Management

The National Park Service preserves unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations. The National Park Service cooperates with partners to extend the benefits of natural and cultural resource conservation and outdoor recreation throughout this country and the world.

We are the stewards of your park, charged with protecting its priceless resources. We enjoy sharing the park with you, so seek us out by stepping inside our visitor center or museum, attending a ranger program, or following our Facebook page. For a better understanding of how the National Park Service manages Saugus Iron Works, read our Compendium and Foundation Document, see our staff and offices, or join our volunteer team.

About

Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site, established April 5th, 1968, is 12.58 acres of Hammersmith's original 600 acres from the 17th century. Saugus Iron Works evokes the character of a working, water-powered, iron-making plant from the early Massachusetts Bay Colony. Visitors tour three mill buildings where an elaborate system of waterwheels and sluiceways powers 17th-century engineered mechanical equipment, demonstrating the core operations of Hammersmith. The site includes the reconstructed blast furnace, forge, slitting mill, and warehouse, together with the original slag pile and several post-Hammersmith era structures (i.e., Iron Works House, museum, visitor center contact station, blacksmith shop, maintenance buildings, and 1940s residences). Saugus Iron Works is a key site in Essex National Heritage Area.

Park Purpose

The purpose of Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site is to preserve and interpret the reconstructed Hammersmith site and resources associated with the first sustained, integrated ironworks in British Colonial America, which operated on the Saugus River from 1646 to approximately 1670.
Foundation Document, 2019

Park Significance

1. The 1646 Saugus Iron Works provided crucial iron commodities to the young colony and served as a training ground for skilled ironworkers, who established ironworks ventures throughout the northeast, laying the foundation of the U.S. iron and steel industry. Financed by British investors, Hammersmith was an integral part of the British Atlantic economy and a critical step in the development of the emerging U.S. economy.
2. Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site is a prominent example of the Colonial Revival Movement, historic preservation, and historical archeology in the first half of the the 20th century. Beginning with Wallace Nutting's preservation of the Iron Works House, and followed by the First Iron Works Association, the park memorializes the earliest successful integrated iron works in the country by reconstructing many of the buildings integral to its operation.

Foundation Document, 2019