National Park Service’s Capital History Series Features Calder Loth and the Rebirth of the Tredegar Gun Foundry

Date: July 22, 2008
Contact: Mike Andrus, 804 226-1981 x. 30

The National Park Service continues its weekly series of downtown Richmond talks, tours and tales highlighting the capital’s Civil War history on July 27 with a presentation by Calder Loth, Senior Architectural Historian with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Mr. Loth will speak on the history of the Tredegar Iron Works, particularly the restoration of the gun foundry in the 1970s. The program will begin at 2 p.m. at the National Park Service visitor center at the historic Tredegar Iron Works, located at 470 Tredegar Street. Prior to Mr. Loth’s presentation, a walking tour of the Tredegar Iron Works grounds will be offered by the American Civil War Center at 1 p.m. There is no charge for the presentation by Mr. Loth; the walking tour is free with admission to the American Civil War Center. Parking is available on site for $3 an hour.

Calder Loth has worked for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources since its establishment in 1968. He is the author of numerous publications on American architecture; most recently he co-authored Lost Virginia: Vanished Architecture of the Old Dominion. Mr. Loth is also a member of the Virginia Art and Architecture Review Board and serves on numerous advisory committees for Virginia historic properties including Stratford Hall, Maymont and the University of Virginia, among others.

Please join the National Park Service and its partner, the American Civil War Center, for these upcoming Capital History talks and tours:

· August 3—Mark Greenough, historian at the State Capitol, and Park Ranger Mike Gorman will guide tours of the Confederate capitol and grounds (begins at 2 p.m. at the Washington Statue on the Capitol grounds)

· August 9—Talk on women’s roles in the Civil War followed by “Laboring on the Home Front,” a ranger-guided walking tour of the Tredegar Iron Works, canal and Brown’s Island to focus on the contributions of the female, black and foreign-born workers in the city. (begins at 1 p.m. at the Tredegar Iron Works)

· August 16—Talk on Richmond’s Civil War prisons followed by a ranger-guided walking tour of Belle Isle (begins at 1 p.m. at the Tredegar Iron Works)

· August 23—Ranger-guided walking tour of the historic Tredegar Iron Works emphasizing the men and machines that armed the Confederacy (begins at 2 p.m. at the Tredegar Iron Works)