Dover Blast Furnace, c. 1833

The Center Street swing bridge in the Cleveland flats. When the bridge is positioned over the Cuyahoga River the west end of it is in the same location as the former location of the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace Company. Photo by Nathan Holth | historicbridges.org

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In the March 1, 2022, edition of the Observer, I penned a Digging Dover column exploring the date of construction of a house at 27060 Center Ridge Road. Part of that exploration was trying to determine if there was any connection between this house and the earliest industrial building in Dover – the Dover Blast Furnace.

“A History and Civics of Dover Township” by Hadsell and Rutherford states that between 1830 and 1835 the Dover Blast Furnace was built (near the northeast corner of Dover Center and Center Ridge Road). It burned down in 1844. Its location is still shown on an 1852 map as the “iron furnace” and is depicted as north of the current location of 27060 Center Ridge Road.

The blast furnace was used to transform bog iron ore to pig iron which was then delivered to the Cleveland flats for further processing. Bog iron was created by a geologic process along former beach ridges and found in low spots on either side of Center Ridge Road in Dover.

More information about the blast furnace and how its output was used was serendipitously found in the “First Directory of Cleveland and Ohio City 1837-38,” which was reproduced and presented by The Cleveland Directory Co. The original edition was published in Cleveland by Sanford & Lott, Book and Job Printers in 1837. This is what the directory says on page 124:

“The Cuyahoga Steam Furnace, situate[d] on River St. corner of Washington St. was incorporated in 1834, for the manufacture of cast and wrought iron work, adapted to the wants of the country. Capital $100,000 – three fourths of which is paid in. Josiah Barber, Richard Lord, John W. Allen, and Charles Hoyt, are the principal stock holders.

"The old establishment was burned to the ground in the spring of 1834, soon after incorporation; since which time the present substantial brick structure, of 235 feet front, with a wing of 90 feet deep, has been erected for the different branches of the business; and is calculated to give employment to upwards of 100 workmen. The amount of castings turned off during the past year exceeded 500 tons, besides a great quantity of wrought iron work,&c. giving employment to seventy men.

"Owing to the rapid development of the agricultural resources of this and the western states, requiring increased facilities for the erection of saw and flouring mills, the attention of the company has been chiefly given to improved geering [sic] and wrought iron work for them; and have furnished the greater proportion of the better class of mills in this region with their irons.

"The establishment is under the control of Mr. Charles Hoyt, who has acquired a reputation for its manufacture that will compete with any other of the kind in the country.

"The pig metal used here is chiefly obtained from a blast furnace at Dover (12 miles west,) belonging to the same concern, and is equal in quality to the best Scotch pig.”

The Cuyahoga Steam Furnace was located in the Cleveland flats on the west bank of the Cuyahoga River where currently the west end of the Center Street swing bridge ends. This is the 1901 metal truss bridge painted bright red which links the west and east side of the flats and recently re-opened last October after 21 months of reconstruction.

The Dover Blast Furnace and the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace pre-date any railroads in Cleveland and even pre-date the Detroit Plank Road which was not constructed until 1849. The transport of pig iron by horse and buggy over dirt roads must have been a challenge.