Industry
Jamestown Glasshouse preserves the site of one of the English colony’s earliest industrial experiments in North America. After German and Polish glassblowers arrived in 1608, they built small furnaces and began the demanding work of making glass from ash, sand, crushed oyster shells, and burned seaweed. The process required long preparation and intense heat, so actual blowing probably occurred only a few days each month. The first venture produced samples sent to England but likely ended during the Starving Time. A second attempt around 1621 also failed, weakened by bad weather, illness, emigration, and the Indian massacre of 1622 before abandonment in 1624.
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