The manufactory was founded in 1775 by Charles Dick and Fielding Lewis, proprietor of the nearby Kenmore Plantation, and brother-in-law to George Washington, to provide guns and ammunition to the Continental Army and state militia during the American Revolutionary War.

Lewis in particular invested more than £7000 in the endeavour, for which he was never compensated by either the state or the Continental Congress.

[2] The factory was closed at the end of the war.

The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

This article about a property in Fredericksburg, Virginia on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub.