The Reading Furnace Historic District is a national historic district that is located in Warwick Township and East Nantmeal Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania.

[1] The Reading Furnace was built in 1736 by iron pioneer William Branson, then later owned by his grandson, a prominent Iron works owner and American Revolutionary War officer, Samuel Van Leer.

[2] Branson also owned the nearby historical Warrenpoint House[3] The furnace was a center of colonial iron making and is associated with the introduction of the Franklin Stove, and the retreat of George Washington's army following its defeat at the Battle of Brandywine, where they came for musket repairs.

[4][5][6] The location is listed as the site of one of George Washington's temporary headquarters.

The contributing sites are the remains of an eighteenth-century dam and the foundation of the 1736 Reading Furnace.