Buffalo Forge (081-0003)

Buffalo Forge is a 37.9-acre complex beside Buffalo Creek in Rockbridge County, Virginia, where an iron forge and plantation operated through the antebellum years. The surviving core is a two-section stone manor house called Mount Pleasant, begun about 1819 and extended about 1830, with Carpenter Gothic dormers added later. Nearby are a detached kitchen, a springhouse, two slave quarters built about 1858, a stone cabin believed to have housed enslaved people, farm buildings, and the ruins of a merchant mill with its race and pond remnant. William Weaver owned the operation from the 1820s until 1863, followed by his relative Daniel Brady. Enslaved workers, including skilled refiners paid for production beyond quotas, made the iron and raised the crops. Detailed ledgers and journals survive and have been studied by historian Charles Dew. The district was listed for its role in iron production, Black ethnic heritage, architecture and archaeological potential.