Welcome to EAGLE IRON WORKS and CURTIN VILLAGE

​A visit to Eagle Iron Works and Curtin Village is a journey back in time to the nineteenth-century heyday of the longest operating charcoal iron plantation in central Pennsylvania’s renowned Juniata Iron District. With its array of restored and replicated buildings, this expansive historic site is uniquely equipped to tell the story of the rise of the region’s leading industry before the Civil War, and its fitful post-war decline. Here you’ll learn about people who forged a century of history in our Commonwealth’s heartland—from affluent ironmasters at one end of the social spectrum to hardscrabble laborers at the other. Through hands-on demonstrations and walking tours of the furnace complex, you’ll enter the world of cold blast, charcoal-fueled iron production, with its ancient processes, massive infrastructure, and peculiar tools and mechanisms. The Curtin Mansion will engulf you in the genteel ambience of a Federal-era ironmaster’s mansion, furnished in the American Empire and Victorian styles favored by five generations of Curtins, including the birth family of Pennsylvania’s “Civil War Governor,” Andrew Gregg Curtin. A stroll among the humble houses in the workers’ village will evoke echoes of life in a rural outpost once reachable only by creek and bridle path, then by canal, and later by railroad and highway.

Find all this and more at Eagle Iron Works and Curtin Village, where Pennsylvania history comes alive!

Take a self-guided tour of the grounds any day dawn to dusk, or schedule your visit with a knowledgeable guide in period dress.  (See Tours in Navigation Menu.)  Eagle Iron Works and Curtin Village is owned by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and operated by the non-profit Roland Curtin Foundation. While no fees are charged for guided or self-guide tours, donations are gratefully received.

Guided tours include: 

• ​Federal-era Curtin Mansion (built 1830-1831)
• iron furnace complex
• workers village
• personal carriage of Pennsylvania’s Civil War Governor, Andrew Gregg Curtin

Located in a beautiful rural setting near Bald Eagle State Park, several miles northeast of the Milesburg Exit (Exit 158) of
I-80, Eagle Iron Works and Curtin village is a hidden gem waiting to be discovered by history buffs of all ages. Schedule your tour with us in advance, or just come by for a rest stop, a walk-around, or a picnic in the pavilion.                                                                               

Directions   From I-80, take Exit 158 Milesburg. Turn onto PA Route 150 north. Drive 2.5 miles and turn right at the "Curtin 1 ➝" sign onto Curtin Road. If arriving from the northeast via PA Route 150, this is a left-hand turn. Proceed across the bridge. Eagle Iron Works and Curtin Mansion are on your left. Parking is available between the Mansion and the railroad tracks.
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Contact  Email: [email protected]  Mailing address: P.O. Box 312, Bellefonte, PA 16823  Phone: 814-355-1982
Physical address: 251 Curtin Road, Howard, PA, 16841

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