Berczy Park Fountain – Toronto, Ontario – Photo provided by Robinson Iron

Clarksville Foundry worked in collaboration with Robinson Iron (Alexander City, Ala.) and renowned landscape architect Claude Cormier (Montréal) on this project. The Foundry cast the fountain’s base and the dog statues. The Robinson Iron team completed the 16 feet in diameter fountain, which also included pug faces as decorative spouts. The standalone dog sculptures were hand-painted prior to installation, which added further color and dimension to the one-of-a-kind fountain.

“This project was unique not only for its animal-inspired design but also for its size and scope,” said Clarksville Foundry President Charles Foust Jr. “The completed fountain weighs in at 26,000 pounds and it is one of the heaviest and widest fountains completed by Robinson Iron. This project came together through the work of many companies, and Clarksville Foundry is proud to be a part of this award-winning public space.”

The fountain was cast, welded and assembled in the U.S., and shipped overland requiring special escort all the way to Canada.

The fountain is already exceedingly popular with urban dwellers and pet owners alike since its installation in 2016, and the park is a popular spot for local families and tourists.

Robinson Iron focuses on the restoration, replication, custom casting, and preservation of ornamental and architectural elements. Clarksville Foundry is a proud partner of Robinson Iron. For another project, the two Family-owned businesses completed together read about this dramatic staircase in Alabama.

Photos provided by Robinson Iron.

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Clarksville Foundry cast the barrel and carriage of the replica Model 1841 6-Pounder Field Gun entirely in-house, which required 47 castings and 23 additional fabricated components. Clarksville Rotary Club commissioned the cannon in honor of its 100th Anniversary. (Photo by Greg Williamson)

On the Montgomery County Courthouse grounds, May 12, community leaders gathered to see Civil War history come to life, for the second time, thanks to Clarksville Foundry.

Clarksville Foundry is one of the oldest continuously operating foundries in the United States. The foundry’s origins predate the Civil War, having first opened in 1847. While the family owned and operated foundry today casts component parts for a variety of industries, it once manufactured cannons and munitions for the Confederate States of America (1861-1862).

Prior to the Civil War Sesquicentennial in 2011, Clarksville Foundry President Charles Foust Jr. obtained an original drawing of a Model 1841 6-Pounder Field Gun, and along with foundry employees, created a pattern and cast a cannon barrel that was mounted on a Civil War-era carriage reproduction. This 6-Pounder Field Gun was fired to kick off local Sesquicentennial festivities and is now on display at Fort Defiance Civil War Park and Interpretative Center.

While assembling the newly-produced barrel onto the replica carriage, foundry personnel noticed that the carriage was almost entirely made of iron castings and agreed they should be able to cast their own version. They obtained copies of a complete set of engineering drawings for a No. 1 field gun carriage. In the three-year period from 2010 through 2012, using the project as “fill-in” work, Clarksville Foundry patternmaker James Lumpkin built a total of 13 patterns to produce all the necessary components of the carriage.

The Sesquicentennial cannon made such an impression that when Clarksville Rotary Club’s past presidents came together to plan activities for their 100th Anniversary in May 2017, they approached Foust about casting another replica for permanent display downtown. Foust – both engineer and history buff – happily obliged and took the replication process to the extreme by casting, fabricating and assembling every part required for the complete barrel and carriage.

“The cannon project was appealing for a number of reasons,” said Foust. “It is a connection to our city’s rich history, and it allows us to showcase our company’s capabilities in a form that has generated tremendous community and regional interest.”

Clarksville Foundry patternmaker James Lumpkin puts the finishing touches on the replica Model 1841 6-Pounder Field Gun produced entirely at Clarksville Foundry. Clarksville Foundry cast the entire Civil War-era replica cannon, including the barrel and carriage. Clarksville Rotary Club commissioned the cannon in honor of its 100th Anniversary. (Photo by Greg Williamson)

The casting of the carriage components began in September 2016. The barrel was the last component cast, poured on April 13. After the completed cannon was unveiled on the Montgomery County Courthouse grounds, Civil War reenactment group Porter’s Battery fired off blanks from the fully-assembled replica.

“With more precise metallurgy and enhanced processes, replicas of historical items can become even more durable than the originals,” Foust explained. “It was a pleasure to produce this replica 6-Pounder, in order to demonstrate how casting processes have evolved since the 19th Century while providing a unique item to honor Clarksville Rotary Club’s 100th Anniversary. It’s been a lot of fun to do this and see the cannon take shape. It’s quite a feeling of accomplishment.”

