James Peter Allaire founded his first company, a brass foundry, at 462 Cherry Street, New York, in 1804. Today, the Howell Works is a registered historic site known as Allaire Village. The property remained in private hands until being bequeathed to the state in 1941.

Allaire eventually transformed the Howell Works into an almost completely self-sufficient community, with its own housing and food supply for the workforce, its own post office, church, school and company store, even its own currency.Īfter bog iron was made redundant by the increasing availability of iron ore, Allaire closed the Howell Works and eventually retired there with his family.

The Howell Works also manufactured its own lines of cast iron products. It is notable as one of the earliest American examples of a company town.Īllaire purchased the Howell Works property to provide pig iron for his Allaire Iron Works in New York, which was at the time a leading manufacturer of marine steam engines.

Howell Works (later the Howell Works Company) was a bog iron-based production facility for pig iron which was established in New Jersey in the early 19th century by American engineer and philanthropist James P.

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