Storehouse for Iron
Workshop for tinsmithing and nail-making, and living quarters for enslaved workers.
Jefferson labeled this building as "l. a house 16. by 10 1/2 feet of wood, used as storehouse for nailrod & other iron" on the 1796 Mutual Assurance Plat.
Built around 1793, this 16 x 10.5-foot log structure was primarily “used as a storehouse for nailrod & other iron.” For a brief period in the 1790s, it was the site of a tinsmithing operation containing an anvil and forge. Isaac Granger Jefferson, trained by a Philadelphia tinsmith, recalled that he “carried on the tin business two years” before it failed. Archaeological evidence suggests that this structure also functioned as a small-scale nail-making operation and as living quarters for enslaved workers after the War of 1812.
-Monticello Curatorial and Restoration staff, 2012