The 6-Pounder Field Gun is named after the weight of the cannon balls it fires. The cannon shot a 6-pound ball that could travel about 1,500 yards. The cannon barrels were originally made from either cast iron or bronze, with bronze being more common with a weight of 880 pounds. The cannon barrel measures 5 feet in length with a bore diameter of 3-5/8 inches. Originally manufactured for use in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), the 6-Pounder was one of the more common artillery pieces of the Civil War, produced and used by both the North and the South.

The replica cannon’s barrel and carriage are cast using ductile iron. During the Civil War era, cannons were made from gray cast iron, as ductile iron was not invented until 1943. Civil War-era wood carriages weighed approximately 900 pounds and required six horses to pull the assembly.

The project required 47 castings and fabrication of an additional 23 parts at Clarksville Foundry. Foust commended the efforts of the entire foundry staff during this project, who worked on patterns, assembly, fabrication and casting of the cannon.

After obtaining this Civil War-era cannon sketch, Clarksville Foundry patternmaker James Lumpkin built a total of 13 patterns to produce all the necessary components of the carriage. Clarksville Foundry cast the entire Civil War-era replica cannon in-house, including the barrel and carriage.

“The cannon barrel and carriage was 100 percent made here,” Foust said. “I’m pretty impressed by how it turned out.”

Typically, Clarksville Foundry produces castings for a variety of industries, such as components for air compressors and electrical switchgear. A public art display like the cannon allows the foundry to showcase its capabilities in a more visible manner.

“We don’t know how many of the castings we produce will be used by our customers. We ship them out and move on to the next project,” Foust said. “The cannon is going to be sitting on the courthouse grounds for years to come. Local citizens and visitors will see it every day. It’s a big deal.”

Clarksville Foundry also produced a smaller 50-pound, 2-foot-long cannon replica, donated as a Silent Auction item for the Clarksville Rotary Club 100th Anniversary Gala, May 17.

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Clarksville Foundry produced aluminum castings to replicate three rosette windows at First Presbyterian Church. The Gothic Revival structure from 1878 is one of five churches listed on the National Register of Historic Places that are located in the Historic Downtown District of Clarksville, Tenn. (Photo: Rick Goodwin)

Modern-Tech Aluminum Cast Windows Yield Glorious Results for National Register Church

The deteriorating windows of a prominent Gothic Revival church recently became a puzzle to solve for Charlie Foust, the president of Clarksville Foundry. He did so with technology.

Innovative Blend of Metallurgy, Lighting and Stained Glass Reproduces 1878 Windows with Reduced Weight and Cost

Along with other members of First Presbyterian Church of Historic Downtown Clarksville, Tenn., Foust became alarmed in late 2015 that three of the building’s 1878-vintage stained-glass windows had fallen into a state of disrepair. Their salvation was found through the ingenuity of an artist, an artisan, engineers, a congregation and the community, who were all inspired by Foust’s vision.

The windows, three rosettes, were located in the bell tower of the Gothic Revival-style church, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Originally crafted of wood, nail and glue construction, the frames had rotted and cracked, jeopardizing their structural integrity and placing in danger the hand-colored, stenciled glass held within their tracery.

The time-honored solution would have been to fabricate new frames out of wood, as had been done in 1878. This approach, while still standard today, is expensive and results in frames that will ultimately decay again. Since the frames, each 5 feet in diameter, are mounted 40 feet above grade, future maintenance was no small consideration.

Charlie Foust, president of Clarksville Foundry, worked with Nashville stained-glass artisan Dennis Harmon to create three rosette windows built of cast aluminum frames and stained-glass insets. (Photo: BLF Marketing)

The Right Stuff

Clarksville Foundry has long produced castings for historic buildings, courthouses and parks across the U.S. so Foust knew that recreating the original frames in cast aluminum – then adding a powder-coated finish – would make them impervious to the elements.

“The intricate, carved design would make fabricated steel or carved stone impractical and cost prohibitive,” Foust said. “Cast aluminum is corrosion resistant, lighter in weight and is a stable material. It will be a permanent fix to the challenge of deterioration.”

By using the original frames to create new patterns and molds, Clarksville Foundry could provide exact replicas of the rosette frames.

“A wood pattern was built to duplicate a one-tenth segment of each window in every detail,” Foust explained. “That pattern was then used to make a sand mold into which melted aluminum was poured and, ultimately, the 10 segments were assembled to form a faithful reproduction of each original window.”

The Team Assembles

The church commissioned Clarksville artist Miranda Herrick to create new patterns for each window’s stained glass to replace the original, faded stenciled glass. Herrick’s designs took on a graphic, kaleidoscope quality as they emerged in blue, green, red and yellow tones.

