Town’s Rebirth Follows Foundry’s Reopening : Economy: The steel plant had been the heart of a community since 1740 until it shut down in 1987. Now furnaces and hopes of merchants are kindled again.

At Esposito’s Pizzeria, business has improved since last spring’s reopening of one of the oldest steel foundries in the country, located just across the street.

Half a mile away, the manager of Birdsboro Pharmacy also has noticed steelworkers stopping by on the way to and from work.

This blue-collar town (population 4,216) near Reading is preparing for a rebirth of sorts, in step with the expected growth of the Birdsboro Corp. foundry, which had been shut down by a labor strike in 1987.

Birdsboro Ferrocast Inc. paid $8.6 million to buy the 251-year-old foundry assets from industrialist Victor Posner in March. Partial operations resumed the following month, with production of ingots for use in making pipes.

“The foundry should have a positive effect on the community once it gets up and going,” said Edward J. Swoyer Jr., secretary of the Greater Berks (County) Development Fund.

The reopened Birdsboro foundry currently employs about three dozen people and expects to have at least 75 employees by the end of the year and several hundred within a few years.

The foundry produces steel castings up to 200,000 pounds, the heaviest in the nation. The castings are used for ship and marine compressors, fossil fuel generating equipment, nuclear and hydroelectric power plants, and paper and cement-making equipment.

Birdsboro Chairman Elmer D. Gates says he expects that the company will remain viable regardless of economic conditions since it’s the only place in the country where the castings are manufactured.

But residents say there’s more than just economic factors at stake.

“The town and the foundry sort of grew together,” said Mayor Russell H. Mountz, who has lived in Birdsboro since 1938. “The steel mill was the main function in town.”

William Bird and son Marcus--after whom the borough was named--began the foundry in 1740 as a small, iron-producing operation specializing in handcrafted pots, kettles and stoves.

Thirty years later, the younger Bird built the famous Hopewell Furnace nearby, the remains of which are preserved as a National Historic Site. The factories at Hopewell and Birdsboro churned out iron for wagon wheels, farm equipment and more stoves.

During the Revolutionary War, Marcus Bird provided muskets and cannons for soldiers fighting for independence. The foundry continued to serve the country during subsequent wars. In fact, business peaked during World War II, when the company operated an armorcast plant that churned out weapons and tanks for the Allied troops. It was also the town’s main employer with 1,800 workers.

The company began producing mining tools and machinery in the early 1900s, starting a tradition of making the heavy equipment for which it became known. The foundry at that time moved into steel production.

In its heyday, most of the local stores and businesses were within three blocks of the main plant downtown, according to Mountz.

But since then the armorcast plant has closed. Most stores and businesses moved outward, now concentrated in shopping malls along the highways leading downtown.

Birdsboro has become what the mayor described as “a bedroom community,” with more and more residents commuting to work elsewhere.

Ron Schwendt, owner of the Deli, a local sandwich shop, said that while business has picked up since the foundry’s reopening, the increase so far has been modest.

Nonetheless, residents are optimistic things will turn around.

“Every business in town is going to get better,” said Tony Lubrano, brother of the owner of Esposito’s Pizzeria.