Hopewell Borough is located on the eastern boundary line, between Hopewell Township and Broad Top Township, where the Yellow Creek merges with the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River. Although Hopewell Borough is located essentially outside of both townships, it is generally considered to fall within the bounds of Broad Top Township.
The town, located on the 'Broad Top' plateau, was located in an area rich in semi-bituminous coal, a type of coal used to power the steam locomotives that were popular in the 1800's.
The coal mining industry got a boost with the introduction of the railroads, which made the transport of mined coal more economical and efficient. The Huntingdon & Broad Top Railroad came to this region between 1852 and 1855. The railroad was chartered on 06 May 1852 as the Huntingdon and Broad Top Mountain Railroad and Coal Company.18 The construction of the railroad was started in 1853. By 1855, thirty-one miles of rail had been laid between Huntingdon and Hopewell Borough. The line traveled through Saxton in Liberty Township, where the primary repair facilities were located. [The original repair shop was located at Hopewell and relocated to Saxton in 1857.] Another line, constructed by the Bedford Railroad Company, was laid between Mt. Dallas and Hopewell in 1863/64. That line was merged with the Huntingdon & Broad Top Mountain Railroad on 17 August 1864.
Hopewell Furnace was constructed by William King and Thomas Davis in the year 1800 and a forge was constructed in the years following. The furnace first went into blast in 1801 and continued as a cold-blast furnace until 1820. A furnace that employed the 'cold blast' process did not preheat the air that was blown into it. The conventional thought prior to the 1820s was that cold air being fed into the furnace would contribute to the production of superior grade iron. Cold air contains less moisture, and therefore was considered preferable to hot air. After 1820, the Hopewell Furnace continued to be operated as a hot blast furnace by a succession of owners.
A village grew up around the Hopewell Furnace as early as the furnace was put into operation. Such villages, providing housing and living necessities for the furnace workers, would usually come into existence wherever a furnace was constructed. Such 'company towns' would grow and thrive as long as the 'company' (in this case an iron furnace) was in business. In 1855 the town of Hopewell was laid out by the Hopewell Coal & Iron Company. The Hopewell Coal & Iron Company was apparently optimistic that the town they laid out would become a thriving metropolis. They laid out roughly three hundred and thirty lots.
According to Ben Van Horn "The original name of the village was Alaquippa, apparently for the influential Indian queen, Alaquippa, as was Alaquippa's Town, the Indian village at Mt. Dallas further south on the river." Although Mr. Van Horn did not note the source of his information, it apparently came from the History of Bedford, Somerset and Fulton Counties, Pennsylvania, where the statement appears: "The name of the postoffice at Steeltown is Yellow Creek. Hopewell was the name of the original office in this township, while the office at Hopewell village was known as Alaquippa. Subsequently Hopewell was changed to Yellow Creek and Alaquippa to Hopewell." According to the US Postal Service, the post office was established as Allaquippa on 03 June 1854. The post office received mail from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania two times a week. As soon as the railroad was constructed into this region, the mail began to be carried by that means. The name of the post office was changed from Allaquippa to Hopewell on 24 April 1858. Confirmation of that cannot be made through the United States Postal Service. Their list of current and discontinued offices does not include the name of Alaquippa as a post office that ever existed in Bedford County.
The town of Hopewell was incorporated into a borough on 07 January 1895, forty years after it was laid out. In 1906, the now-Borough of Hopewell contained two 'good' hotels, a few churches, an opera house, a school, four or five general stores, a millinery, and meat market and "about seventy private dwellings." By that time the furnace had been closed for about twenty years.
