Bellona Arsenal Bellona Arsenal was a 19th - century United States Army post in Chesterfield County , Virginia , above the James River near Argyle , West Virginia . Origins . With William Wirt ( Attorney General ) , experienced armorer Major John Clarke established his Bellona Foundry on the south shore of the James River , 14 miles above Richmond , Virginia , in 1810 . Transportation along the James River , nearby coal mines , pig iron furnaces in the valleys upstream of the city , and access to markets downstream allowed the development of early industry in Virginia , an otherwise almost entirely agrarian state . The ruins of the original Foundry building still stand . The Foundry manufactured weaponry for the War Department . Major Clarke instrumentally arranged for the location of a federal arsenal immediately to the west of Bellona Foundry . The Army erected Bellona Arsenal in 1816 and named it for Bellona ( goddess ) . The Arsenal received and stored cannon from the Foundry from 1817 . People constructed several buildings in Foundry and Arsenal throughout its first several years . Stone walls enclosed eight buildings surrounding the quadrangle at the Arsenal ; these buildings included a three - story main arsenal building at the north end with a projecting pavilion and circular third - story windows , two quarters for officers flanking the arsenal , four workshops on the east and west sides of the quadrangle , and a three - story barracks building on the south end . The similar brick workshop buildings lack foundations , and each have two stories with hipped roofs and interior end chimneys . Two smaller workshops contain three bays each with central entrances and segmental arched openings ; the larger workshop building has a five - bay facade . The low rectangular powder magazine with walls five and a half feet thick stood to the west of the quadrangle buildings ; a stone wall surrounding the magazine protected the quadrangle buildings against possible explosion . This powder magazine survives sans roof . Antebellum years . Bellona Foundry supplied much ordnance to the Army and Navy of the United States throughout the antebellum period . The Arsenal repaired small arms and engaged in a few other functions until 1832 ; thereafter , it only received and stored cannons . The Army removed the garrison to Fort Monroe in 1833 but left a single ordnance sergeant as a caretaker . In 1837 , the War Department declared disused Bellona Arsenal surplus . Thomas Randolph and a partner leased several buildings for a silkworm farm . Major Clarke died in 1844 , and Bellona Foundry then passed to Doctor Junius L . Archer , who leased a residence from the Arsenal complex . In 1856 , Doctor Archer purchased Bellona Arsenal from the federal government for a mere $ 2650 . Bellona Arsenal , nearby Tredegar Iron Works , and three facilities in other states cast heavy cannon immediately before the American Civil War . American Civil War . Bellona Arsenal and the somewhat larger Tredegar Iron Works served the Virginia militia and the Confederate military well in manufacturing cannons and similar armaments . Doctor Archer leased both Arsenal and Foundry to the Confederate States and retained a job as Superintendent of the complex . Bellona ranked second as a producer of Confederate armaments . Closure . The owners tore down the barracks , quarters for officers , and one workshop in 1872 ; only three workshops of the original eight quadrangle buildings ( and the powder magazine ) survived at the old Bellona Arsenal . They sold the arsenal property in 1877 . The property changed hands several times ; in 1942 , Mr . M . C . Luck purchased the surviving buildings and began to renovate them . He later converted them into residences . On 6 May 1971 , National Register of Historic Places listings in Chesterfield County , Virginia , added Bellona Arsenal . It now lies off SR 673 northwest of its junction with VA 147 near Midlothian , Virginia .