Morley Williams excavated at the Blacksmith's Shop during the 1930s.

As early as the 1930s the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association was interested in George Washington’s Blacksmith Shop as a possible candidate for reconstruction.  During this decade, Morley Williams, a landscape architect from Harvard University, was conducting historical and archaeological research at the plantation and he supervised the initial excavations at the smithy. Williams and the Association were interested in identifying structures and other features present during 1799, the year of George Washington’s death, to enhance the authenticity of the historic house museum.  Besides numerous documentary references to the shop, the structure was depicted on the Vaughan plan drawn in 1787.  At some point a brick Ice House was constructed at the site of the Blacksmith Shop and debate over the age of this structure, the date of the demise of the smithy, and the Blacksmith's Shop size and appearance were the goals of this and subsequent excavations conducted over the next half-century.

The Association sought physical evidence for the exact location and appearance of the Blacksmith's Shop, as well as about the activities undertaken at the Blacksmith's Shop to support a reconstruction of the building and interpret blacksmithing at the museum, an important component of the plantation economy. Besides Morley Williams’s work in the 1930s, restoration architect Walter Macomber excavated at the site during the 1950s and 1960s as did the Virginia Research Center for Archaeology during their survey and archaeological assessment of the plantation in 1984 -- 85. Dennis J. Pogue, Mount Vernon’s first Chief Archaeologist, completed this final excavation in 1989.

The base of the brick blacksmith's forge.

The archaeological excavations at the Blacksmith's Shop discovered abundant structural evidence for the Shop, including a fragmentary brick foundation, probably four by eight-feet in dimension when whole, interpreted as the base of a forge. The foundation has a void in the center, with one wall thicker than the others. This is characteristic of forge bases, with the void marking the location of the fire box. The thicker wall served as support for the chimney that would have started about three feet above ground level. Two postholes and their 10-inch round postmolds were also discovered 18-feet apart. These are aligned with the forge base and are thought to be two of the corner posts for the Shop itself. Unfortunately, the other structural posts were destroyed during construction of the icehouse.

The Blacksmith's Shop was supported by wooden posts set into postholes.

Although the icehouse destroyed the physical evidence for the other posts, documentary sources provide an insight into their possible placement. On the Vaughan plan, the Blacksmith Shop measures 12 x 40-feet, but it is depicted as approximately 18 x 24-feet on the earlier sketch that Vaughan made while visiting Mount Vernon. Since the archaeological evidence also points to an 18-foot north-south dimension, the 18 x 24-foot size seems more likely. The discrepancy in the footprint of the shops on the two plans was probably due to the desire on the part of Samuel Vaughan to render the layout of the plantation in a more regular manner.

The Vaughan plan depicts the Blacksmith Shop (top left) as 12 x 40 feet. Click image to see the 18 x 24-foot Shop on Vaughan's earlier sketch (#13).

Large quantities of obvious smith’s waste were recovered from the two surviving structural postholes. Therefore, blacksmithing must already have been undertaken nearby when those posts were set. A reference from 1768 indicates that extensive carpentry work was done on the Blacksmith Shop, indicating that the structure was rebuilt or replaced at that time. The waste found in the postholes supports that interpretation, although no physical evidence for an earlier shop has been revealed to date. Therefore, it appears these structural remains relate to the second shop in the area, probably built in 1768 to replace an earlier shop.

The archaeological plan of the Blacksmith's Shop site.

In addition to the building’s posts, two other sets of postholes relate to fencelines that connected with those two corners of the structure. Two post holes, spaced nine feet apart, represent a post and rail fence that began at the Shop’s northeast corner and continued to the northwest. The second post and rail fence began at the southeast corner of the Shop and enclosed a yard adjourning the Shop. These posts, set six feet apart, turned and ran along the North Lane, eventually connecting with the northeast corner of the Servants Hall, 160 feet distant. It is thought this conforms to a fence George Washington mentions in a 1785 diary entry, and depicted on the Vaughan plan.

An artist's rendering of what the Blacksmith's Shop may have looked like.

The resulting picture of the Blacksmith's Shop is of a modest structure, supported by posts set directly into the ground, around which a wooden frame, clapboard siding, and shingled roof were erected. Such buildings were commonly used in the colonial Chesapeake, especially for outbuildings in this period. The adjoining fenced yard would have served as a handy general work area, being especially useful when repairing large items such as wagons and carriages, and bulky agricultural equipment. Great quantities of coal, slag, and other refuse were found within the yard area, testifying to the common practice of the day of disposing of rubbish, even very messy materials such as smith’s waste, very near their source.

The foundation of the earlier Ha-Ha wall.

The bottom courses of a robbed brick wall footing were found abutting what is interpreted as the northeast corner of the Shop. This is likely the terminus of the brick Ha-Ha wall that encircled the east lawn of the Mansion, and which is known to have been in existence by 1785. This portion of the Ha-Ha wall was removed and relocated in the 1890s during its reconstruction. At that time the route of the wall was altered to terminate at the corner of the existing brick Ice House. When the Blacksmith's Shop was demolished, the Ha-Ha would have ended in space, necessitating its extension to the west, where it probably connected with a fence or wall running along the north lane. A fragment of that extension was found archaeologically and is in line with the original wall and just to the north of the forge base. The Currier and Ives plan of 1855 shows the north Ha-Ha connecting with a short section of wall or fence just north of the ice house, as suggested by the archaeological evidence.

Based on the archaeological evidence Mount Vernon plans to reconstruct the Blacksmith Shop and return this important plantation craft to the historic site. The numerous artifacts and historical information discovered during the investigations will help interpret the space for our visitors.