How Phoenixville brought its wheel back home
After it was decommissioned in New Jersey in 1989, the wheel was shipped to an amusement park in Biloxi, Mississippi, where it stood for 10 years before it was sold to a retirement community in South Jersey, said Conroy, who is also a board member of the Schuylkill River Heritage Center, a nonprofit museum dedicated to the industrial legacy of the town and the river.
In 2008, Barbara Cohen, president emerita of the center, discovered that not only did one of four Phoenix Wheels still exist — but that it was just across state lines.
Borough officials and leaders of the center presented Cohen with an award Saturday for the pivotal role she played in the wheel’s return.
“She literally was like, ‘We’re going to bring that back to Phoenixville,’ and then immediately acquired it,” Conroy said.
Barbara Cohen, center, president emeritus of the Schuylkill River Heritage Center, was honored for her vision and “extraordinary dedication” to reassembling the wheel in Phoenixville at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 6, 2026. (Emily Neil/WHYY)
The pieces were transported back home and stored there for nearly two more decades as Cohen, the center’s board members, elected officials and community supporters, worked to raise the more than $2 million it would take to complete the project.
That effort ultimately succeeded with a state grant of $750,000 from the Commonwealth Financing Authority, contributions from foundations, businesses and community members, and the backing of a private funder. Fundraising efforts are continuing to support the wheel’s ongoing maintenance.
For the enormous task of restoring, reassembling and installing the wheel’s parts, Gern Jaeger, owner of Specialty Metals Welding & Fabrication, worked with engineer Tom Zeigler.
Zeigler said Saturday that when he first saw the wheel disassembled in a field at the University of Valley Forge, a casual observer would see it as “a pile of junk.”
“But Barbara had a vision, and for some unknown reason, she placed her trust in me,” Zeigler said.
The 78-foot-tall “Phoenix Wheel” was a fixture in Asbury Park, New Jersey, for nearly a century. It’s now returned as a permanent sculpture to Phoenixville, Pa., the town where it was forged more than 130 years ago. (Emily Neil/WHYY)
They visited Hagley Museum in Delaware, where Phoenix Iron and Steel Company’s records were stored, in search of documents showing how the wheel had been manufactured and assembled.
“As we were going through the records, we found a heartbreaking entry that said ‘Drawings destroyed,’ so at that point we knew we were starting from scratch,” Zeigler said.
To reassemble the wheel, Jaeger, Zeigler and their team painstakingly measured thousands of unmarked pieces, crafting replacements for parts that were damaged or missing.
Jaeger said the reassembled wheel is a tribute to the skill and craftsmanship of the men and women of Phoenix Iron and Steel Company who first made the wheel.
“They’re certainly not here to see it, but maybe somebody in their lineage can see this and be proud of them,” he said.
Chester County Commissioner Marian Moskowitz said many of Phoenixville’s current residents are descended from the steelworkers who played a vital role in the town’s industrial past.
“I will bet you there are many people in this community … whose great-great-grandparents worked on this, and it’s just so amazing to me that it comes back home,” she said.