Nashville’s Emmanuel Stained Glass Studio produced the stained-glass panels. Dennis Harmon, the studio’s owner, is a master craftsman who makes and repairs stained glass for churches around the country.

Local artist Miranda Herrick created kaleidoscope-like designs that were then translated into stained glass by artisan Dennis Harmon, owner of Emmanuel Stained Glass Studio of Nashville. (Photo: Nathan Parker)

“What Charlie Foust has come up with is pretty innovative,” Harmon said. “There’s a market for it and churches don’t realize it. If they have a rotting wooden frame, up until this point they’ve always used wooden replacements.”

Tommy and Rosemary Page, Ashland City, Tenn.-based lighting consultants, also contributed cutting-edge technology through ImagiLux LED light panels created from acrylic to fit every petal of each rosette window. (The sun was not a factor in this case, as the bell tower location does not allow the windows to be viewed from the interior.)

“The goal was to make the windows visible from outside at night,” Rosemary said. “The 100-percent dimmable, custom-designed panels were the perfect choice.”

The Result

First Presbyterian’s pastor, Rev. Gregory L. Glover, says, “The newly renovated windows are a miracle marriage of old-style craftsmanship and modern foundry and lighting technology.”

The church also realized significant cost savings through this marriage, spending about one-third of typical refurbishment costs.

Formed in new patterns and encased in a new material, this colored glass will illuminate the darkness for centuries to come, evoking spiritual transcendence by splashing passersby with tinted light. And it was born of a simple dream to bring history up to date.

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The curved twin staircases outside the Mathematics and Science building at the Jasper campus of Bevill State Community College perfectly complement the columned portico of the classically inspired building. The grand staircases are the result of the equally complementary partnership between the designers at Humphries & Jones Architects, the fabricators at Robinson Iron and Clarksville Foundry, which cast the stair treads for Robinson.

Rising nearly twenty feet from the first to the second floor, each staircase features custom cast iron treads with waterjet cut steel risers applied to structural steel. Clarksville Foundry cast the 57 treads for the staircase, each featuring many small, detailed openings. Because the treads are a highly visible component on the project, it was critical that the openings be clean and crisp.

The tread castings were completed over an eight-week period, with interim shipments of completed elements during the process. The Foundry also cast seven posts for the project. The staircase components were fully assembled on the shop floor at Robinson Iron then partially disassembled for finishing and installation.

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The mark of Clarksville Foundry can be seen in various Nashville landmarks – from historic Ryman Auditorium to the Schermerhorn Symphony Center and nearby Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge.

Ryman Auditorium 

The Ryman Auditorium, a Nashville landmark since 1892, underwent a renovation in the early 1990s after 20 years spent vacant left the building in terrible shape. Clarksville Foundry participated in the $8.5 million renovation of the Ryman when it cast 63 stair panels for the renovation of the staircase. Using two of the remaining decorative stair panel components as patterns, the Foundry cast reproductions of the original panels used in the staircase railings and landings. The reproductions are nearly indistinguishable from the originals. The Ryman Auditorium, originally home to the Grand Ole Opry, sat vacant for after the Opry moved to a larger venue. Ryman Auditorium reopened in 1994, and in 2001 was certified a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service. Today, it is considered one of the premier performance halls in the country.

Shelby Street Bridge

The Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge, one of the longest pedestrian bridges in the world, spans the Cumberland River in Nashville. Originally opened in 1909, the multi-span truss bridge was admitted to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998, and underwent major refurbishment in 2003. The bridge, which includes over 700 lighting fixtures, is a dramatic feature of the Nashville nighttime skyline. Clarksville Foundry, using a design provided by its client, cast hundreds of newel post caps in two sizes for the railing. Although other production methods were available, the unusual geometry of the caps made casting them the most economical process.

Schermerhorn Symphony Center

The Schermerhorn Symphony Center, home to Nashville Symphony, opened in 2006. Occupying a full city block and located in the heart of Nashville (Music City, USA), the facility boasts a public garden, enclosed by a colonnade. Numerous examples of the “World’s Fair Bench,” the award winning design of the 1939 New York World’s Fair, can be found outside the facility, nestled in the shade of the trees. Clarksville Foundry, partnering with Robinson Iron Company of Alexander City, Alabama, cast components for the benches, also known as the “Expo Bench.” The original bench design was designed by New York Parks Commissioner and Urban Planner Robert Moses for use in the 1939 World’s Fair, and the benches are still used extensively in New York City’s parks.

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