston (the first to be put into commercial service), the West Point (the third built for service in the United States), the DeWitt Clinton (the fourth, and first to operate in New York state), Phoenix, and Experiment.
=Parrott years and the Civil War=
In 1835, Captain Robert Parker Parrott, an 1824-graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, was appointed as an inspector of ordnance at the foundry for the U.S. Army. The following year he resigned his commission and on October 31, 1836, was appointed superintendent of the foundry. It prospered over his long tenure, and was the site of numerous experiments with artillery and projectiles, culminating in his invention of the Parrott rifle cannon in 1860.{{cite web|url=http://www.cwartillery.org/parrott.html |title=Robert Parker Parrott |accessdate=2006-12-14 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20060330014743/http%3A//www%2Ecwartillery%2Eorg/parrott%2Ehtml |archivedate= March 30, 2006 }} In 1843 the foundry also manufactured the USS Spencer, a revenue cutter which was the first iron ship built in the U.S.A.
The foundry was busiest during the American Civil War due to military orders: at that time it had a workforce of 1,400 people and produced 2,000 cannon and three million shells. Parrott also invented an incendiary shell which was used in an 8-inch Parrott rifle cannon (the "Swamp Angel") to bombard Charleston. The importance of the foundry for the war effort can be measured by the fact that President Abraham Lincoln visited and inspected it in June 1862.{{cite web | url=http://www.mrlincolnandnewyork.org/inside.asp?ID=27&subjectID=2 | title=Visit to West Point | accessdate=2009-03-04}}
The fame of the foundry was such that Jules Verne, for his novel From the Earth to the Moon, chose it as the contractor for the Columbiad, a spaceship-launching cannon.{{cite web | url=http://www.westpointfoundry.org/researchnotes.html | title=West Point Foundry Archaeology Project | accessdate=2006-12-14}}
=Decline and demise=
In 1867, Parrott resigned as superintendent, although he continued to experiment with artillery designs until his death in 1877.{{cite web|url=http://www.pcnr.com/News/Column/020821_1.html |title=A Village Born of Iron: Trouble in the Ravine |accessdate=2012-08-29 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090605031738/http://www.pcnr.com/News/Column/020821_1.html |archivedate=June 5, 2009 }} Business of the foundry decreased due to competition from more modern techniques of iron and steel production. It had discontinued the use of charcoal and begun to purchase coal from Pennsylvania about 1870. However, it was unable to avoid receivership in 1884 and bankruptcy in 1889.{{cite web|url=http://www.pcnr.com/News/Column/010918b.html |title=A Village Born of Iron: A Long Road Ended |accessdate=2006-12-14 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061016190516/http://www.pcnr.com/News/Column/010918b.html |archivedate=October 16, 2006 }} It was sold in 1897 to the Cornell brothers, makers of sugar mills, and ceased operation in 1911.
Site archaeology
{{Infobox NRHP
| name = West Point Foundry Archeological Site
| nrhp_type = nhld
| image =
| caption =
| location = Address Restricted, Cold Spring, New York
| locmapin = New York#USA
| built = {{Start date|1817}}
| added = February 25, 2010
| designated_nrhp_type = January 13, 2021
| area = {{convert|100|acre}}
| refnum = 10000059, 100006260
}}
File:West Point Foundry office.jpg Metro-North station]]
Of the buildings on the site, only the central office building remains intact; the remainder are in ruins. {{convert|87|acre|ha}} around the site form a preserve owned by Scenic Hudson.{{cite web | url=http://www.scenichudson.org/parks/westpointfoundrypreserve | title=West Point Foundry Preserve | accessdate=2012-08-29}} It can be visited by a short trail from the nearby Cold Spring Metro-North station. A major archaeological study of the site,{{cite web |url=http://www.westpointfoundry.org/ |title=Home |website=westpointfoundry.org}} funded by Scenic Hudson and performed by Michigan Tech, occurred from 2002 to 2008. The West Point Foundry Archeological Site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2010, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2021.{{NRHPweekly}}
{{Clear}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.westpointfoundry.org/ Archaeological Investigation of West Point Foundry]
- [http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasinsac/foundry/foundry.html Yasinsac, Rob, "West Point Foundry", Hudson Valley Ruins (pictures)]
{{National Register of Historic Places in New York}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
Category:Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
Category:New York (state) in the American Civil War
Category:1817 establishments in New York (state)
Category:1911 disestablishments in New York (state)
Category:Ruins on the National Register of Historic Places
Category:Buildings and structures in Putnam County, New York
Category:National Register of Historic Places in Putnam County, New York