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Laurel Brick Works in 1915.
Brookes gun, Treadager Iron Works, Richmond, VA.
Experimental multishot cannon at Treadager Iron Works, Richmond, VA.
Blower turnbines used in Treadager Iron Works, Richmond, VA
Vents removed from the top of buildings which have been torn down at Treadager Iron Works, Richmond, VA.
Company Store at Treadager Iron Works, Richmond, VA.
Blocking chain at Treadager Iron Works, Richmond, VA.
Treadegar Iron Works, Richmond, VA. The Tredegar Iron Company was organized in 1836 by Francis B. Deane, Jr., an experienced Virginia blast furnace operator, and a group of Richmond businessmen, interested in expanding the local market for railroad iron. The company was chartered in 1837 and the following year acquired the Virginia Foundry Company. The earliest products were, for the most part, railroad construction, including axles, wheels, and gears. By 1841 though, the company was incurring great debts and the investors moved to reorganize the firms management. The most significant change made was the naming of Joseph R. Anderson (1813-1892), as the companys new agent. In 1842, Deane resigned as superintendent and John Tanner was hired as his replacement. The company, through Anderson, soon secured U.S. Navy contracts for chain cable, shot, and shell. In 1843, Anderson leased the property for five years and worked on expanding the market into ordnance and railroad sales, producing angle iron, axles, rails, and shells. In 1848 Anderson purchased the Tredegar property and did business in his own name, Joseph R. Anderson and Company. The foundry operations were enlarged and a cotton factory on the land was converted to a spike factory. The high cost of transporting goods to Northern markets and competition from the British iron industry led Anderson to expand into the Southern market. Anderson also entered into a number of partnerships to manage the rolling mill and an enlarged locomotive operation. The locomotive partnership, begun with John Souther, led to the 1852 construction of a new boiler works and a finishing shop. Under a new partnership, Matthew Delaney managed the machine shop and locomotive operations. His son, Alexander Delaney revived locomotive sales with better designs and Tredegar became the largest antebellum Southern locomotive maker. Anderson also leased land on the site to Lewis D. Crenshaw for a new flour milling operation, and to A.J. Bowers and Asa Snyder for a stove works. Tredegar also owned several coal mines and blast furnaces, including Cloverdale, Grace, Catawba, and Rebecca in Botetourt County; the Australia in Allegheny County; and Mt. Torry in Augusta County, Virginia. By the beginning of the Civil War, Tredegar was the largest ironworks in the Confederacy, with almost 700 black and white workers. The ironworks was virtually the sole source of heavy guns, projectiles, gun carriages, plates for iron-clad vessels, wheels and axles for railroad rolling stock, furnace machinery, and a variety of other products for Confederate munitions factories and navy yards. Although heavily damaged during the evacuation fire in April 1865, Tredegar made a swift transition back to peacetime production. The company was reorganized in 1867 as a new corporation, the Tredegar Company, whose assets were the Tredegar works, including the Armory rolling mill. Joseph R. Anderson and Company continued to hold interests in the remaining furnace properties. In 1868 Tredegar received a major contract to supply the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad with rails and bridgework for the entire line. A national sales office in New York City was established, with John Tanner dispatched to run it, and a network of agents were positioned across the country. Foundry, rolling mill, blacksmith, carpenter, and boiler shop facilities were expanded by 1869, and a new puddling mill was erected. The rail rolling facilities were upgraded and new chair mills, spike machines, and horseshoe machines were introduced. The company made some non-railroad products, including engines, boilers, cast-iron pipes, nails, marine plates, bar and angle iron, decorative iron building fronts, and structural bridge iron. By 1873 Tredegar had more than twice its prewar capacity and employment that exceeded its highest antebellum totals. During this period the company supplied iron bridges, rails, and thousands of kegs of spike which were used to rebuild southern railroads. The company survived the panic of 1873 but was forced into receivership in 1876 when several northern railroads with which it had contracts and agreements were forced into bankruptcy. As iron gave way to steel in the 1870s and 1880s, Tredegar found it did not have the capital necessary to make the production conversion. The companys financial footings had been rebuilt by the 1890s but the works then produced for a local market. Tredegar continued to make iron products, producing ammunition for the Spanish American War, World War I, and World War II. Spikes, horseshoes, rail fastenings, and car wheels were constant sellers, and led to expanded facilities for their production. The period between the two world wars was one of low profits, although the rail fastenings continued to be the primary market products. In 1957 the company sold its Richmond plant to the Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company, and moved some of its rolling mill equipment to Chesterfield County, where operations persisted until 1986. In 1987 the rolling mill was sold to Cleveland Track Material in Cleveland, Ohio. The Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company, in 1962, purchased the Ethyl Corporation, including the name, and so in turn, the Tredegar property in Richmond became Ethyl Corporation property. In 1973 Ethyl Corporation paid for the restoration of the gun foundry and its chimney. The Valentine Museum/Richmond History Center established a museum at the site of the ironworks in 1992. The Valentine Riverside Museum restored the outdoor machinery and structures, as well as the Pattern Building, Office Building and Carpenters shop. Unfortunately the museum was not a success and closed on 4 September 1995. In 2003 the Tredegar National Civil War Center was created to operate a museum at the site.
Union breast works behind the Carter House, Franklin, TN.
Laurel Brick Works in 1915.
Laurel Brick Works in 1915.
Laurel Brick Works in 1915.
See photo in original gallery.
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