1) Reopen the Shop and operate it much as it was 60 to 80 years ago.

    a) This includes an operating forge with complete set of swages, dies, drifts, splitters, punches and so forth for medium and medium heavy work. We'll concentrate mostly on utilitarian items rather than highly ornamental things. We'll do the usual assortment of hinges, latches, knockers, fireplace "irons", trammels, cranes, andirons, hand tools, trivets, hooks and special hardware not available locally.

    b) Conserving and operating a full machine shop circa 1890-1920 using a 10' belt driven lathe, a 9' high belt and gear driven drilling machine (see photo), a large gear driven metal shaper (ram type), a circa 1920 arc welder, a tire rolling machine, a carriage tire mounting machine and possibly the tire shrinking machine.

2) Create a Museum component of the Shop which will curate the machine tools and the multitude of hand made tools, document them and prepare displays illustrating their fabrication and use. These will emphasize the role of the Brown family, three, possibly four generations of local smiths stretching back to the early 19th century here in Rockbridge County in the Shenandoah Valley.

    Brown's Forge was from before the Civil War until a couple of years ago one of the focal points of informal gatherings of male citizens and farmers. It was considered as defining a feature as the Court House or the near by Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery. So when Manly Brown passed away and the Shop closed its doors there was a feeling of loss here in the this community of seven thousand residents.

    Lexington Carriage Rides shares the building.  This is a big tourist town and very important to Civil War history buffs, equestrian enthusiasts and lovers of incredibly beautiful pastoral mountain scenery.

    The forge is all repaired and has been in nearly daily operation for two months now. The smith walls have been restored to their original white on stucco. A marvelous 3 inch thick oak workbench is now completely restored in the smithy, dry wall and plywood sheathing is applied to provide solid background and mounting for displays and shelving and we are taking in metal fabricating work regularly. I've three commissions for railings and am building a framework for the top of a horse drawn surrey.

    The machine shop portion is as yet idle but we have a line on several retired machinists/tool builders who might be interested in getting the tools going again and taking in machine work to provide them with the satisfaction of working in a time warp as it were and a modest income for them and for the Shop. We will not in anyway "improve" these tools, merely restore them to their original working condition consistent with the time period of interest. I'm surprised to learn we can still purchase real leather belts to replace the badly worn and frayed ones presently on the machines.

    The response from the towns people as been deeply gratifying. Many of the older residents have stopped me on the street or visited the Shop just to express their delight that "Manly's shop" is up and running again.