Bellona Arsenal
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Bellona Arsenal
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Bellona Arsenal Workshop, HABS Photo
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| Location | Off VA 673, northwest of the junction with VA 147, Midlothian, Virginia |
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| Coordinates | 37°33′13″N 77°37′02″W / 37.55361°N 77.61722°WCoordinates: 37°33′13″N 77°37′02″W / 37.55361°N 77.61722°W |
| Area | 100 acres (40 ha) |
| Built | 1814 |
| NRHP Reference # | 71000975 |
| VLR # | 020-0006 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | May 6, 1971 |
| Designated VLR | January 5, 1971 |
Bellona Arsenal was a 19th-century United States Army post in Chesterfield County, Virginia, above the James River near Richmond, Virginia
With William Wirt (Attorney General), experienced armorer Major John Clarke established his Bellona Foundry on the south shore of the James River, 14 miles above Richmond, Virginia, in 1810. Transportation along the James River, nearby coal mines, pig iron furnaces in the valleys upstream of the city, and access to markets downstream allowed the development of early industry in Virginia, an otherwise almost entirely agrarian state. The ruins of the original Foundry building still stand. The Foundry manufactured weaponry for the War Department.
Major Clarke instrumentally arranged for the location of a federal arsenal immediately to the west of Bellona Foundry. The Army erected Bellona Arsenal in 1816 and named it for Bellona (goddess). The Arsenal received and stored cannon from the Foundry from 1817. People constructed several buildings in Foundry and Arsenal throughout its first several years. Stone walls enclosed eight buildings surrounding the quadrangle at the Arsenal; these buildings included a three-story main arsenal building at the north end with a projecting pavilion and circular third-story windows, two quarters for officers flanking the arsenal, four workshops on the east and west sides of the quadrangle, and a three-story barracks building on the south end. The similar brick workshop buildings lack foundations, and each have two stories with hipped roofs and interior end chimneys. Two smaller workshops contain three bays each with central entrances and segmental arched openings; the larger workshop building has a five-bay facade.
The low rectangular powder magazine with walls five and a half feet thick stood to the west of the quadrangle buildings; a stone wall surrounding the magazine protected the quadrangle buildings against possible explosion. This powder magazine survives sans roof.
Bellona Foundry supplied much ordnance to the Army and Navy of the United States throughout the antebellum period. The Arsenal repaired small arms and engaged in a few other functions until 1832; thereafter, it only received and stored cannons. The Army removed the garrison to Fort Monroe in 1833 but left a single ordnance sergeant as a caretaker.
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