Elizabeth Furnace

Annapolis Landscape Architects (ALA) developed a historic landscape master plan for the core area of the 650-acre Elizabeth Furnace. Converting the private residence and grounds to a venue for weddings and other gatherings creates a purpose for the property which was underutilized. The master plan relocated the primary entrance into the property to enhance the entry sequence for the public entering the property. A 75-car parking area was nestled into the forest out of sight from the visitor gathering areas and the entry drive was realigned by ALA to acknowledge the historic crossroads.

The Elizabeth Furnace is an eighteenth-century village which has survived two and a half centuries essentially intact. Thirteen colonial-era buildings, constructed between 1746 and 1788, are still standing in the 10-acre core of the property which includes the furnace and ironworks. The large number of workers required for the furnace necessitated workers’ housing, plantation-style outbuildings, and farmlands to produce food: a creamery and dairy, multiple cold cellars for food storage, at least two blacksmith shops, a glasshouse, and even a general store which was still in operation as late as the 1830’s.

The iron furnace, when operational in the eighteenth-century, produced among many other items armaments for the Revolutionary War. General George Washington quartered Hessian soldiers at Elizabeth Furnace and the site remains largely unaltered. Extant buildings include the Stiegel-Coleman House, a 100-foot-long stable, an ice house, a coal house, a tenant house, and a privy (all stone buildings). Electricity and indoor plumbing were not introduced until the late 1960’s.

The Stiegel-Coleman Mansion was designated as a National Historic Landmark on November 13, 1966. The earliest structures on the site were built in 1740, and the plantation was passed to the current owners, the Coleman family, in 1778.