Courtesy Photo | A photo depicting the Foundry (Building 172) at Norfolk Naval Shipyard.... read more read more
Over the past few months, we have explored the locations where the work gets done here at America’s Shipyard or as I like to say our "big box stores" and that specific facility focus continues on. As an aside, this is my closing submission prior to my 48-year career ending as I finally enter retirement. For this month, I wanted to look at our now ex-Foundry, Building 172.
Casting and working with molten metal at Gosport first can be traced to the Blacksmith Shop, Building 9 in the north end during the 19th century as we constructed and repaired wooden warships. As the shipyard continued expanding to the south, Building 22 then served the foundry function both prior to and after the Civil War. According to the June 30, 1903 station map, Building 22 gains a companion structure known then as the Pattern Shop, Building 72. A pattern is usually a wood replica of a desired shape that is first placed into a sand casting before molten metal is poured into the negative of the mold after the wooden form is removed.
As World War I raged in Europe, the recently obtained yet undeveloped vast land expanse known as the Schmoele Tract of 273 acres was being planned with precision according to the December 28, 1917 station map titled as the “Proposed Final Layout For Development.” This map is what I often say becomes the birth certificate for how our shipyard appears today well over a century later.
A new Foundry and a new Pattern Shop are placed side by side and today we recognize these structures as Buildings 172 and 184 respectfully. Now Norfolk can truly pattern, cast and then also machine large metal components as the Machine Shop, Building 171 is laid out for construction within this same timeframe. Norfolk has now become an East Coast industrial giant and is in position to service every need of Uncle Sam’s modern steel fleet of ships.
It is interesting to look at the early glass plate photos of our foundry being laid out in the wilderness circa 1917 and then in its initial short configuration as a completed structure when occupied in September of 1919. Also reflect back as this location could now cast its own roadway structures such as manhole or drain inlets as the Shipyard is improved. Our mission then as it is now always had a focus about the ships and our foundry helped there too as we cast all of our own cleats and bollards that you see along our waterfront today. I have said it often that during this period of time there was not anything that this Navy Yard could not accomplish or manufacture on its own.
As evidenced with the October 1927 image to manufacture a complete anchor ready to ship out was a matter of craftsman pride. Working in this type of environment was not only hot and dirty but honorable for the worker. Norfolk cast many anchors including one you can go touch today in Wilmington, North Carolina of the forward deck of the battleship USS North Carolina (BB 55) as shown by a photo from one of our prior NNSY Photographers, Bob Cohen. Norfolk also cast the anchors for the most of the Forrestal and Nimitz-class aircraft carriers over the following decades.
In the mid-1990s as a result of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission hearings found the Navy with two primary industrial Foundries on the East Coast yet the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard proper was slated to close. It became a business decision to stand-up and make heavy capital improvements for the Naval Foundry and Propeller Center (NFPC) to become a modern manufacturing facility located on the Philadelphia Navy Yard Annex in Philadelphia, PA. This facility is also organizationally attached to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard today.
So, what became of Norfolk’s foundry? After the excessing of floor furnaces, a multitude of industrial equipment and filling in various casting pits within the structure today Building 172 is used for heavy industrial storage awaiting its eventual demolition as the shipyard begins planning to implement the Shipyard Infrastructure and Optimization Program (SIOP). This footprint shall be reutilized as Norfolk looks to the future and yet honors its past because - "history matters."
| Date Taken: | 11.24.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 11.24.2025 09:16 |
| Story ID: | 552196 |
| Location: | PORTSMOUTH, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 13 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Our Yard History: The Foundry, Building 172, by Marcus Robbins, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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