05/31/2026
By popular demand, here is a bit of history on the Southfields Ironworks and Furnace, extracted from James M. Ransom's "Vanishing Ironworks of the Ramapos."
Founded in 1804, it was built by the same legendary Townsend family who operated the Stering works. In fact, Ransom suggested that the Southfields furnace began when the Sterling furnace of that era was abandoned. Southfields Furnace specialized in stamped-iron, or "stamp iron," and what ruins exist today likely date from when the furnace was rebuilt between 1839 and 1840.
At its height, the Southfields Iron Works even boasted a mile-long spur railroad with a formal name: the "Southfield Branch Railroad." Possibly Orange County's shortest incorporated railroad (E.H. Harriman's Incline Railway, which was shorter, was private), the Southfields Branch Railroad had one steam engine that transported iron products between the furnace and nearby Erie Railroad. The railroad was built in 1868 and operated until the furnace closed between 1887 and 1889.
What remains today of the Southfields Furnace is the core superstructure of what was once a much larger site. Many stone, wooden, and metal elements, including a tower that extended over the entire site, have since faded into time. One full image, in Ransom's book (not the postcard below), shows the furnace before these elements were lost to time. Regardless, it still remains as one of Orange County's well-preserved iron furnaces.
