Pittsford's Iron Industry

In 1791, Israel Keith built an iron blast furnace two miles east of here, adjacent to what is now Furnace Brook. Materials for the smelting process included iron ore, manganese, and charcoal from Chittenden, with limestone flux from Pittsford. In 1826, Simeon Granger & Sons purchased the furnace from Keiths successor, Nathan Gibbs. The furnace was rebuilt after a fire and in 1829, the Grangers erected a foundry nearby. Worker housing, a company store, school, and the Granger familys brick house surrounded the foundry to form the village of Grangerville. (continued from other side) At its peak, the Granger foundry produced 300 tons of cast iron stoves a year for kitchens, laundries, parlors, and bedrooms, which were shipped across the eastern seaboard. They also produced kettles, griddles, basins, flatirons, and door hardware. Later owners included C. & E.L. Granger; Granger, Hodges & Co.; Pittsford Iron Co.; Vermont Iron Co.; and Jeremiah Pritchard. Under Pritchard, sixty men were employed at the furnace, foundry, mines and charcoal kilns. As local resources were depleted, iron ore from eastern New York was shipped by rail to Pittsford. In 1882, operations ceased and Vermonts last operating iron furnace closed. Several stoves are in the collection of the Pittsford Historical Society Museum.