Stewart Iron Works

Since 1862, Stewart Iron Works has been putting its mark on American metal — sometimes literally. The Stewart Shield, the firm's emblem, can be found on ironwork at landmarks including the Panama Canal, the White House and Alcatraz, and for more than 160 years it has served as a kind of signature: this was made properly, and made to last. One cast shield the company shows still carries its old address — "The Stewart Iron Works Co., Cincinnati, Ohio."

The company's roots are in ornamental ironwork — fences, gates, railings and stairs, where structure and decoration are the same thing. From that tradition it has grown into commercial fabrication: the miscellaneous metals, metal staircases and pipe, tube, decorative and glazed railings that architects specify under Division 5, and the decorative fences and gates of Division 32 site work. Alongside that runs historic restoration, the slow, exacting work of repairing and reproducing ironwork that earlier generations put in place.

Today the firm works from Erlanger, in Northern Kentucky, as part of Huseman Group, a family of construction companies, and it carries its own work from design through fabrication to installation. Few makers in the Hiram Guild can point to a century and a half of practice. Stewart Iron Works can — and the shield still stands for it.

Written by the Hiram Guild from public information on stewartironworks.com. Not yet reviewed by the company.