♥ Mary Moore
The Beehive Brick Kiln
From the turn of the century until the late 1960’s inmates of the Lorton correctional facility operated nine kilns on this site.
The bricks stacked inside this kiln are ready to be baked. For 4 to 5 days coal fires in each of the hearths were stoked around the clock. Hot air rose along the inside of the vaulted walls but did not escape through the hole in the ceiling. Heat was sucked down through the bricks, between louvers in the floor, across an underground flue, and up the tall chimney that stands beside the kiln.
These kilns were a primary local source of the red brick used in constructing the historic durable buildings now seen throughout northern Virginia. Today beehive kilns are little used.
The Beehive Brick Kiln
From the turn of the century until the late 1960’s inmates of the Lorton correctional facility operated nine kilns on this site.
The bricks stacked inside this kiln are ready to be baked. For 4 to 5 days coal fires in each of the hearths were stoked around the clock. Hot air rose along the inside of the vaulted walls but did not escape through the hole in the ceiling. Heat was sucked down through the bricks, between louvers in the floor, across an underground flue, and up the tall chimney that stands beside the kiln.
These kilns were a primary local source of the red brick used in constructing the historic durable buildings now seen throughout northern Virginia. Today beehive kilns are little used.