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ALLEGHENY COUNTY
in Western Pennsylvania
had two furnaces. So much building has taken place over the past two centuries that nothing remains to identify the exact furnace sites, and they are, at best, only estimates based on limited knowledge. The locations were not visited and no remains are visible.
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Clinton - Clinton Furnace was built in 1859 by Graff, Bennett and Company. It was a coke furnace and the second blast furnace built in Allegheny County. No trace remains.(s&t)
Quoting Sharp & Thomas "It was on the south bank of the Monongahela River about 1/2 way between Point Bridge (covered in those days) and the Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railroad Bridge, which also has disappeared. Only the two piers and the sealed entrance to the tunnel through Mount Washington remain.
John Kane, well known Pittsburgh artist, painted a picture of this furnace and the buildings connected to it. It shows the furnace and its relationship to the bridge and to the churches still standing on Mount Washington. The furnace stood back from the river, about where Carson Street is now." (s&t). See Pittsburgh maps for location.
Shadyside - Shadyside "was built by George Anshutz, Anthony Beelen and William Amberson in 1793. It was in blast for only about a year, closing because the nearby ore supply failed and ore brought in from Roaring Run near Apollo proved to be too expensive.
The furnace stood at the foot of Amberson Avenue and to the right (in Pittsburgh). When the Pennsylvania Railroad was built through this valley in about 1860 the furnace was torn down and nothing remains(s&t).
When Alexander Pitcairn's house was being built, the cinder bank supposedly was uncovered; but this either is incorrect or the furnace was farther up the run than the histories say, because the slag or cinder piles were always downhill from stacks, never above. So much construction has taken place in this area in the past century and a half that it is doubtful if the exact site ever can be located" (quote from s&t) See Pittsburgh maps for location.
Allegheny County Special Sources:
A Guide to the Old Stone Blast Furnaces in Western Pennsylvania, Myron B. Sharp and William H. Thomas The Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, 1966 (s&t)
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