For most workers, life in Hope was anything but prosperous. Most furnace employees lived in Hope, a company town of about 300 residents that sprang up east of the furnace. Like many company towns of the era, the furnace provided housing and paid workers with scrip from the company store. Merchandise was overpriced, and the scrip was worthless in other stores. While the ironmaster, storekeepers, and company secretary lived well, most iron workers lived in small 16 to 18 foot square dirt-floored log houses. During wartime prosperity, the town swelled to over 500 residents. Hope was abandoned when its furnace closed in 1874, after having operated for only 20 years. The legacy of the furnaces lives on in the stone towers scattered over the landscape of the Hanging Rock iron region and in the imaginations of those who visit them.