The administration building was build in the mid-19th century. We’re fairly sure of that much, although it’s certainly possible that there were buildings on that specific site that predated that time.
Separately from the construction of the original building — and we can date this only approximately as well — a wing was constructed on the side closer to the furnace. We cannot say if the addition was constructed elsewhere and moved to the site, or whether it was constructed in its present location, but at a slightly different time.
Left exposed to demonstrate this point were two vertical structural elements of the main building and the wing. Clearly the element on the left was sawn by a “sash saw” — leaving its telltale up and down marks, while the one on the right was sawn by a circular saw, which does not tend to leave such a pattern.
We know from several sources that the building served as the administration building for the East Canaan facilities of the Barnum and Richardson Company until around 1920. During this period it also was a Western Union telegraph office, and very likely a smallish company store. Additionally, in in the later years of this period, a metallurgy laboratory was in the building.
Following the demise of the Barnum and Richardson Company, the building was repurposed as a residence. Many structural modifications took place during this period.
For example, the former vault became a bedroom. The wing closest to the furnace, which had been both an office and a storeroom, likewise became a bedroom. A fireplace was built in what had been the public room and was now the living room. And stucco was applied to the building’s exterior.
In the 1990s, the office building began its current evolution into the Barnum and Richardson Research Center of the Beckley Furnace Industrial Monument. Other changes were made in this period, including removal of the interior staircase (not shown on either plan) that provided basement access from the public room/living room area.
Today, evolution of the building continues, with both maintenance and restoration projects intended both to preserve the structure and to make is more useful in its new role.