Effort made to preserve furnaces
BRADYS BEND TWP, Armstrong County — The only surviving remnants of a hulking iron works that provided rails for tracks that preceded the Transcontinental Railway sit crumbling near a ballfield, awaiting the return of the disrespectful clutches of nature.
Huge stacked blocks and the fallen brick interior from two of four mighty blast furnaces at the former Great Western Iron Co., later the Bradys Bend Iron Co., protrude from the side of a hill near the ballpark and tennis court at the township building.
The fill that was poured into the top of the stacks when the plant closed in 1879 now forms a dirt slope that spews from the furnaces. Trees and brush had more than a century to grow atop the fill and in the surrounding ground, completely obscuring the precision-cut stone structures.
Anthony Pezzuti, township native and Navy veteran, said he and a small but dedicated group of volunteers formed six or seven years ago.
The group cleared the trees and brush that rendered the remains of the blast furnaces invisible to motorists on Route 68 and those using or visiting the sports facilities on property where a sprawling iron mill once employed hundreds.
“It was a lot of work,” Pezzuti said.
Now, those who read the ironworks' historical marker along Route 68 will be able to visually connect the actual furnace remnants with the text on the sign.
“Even though it's in disrepair, it's quite a history,” said Pezzuti.
Pezzuti's parents owned a general store in East Brady when he was a child. When the limestone mine where his father worked closed in 1958, the family moved to Chicago.
“We moved back in 1966 and I went into the Navy in '72,” he said.
After a 30-year military career, Pezzuti returned to his hometown to settle down.
He knew about the furnaces and their gradual return to nature, and decided to round up a few friends.
“I got bored in February when the weather was nice,” Pezzuti said. “That's how we got started.”
Once the furnaces were exposed, Pezzuti said the township paid about $600 per year to have them professionally sprayed so the growth would not return.
Now, he said the funds are no longer in the budget and he is no longer in the stage of life to rally community support for the furnaces.
“I'm getting too old,” Pezzuti said. “I wish the township or Armstrong County would wrap their arms around (the project.)”
He would like to see the furnaces restored to the condition of the Eliza Furnace in Vintondale, Indiana County, but Pezzuti said twice as much growth will shroud the furnaces in one year's time if they are not sprayed this summer.
“I don't feel like there's any support,” he said, “and I'm getting too old.”
Photos and information on the Bradys Bend Iron Works is available by searching “Bradys Bend Furnace Project” on Facebook.
