Richmond Iron Works was operated by Joseph Hall & Co., then Chamblin, Delaney & Scott, ending as Richmond Iron Works Corp. Their activities included building steam engines, mill machinery, boilers and sawmills; general iron and brass foundry work; and manufacturing automobiles.

The business was started by Joseph Hall in early 1870, at S. 9th and Canal streets, and was continued at that location by three partners, John Chamblin, Alexander Delaney, and James H. Scott. Chamblin handled the finances, Delaney had wide experience at other Richmond and Petersburg iron works, and Scott was a graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology. The business was forced to vacate their premises when a railroad needed the land, and built a new works in 1892 at N. 15th and E. Broad Streets. Shortly afterwards, Delaney left the partnership. The firm incorporated as Richmond Iron Works in 1902, was again required to move by a railroad, and in 1907 built a carefully designed works at N. Boulevard and W. Leigh St.

The company had a large stock of patterns going back to the 1860s, including those from Tanner & Delaney Engine Co., the predecessor of Richmond Locomotive & Machine Works. Part of the company's business came from casting replacement parts for Tanner & Delaney machinery and that manufactured by Joseph Hall & Co.

In 1910, the company announced their automobile, the Virginian, a fully-equipped touring car priced at $3,000. In April, 1911 their stock was sold as a "safe, sane, solid investment," and in Feb., 1912 the company declared bankruptcy and liquidated.

The works was sold at auction to an unknown buyer, and leased to American Locomotive Works, which manufactured munitions there for Allied Powers governments. In 1917, American bought the works for additional foundry capacity for the former Richmond Locomotive & Machine Works plant on the opposite side of Richmond. This purchase has led to the incorrect assumption in the site's National Register of Historic Places application and on the part of the site's current owner, a movie theater chain, that locomotives were manufactured here and that Richmond Locomotive & Machine Works built the complex. Contemporary newspaper articles with photographs describe and illustrate the new construction in 1907 by Richmond Iron Works.

Information Sources

• RVA Legends — Richmond Iron Works
• Richmond Dispatch, Jun 4, 1902, Page 4
• The Times Dispatch, Sep. 22 1907, Pg 25
• The Times Dispatch, Apr. 2, 1911, Pg. 38
• The Times Dispatch, Feb. 14, 1912, Pg. 12, Iron Works Fails
• The Times Dispatch, May 26, 1917, Page 1, Engine Company Enlarges Plant
• The National Register of Historic Places application for Richmond Iron Works complex, incorrectly identified as Richmond Locomotive & Machine Works.
• Illustrated Atlas of the City of Richmond, Va., Beers, 1876
• Illustrated Atlas of the City of Richmond, Va., Baist, 1889
• Insurance Maps, Richmond, Virginia, Sanborn Map Co., 1905
• Wikipedia page on Virginian automobile