Ironwork in the Hostess City dates back to the early 1800s when it became popular due to the threat of fire - the city had been ravaged by unchecked infernos twice in a quarter century - and the new practice of using pig iron rather than stone as ballast in ships coming to pick up cargoes of cotton. The iron could be sold while the rocks just sort of dead-headed across the Atlantic and wound up as paving stones on Riverstreet and elsewhere. As it would not burn, iron became popular for porch railings and bannisters. In the 1820s architect William Jay incorporated structural iron in his design for the Owens-Thomas house.