Preserving Pine Forge mansion

The stone walls of the house Thomas Rutter built in Berks County have remained sturdy over centuries - from the colonial period and American Revolution to the Civil War and on to the present.

Within them, Rutter and his descendants were first to plot the course, in the early 1700s, of the iron industry in Pennsylvania, and later supplied munitions to George Washington's Continental Army.

At the Pine Forge Mansion, overlooking the Manatawney Creek, the Rutters spoke out against slavery and turned their home into a stop on the Underground Railroad network that helped thousands of African Americans find freedom.

But the elegant mansion, with its vibrant history, has fallen into disrepair. Paint is peeling, wood is rotting, and many interior walls and ceilings need replacing.

A turkey vulture roosts in the property's old paymaster's building, where Rutter's workers received their wages. Part of the adjacent commissary, where workers bought their supplies, has collapsed. And other outlying buildings across the rolling hills of the 575-acre property are in ruins.

The estate's owners, the nonprofit Allegheny-East Conference Corp. of Seventh-day Adventists, need about $20 million from church members, other benefactors, and government grants for the estate's renovation and preservation.

Organizers want to turn the mansion and accompanying buildings into an education center for students at the Allegheny-East Conference's neighboring Pine Forge Academy.

The owners also plan to hold public tours, living-history events, and musical and education programs.

Restoring the venerable property "would be a dream come true," said Cynthia Poole, former headmaster of the academy and a graduate who lived in the Rutter house as a student from 1959 to 1963, when it was used as a girls' dormitory. "We want to be a rich source of education."

The Rutter estate "is so important," said Tim Noble, architectural historian and conservator with Noble Preservation Services in Zionsville, Berks County. "This is the [1716] site of Pennsylvania's first bloomery forge," an industrial hearth fueled by charcoal that produced wrought iron from iron ore.

"It's the site of the earliest iron master's mansion in the state," Noble said, gazing at the Rutter house, known simply as Pine. "It's amazing that this has survived along with so many other buildings."

Embedded in the ground at the back door of the mansion is a millstone once used for grinding. A metal gong that was sounded outside the commissary to alert workers when the store was open is on display at the academy.

"I feel drawn to the manor house because of its history," said the Rev. Charles Cheatham, former president and chief executive officer of the Allegheny-East Conference. "Rutter didn't believe in slavery, so he employed blacks and Native Americans.

"Runaway slaves who left the South were hidden here before heading toward Canada," Cheatham said. "The Rutters were involved in the march toward freedom for African Americans."

Thomas Rutter, an English Quaker and staunch abolitionist, became a follower of George Keith, whose preaching in 1691 led to a split among Quakers. He became the pastor of a small group of Keithian Baptists in Philadelphia.

By 1714, Rutter and his family settled along the Manatawney Creek at William Penn's direction to determine whether the land possessed iron-ore deposits. He was friendly with local Indian tribes and purchased hundreds of acres in what would become Douglass Township, Berks County.

"It was a vast site with a lot of resources," said lawyer David Rutter, a descendant.

Rutter's mansion was constructed in three sections. The central and oldest was completed in 1725. Two wings were added, one between 1797 and 1817 and the other in about 1918.

The property - along with its historic buildings - was purchased for $42,000 in 1945 by Seventh-day Adventists, who opened it as a coed college-preparatory boarding school.

The manor house was used as a dorm, the gristmill as an administration and classroom building, the barn as a chapel, and the workers' cottage as housing for teachers and staff. The land is now worth several million dollars.

"We know what we have here is eminently restorable," Noble said this month during a tour of the site.

In the 19th-century portion of the Rutter mansion, Poole paused in a doorway. "I lived in this room," she said with a smile.

"Our goal is for students to reap the full benefit of this site," said Phyllis Mitchell, president of the Thomas Rutter Foundation and Pine Forge Historical Society. "We want them to know about its history."

They could also help with tours and restoration work.

Along with the teachers and staff, the pupils "would provide the energy" for the site's operation, said Mitchell, who plans to hold Pine Forge History Day on May 5, when "students wear period costumes, sing, and have narrations."

Academy classes "tour the house" today, said the school's headmaster, Delmas Campbell, who has "been surprised by their level of interest."

The school still has 18th- and 19th-century ledger books showing payments to the workers, as well as their purchases from the commissary.

"Young people will be the direct beneficiaries" of the restoration effort, said Wayne Humphrey, a 1964 academy graduate, who has been coordinating the campus' development. "People can see these historic sites, and scholars can review a place where America had some of its beginning."

The $20 million price tag to restore the site "is a bargain," said lawyer Kirk Mitchell, who advises the Rutter Foundation and is Phyllis Mitchell's son.

Walking through the mansion this month, Cheatham looked at all the work that has to be done. A massive door lay in the middle of one room, floors needed restoring, pieces of wood were stacked in a corner, and gaping holes were visible in interior walls and ceilings.

But he envisioned the estate Rutter built as it once was. "We're so proud of what we have," he said. "It needs to be shown."

at 856-779-3833 or ecolimore@phillynews.com.

For more information about the historic buildings, contact lmartin@pineforgeacademy.org, and about the academy, go to pineforgeacademy.org.