Nicholas Hawk
Gun Shop
Restoration progress as of June 9, 2008.
Nicholas Hawk Gun Shop
Groundbreaking on May 20, 2008
The Society will reconstruct the original 200-year-old gun shop
of Nicholas Hawk, an early American gunsmith renowned for his fine
craftsmanship of Kentucky longrifles.
The shop will be one of a small handful of such
original gun shops still known to exist. When completed in June
2008, the fully operational gun shop will be located at Boulton
Historic Site in the Jacobsburg National Historic District, amid
the beautiful wooded surroundings of the Jacobsburg Environmental
Education Center in Nazareth. At Boulton, the Jacobsburg Historical
Society preserves and interprets the history of the William Henry
family of gunsmiths, who produced firearms for U.S. soldiers, frontiersmen,
and fur traders from the mid-18th through the early 20th century.
Through exhibits and live demonstrations by master gunsmiths, visitors
to the Nicholas Hawk Gun Shop will discover how the Henrys and other
gunsmiths learned and practiced their trade in colonial America.
Restoration progress as of June 1, 2008.
Within his small (12" 3" x 15' 3")
log shop Nicholas Hawk (1782-1844) handcrafted longrifles and swivel
breech guns that, with their elegant flowing lines and jewelry-quality
engraving, are now considered distinctive works of early American
art. Originally the gun shop was located at the family homestead
(purchased 1801) in Gilbert, Pennsylvania (Monroe Co.), just across
the Blue Mountain from the site of the Henry Gun Works at Boulton.
Hawk purchased rifle barrels from Boulton, and some believe that
he may have apprenticed in the Henry shop. Hawk's original gun shop
still stood behind the family homestead until 2003, when the last
of the Hawk family, the granddaughter of Nicholas Hawk's grandson,
Adam Hawk, sold the property. The new owner of the homestead donated
the gun shop to the Jacobsburg Historical Society, who disassembled
it, timber by timber, and brought it to Boulton to be reassembled
as a living history exhibit for the Society's Museum of the Pennsylvania
Longrifle.
Groundbreaking ceremonies May 20, 2008.
Groundbreaking events will include the laying
of the first logs by Republican State Representative (138th District)
Craig Dally; JHS board president Dave Ehrig (award-winning outdoors
writer and past president of the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association);
Hawk project director Tim Lubenesky (JHS board member and vice president
of the Kentucky Rifle Association); and JHS executive director Jan
Ballard. Historic rebuilding and restoration will be conducted by
Village Restoration & Consulting (Clayburg, PA), who will often
work onsite in historic period dress.
Funding for shop reconstruction is being provided
by a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and
Natural Resources, as well as through donations from Forks of the
Delaware Historic Arms Society and numerous individuals who share
JHS's commitment to preserving and presenting the history of early
American gunmaking. Master gunsmith, Wayne Watson (Ocala, FL), who
built the historically accurate longrifles carried by Daniel Day-Lewis
in 20th Century Fox's Last of the Mohicans, built and donated a
similar longrifle ($10,000 value) to be raffled to benefit the Hawk
shop reconstruction.
Nicholas Hawk Gun Shop
Fundraising
Wayne Watson Donates Rifle
to Raise Funds >
The Masters Three: The Probable
Possibles of Nicholas Hawk >
Nicholas Hawk Brochure
More
information on the Hawk gunshop restoration project
>
Directions
>
For more information, contact the Jacobsburg
Historical Society
at 610-759-9029.
Jacobsburg Historical Society
Lyndsey Brown - 610-759-9029
Website - www.jacobsburg.org
Email: www.jacobsburg.org
Email: jacobsburg@rcn.com
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