Fireback

This fireback bears the name of the Accokeek Iron Furnace, the second oldest 18th-century iron-blast furnace site identified in Virginia. Located on land owned by George Washington’s father, Augustine Washington, a shareholder in the furnace, Accokeek Iron Furnace was extremely profitable and in 1750 alone, the furnace exported 410 tons of pig iron – about one-fifth the entire quantity exported from Maryland and Virginia for the year. The enslaved laborers who powered the furnace made its success possible.