Black Hawk Livery and Blacksmith Shop

In 1974, this building, which was home to one of the original Blacksmith shops in Old Town San Diego and began operation in 1860, was moved to its current location and became part of the Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. The business was established on land owned by John Hinton. Today, it is part of a living history museum operated by the California State Parks Department. The shop is filled with historic tools and hardware forged from iron, including hammers, saws, chisels, and horseshoes. There are live Blacksmithing demonstrations offered by skilled craftsmen on site when the building is open.

Historically, Blacksmiths made tools by forging iron into implements such as hammers, chisels, saws, axes, and wrenches. They also made items such as horseshoes, nails, and wagon wheels. The contributions of Blacksmiths were essential in terms of creating some of the most basic tools and hardware that people needed for farming, cooking, and transportation up until the end of the nineteenth century. Around that time, the role of Blacksmiths shifted to predominantly to repairing existing tools, as most new implements began to instead be machine-made from cast iron.

In 1860, W.D. Brown set up a Blacksmith shop in Old Town San Diego. He worked alongside of John I. Van Alst, a carriage maker. Together, they formed a joint Blacksmithing and livery business. By 1870, the official census also listed another Blacksmith, Benjamin Payson, as the owner of a shop near the Seeley Stable. Next door to Payson's shop, there was a working a wheelwright named Eben Brinley. In the nineteenth century, allied trades such as Blacksmithing, carriage-making, and wheel-making, often went hand in hand.

In 1868, John Hinton established the Black Hawk Livery in a building that was once known as Casa di Bandini. In 1862, Albert Seeley took over Hinton's livery business and incorporated it as part of his stagecoach company, which was based at the Cosmopolitan Hotel & Depot. In the twentieth century, this livery building was moved to a new location in Old Town San Diego, where it became part of a living history museum at the Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. Since 1974, it has been operated by the California State Parks Department.

Upon becoming part of a living history museum, the livery building was also combined with a Blacksmith shop, and historic tools were placed on display for public viewing. Today, live demonstrations of Blacksmithing are offered on site, so that contemporary visitors can watch trained Blacksmiths operating a forge and making iron objects by hand. The Old Town San Diego State Historic Park shows many of the skilled trades that were essential to life and economic survival in the nineteenth century.

Schulte, Richard. A Look Inside the Blacksmith Shop in Old Town, Cool San Diego Sights. June 11th 2017. Accessed August 13th 2021. https://coolsandiegosights.com/2017/06/11/a-look-inside-the-Blacksmith-shop-in-old-town/.

The Black Hawk Livery Stable, California State Parks Department. Accessed August 13th 2021. https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/663/files/ADA-Compliant_Blackhawk_20191118.pdf.