Belle and Mayo Islands in Richmond, Virginia — The American South (Mid-Atlantic)
Ironworks Oil House
Photographed By Bernard Fisher, March 31, 2013
1. Ironworks Oil House Marker
Inscription.
Ironworks Oil House. . This stone storage shed was built to hold flammable lubricants and dangerous acids. The hand-cut stone likely was quarried here on Belle Isle. The shed served the Old Dominion Iron and Nail Company, which expanded from this area eastward, behind you, late in the 19th Century. An 1886 fire insurance map identified the shed as an “oil house” and showed a “laboratory” next to it. The oil house may have been constructed by 1876, when another map showed a similar building in about this location., Notice the earth piled around the shed’s side walls. The earth once reached to within two feet of the roof. The thick stone walls, reinforced by the heaped earth, would have helped direct any explosion and fire upward rather than outward, to protect other buildings as well as the workers here., When the 1934 Robert E. Lee Bridge was demolished after the new bridge was completed in 1988, the shed’s heavy slate roof was removed. The walls were temporarily buried under thirty feet of sand to protect them from any falling debris.
This stone storage shed was built to hold flammable lubricants and dangerous acids. The hand-cut stone likely was quarried here on Belle Isle. The shed served the Old Dominion Iron and Nail Company, which expanded from this area eastward, behind you, late in the 19th Century. An 1886 fire insurance map identified the shed as an “oil house” and showed a “laboratory” next to it. The oil house may have been constructed by 1876, when another map showed a similar building in about this location.
Notice the earth piled around the shed’s side walls. The earth once reached to within two feet of the roof. The thick stone walls, reinforced by the heaped earth, would have helped direct any explosion and fire upward rather than outward, to protect other buildings as well as the workers here.
When the 1934 Robert E. Lee Bridge was demolished after the new bridge was completed in 1988, the shed’s heavy slate roof was removed. The walls were temporarily buried under thirty feet of sand to protect them from any falling debris.
Erected by Richmond National Battlefield Park.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Industry & Commerce. A significant historical year for this entry is 1886.
Location. 37° 31.767′ N, 77° 27.086′
Click or scan to see this page online
W. Marker is in Richmond, Virginia. It is in Belle and Mayo Islands. Marker can be reached from Tredegar Street, 0.3 miles west of South 5th Street. Located on Belle Isle which can be reached via a pedestrian bridge from the north bank of the river. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 470 Tredegar Street, Richmond VA 23219, United States of America. Touch for directions.
More about this marker. (caption)
Sanborn Insurance Company map, 1886, showing the oil house. Courtesy Library of Virginia.
Photographed By Bernard Fisher, March 31, 2013
2. Ironworks Oil House
Credits. This page was last revised on February 1, 2023. It was originally submitted on April 1, 2013, by Bernard Fisher of Richmond, Virginia. This page has been viewed 537 times since then and 20 times this year. Photos:1, 2. submitted on April 1, 2013, by Bernard Fisher of Richmond, Virginia.
