Wooden spools in Phoenixville

Iron town on French Creek

Phoenixville sits where French Creek runs into the Schuylkill River, at the northern edge of Chester County. For more than a century the town was defined by the Phoenix Iron Works, whose furnaces and rolling mills made iron and later steel, including the riveted Phoenix column used in bridges and buildings across the country. The works closed in the twentieth century, and much of the land along French Creek has since been cleared, cleaned up or redeveloped, though the old foundry building still stands as a reminder. Bridge Street, the main street, has become a busy strip of restaurants, shops and the restored Colonial Theatre, and the hills around it hold row houses, twins and larger Victorian houses.

A borough being rebuilt

Redevelopment brings electricians. New apartment buildings, conversions of old commercial and industrial buildings, restaurant fit-outs on Bridge Street and wholesale rewiring of century-old homes have kept a lot of work going in 19460. That work leaves a wide spread of reels:

• plywood spools of building wire from houses and apartments;
• 24- to 36-inch reels from service upgrades and new buildings;
• larger reels from the new utility and site work on the redeveloped iron-works land;
• the odd steel or stencilled returnable from a utility contractor.

Townships around the borough

Phoenixville is surrounded by Schuylkill, Charlestown and East Pikeland townships in Chester County, and faces Upper Providence and Lower Providence in Montgomery County across the river. New housing developments in those townships, warehouses and business parks along US 422, and the farms and estates further out all produce reels. Builders often keep spools at a site trailer until the last phase is done, then want everything gone at once.

Roads in and out

PA 23 runs through the borough east toward Valley Forge and King of Prussia and west toward the French Creek valley. PA 113 heads north across the river toward Trappe and Harleysville and south toward Kimberton. PA 29 runs south toward Malvern and the Great Valley, and north across the river to Collegeville. US 422 passes just across the Schuylkill, with interchanges that give fast access to King of Prussia and Pottstown. For a load bound for New Jersey, a truck either takes US 422 and I-76 to the Walt Whitman Bridge or heads south on US 202 and I-476 toward I-95 and the Commodore Barry.

Hills, alleys and old houses

Some of Phoenixville's streets are very steep, and many homes have narrow alleys behind them. Before a pickup, tell us whether the reels are at the front or back, how steep the approach is, and whether a box truck can get down the alley. Reels in a basement may have gone in through a bulkhead door; they will come out that way too.

Reels as part of the town's history

Old timber cable reels sometimes turn up in the outbuildings of Phoenixville's older properties, left from long-finished jobs. They can be heavy, built of thick boards, and sometimes held together with old-style bolts and plates. If they are sound, they make good tables or garden pieces. If they are rotten, the wood goes for recycling and the steel for scrap. Either way, send a photo before we come.

Buying a reel for a Phoenixville shop

Bars, cafés and shops along Bridge Street sometimes want reels as tables, counters or display stands. A 30- or 36-inch reel with sound, flat flanges is the usual choice. We can deliver when we are collecting nearby; see spool tables for what to look for and how to finish one.

Valley Forge across the river

Phoenixville sits just upstream from Valley Forge National Historical Park, and the two are linked by PA 23 along the river. Visitors pass through on their way to the park, and the town's restaurants and shops depend on them. Hospitality fit-outs along Bridge Street and Main Street produce spools and small reels.

The Blob and the Colonial Theatre

The 1958 film The Blob was partly filmed at the Colonial Theatre, and the town celebrates it each year with a festival. The theatre has been restored and expanded, and work like that uses careful, specialised electrical installation.

Mont Clare and the canal

Across the river, Mont Clare has a restored stretch of the Schuylkill Canal with a lock and towpath. Riverside houses there are covered too.

Brewpubs, distilleries and makers

Phoenixville's downtown has a lively scene of brewpubs, a distillery, bakeries, artists' studios and maker spaces. Owners there often ask for reels as tables, bar-top bases or display stands, preferring weathered timber with visible grain. Tell us the height, diameter and finish you want. We can sometimes match a set of three or four for a taproom patio.

French Creek's upper valley

Upstream toward Kimberton and Saint Peters Village, quiet hamlets and orchards occasionally offer an antique hardwood drum from an old barn.

Questions

Do you cover Kimberton, Spring City and Royersford?

Yes. Kimberton, Spring City and the Montgomery County towns across the river are all covered.

Can you collect from the redevelopment sites along French Creek?

Yes, with the contractor's agreement and inside the site's delivery windows.