Chestnut Hill was the former name of this site, owned by the Grubb family, descendants of Peter Grubb, an immigrant from Wales who founded the Cornwall Furnace in Lebanon County in 1742. In 1851, the Chestnut Hill Iron Ore Company was incorporated and remained active until 1907. Thousands of tons of ore were mined here and sent to nearby anthracite furnaces for processing, primarily along the Susquehanna River between Marietta and Columbia. As higher grades of ore were found in other parts of the country and more efficient technologies emerged, this site and others in Pennsylvania gradually closed.