Making Bricks in the Hudson River Valley at the Dawn of the 20th Century
by Katrina Durbak

The common brick has been one of the greatest materials for construction of all times. It is relatively inexpensive, in addition to being fireproof, waterproof, and weatherproof. Over 75% of New York State's lucrative brick industry came form the Hudson River Valley. The practice of making and delivering common bricks can be broken up into as many as 78 separate operations. However, the basic process takes place in these five stages: (1) preparing the clay, (2) molding the soft brick, (3) drying the brick, (4) burning the brick, and (5) shipping to the job site.

The clay banks, from which the primary material in the production of bricks came, made an enormous difference economically, depending on how pure the clay was naturally, or how much it needed to be sifted and purified.

Another factor was the amount of useful sand and gravel, also necessary in brickmaking, which could be found at the site. The principle clay in use for brickmaking was blue, to which yellow clay was added for the sake of strength and color. The other two raw materials were coal dust, known as culm, and sand. The clay was cut and dumped into "sod pits" in layers of blue and yellow clay, along with layers of coal dust, loam, and sand. These contents were then taken and dumped into a mixing machine, and the homogeneous solution produced was poured, or rather packed, into molds. These molds themselves were carefully prepared to produce identical, perfect bricks. Next, the bricks were dried in an open yard, where they were spattered, that is evened off, and then turned on their edges, once they had dried sufficiently for a few hours. Hardening continued for a few days as the bricks were set up in "hacks," which protected them from the weather. Extreme precision and attention to detail were imbued into every step of this complex process. From the exact and carefully calculated dimensions of the open brick-drying yards, to the exact way the bricks were "dumped," or laid down in the open yard, this almost obsessive precision was what ensured such high levels of quality. There were brickyards where the bricks were steam-dried instead of being laid out in open yards. In those cases, the steps, which came after that point to the firing, could be omitted. Brickyards, which implemented steam-drying systems, were able to operate year-round, making them more productive. Finally, the bricks were fired in kilns, which varied greatly in size and brick capacity, which had to be very precisely set, and which could be fueled in a variety of ways, burning either wood or coal. The great aim of the brick burner was evenness of heat. The time allowed for the bricks to be fired, and the time allowed for the bricks to dry before being fired, had to be carefully monitored so as to protect from defects in shape as well as discolorations. In addition, the bricks expanded and contracted in varying degrees during the firing process. The time required for a burning of bricks was approximately one week. The temperature had to be allowed to fall gradually and then the bricks cool for about another week. The very last step of the process included a number of inspections and finally loading and transporting the bricks. The Hudson River brick plants enjoyed enormous advantages in respect to transporting. Not every factory of building materials has a clear waterway to the most rapidly expanding city of its time. As a direct result, the Hudson River brickyards supplied a large volume of the material out of which young New York City grew, on top of exporting millions of bricks every week.

It is interesting to note the great variety, which existed even within the Hudson River brickfields. The quality of clay, the construction of kilns, as well as open yards, the time needed for firing, and the varieties of changes during firing differ so significantly from one brickyard to another, that the specifics of one brickyard could not necessarily guarantee such favorable results even a few miles downriver.

An Overview of a Few of the Major Hudson River Brickyards in the Early 1900s

Brickyards in the Hudson River Valley ranged significantly in their size, history, experience, philosophy, materials, machinery, and location. Each of these factors greatly influenced the production, as well as the longevity of the individual brickyards. In the following paragraphs, I will attempt to give an overview of different brickyards of the early 1900s in the Hudson Valley, by looking at a few specific plants within the same basic region.

The Rose Yards
About 4 miles from Newburgh, the Rose Yards made up the largest brickyards and brickmaking plants of all the Hudson River group in 1905. The Rose Brick Company turned out 75,000,000 bricks a year as the 20th century was just beginning, and the company relied on "the quality, which had created the demand which, in turn, had made the enormous production commercially feasible."

Throughout its process of brick production, the Rose Brick Company was known for the greatest care given to deliberate choices in methods of brick production. Based on thorough research and experimentation. For the most part, the Rose Company conformed to traditional methods of brickmaking with a few individual takes on this process. These included: the absence of circular pits, a drying system using only open yards to dry the bricks, excessive sweeping, lutings, and rolling of these yards, specially constructed docking facilities, and numerous culling (inspection) stations.

The Rose Brick Company was also known for the exceptional care it provided for its workers. The surrounding community was filled with clubrooms, reading areas, stores with lower than retail prices and stocked with the best eatables, a variety of churches and Sunday schools, fairs, annual festivals, and great living accommodations. The philosophy of the Rose Brick Company was that happy, skilled workers would be the hardest workers and the best brickmakers who took pride in creating a quality product. And they were right.

The Rose Brick Company provided the brick, in the very early years of the 20th century, for graveling all the walks, at the time, in Central Park, in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and in the whole park system of Newark, NJ.

The Jova Yards
Adjoining the Rose Brick Company's plant was that of the Jova Estate. Bricks produced here sold at among the highest prices - second only to those of the Rose Company. The character of the clay deposits of these two companies was basically identical. The Jova banks were set along the highest banks on the Hudson River, at 140 feet above the level of the water.

Everything in the Jova plant was on a large scale, comprising eleven sod pit machines, and producing 33,000,000 bricks per season. In 1904, they had calculated that they could continue to produce bricks at that capacity, on site, for another 200 years. Coal was used exclusively in the kilns and blue clay was used almost exclusively in the pits. Their preference for natural color led to this rigid exclusion of pigments in the pits.

The Jova plant had a policy of employing only first-rate experts as foremen and superintendents for Mr. Jova was proud of the product his company manufactured. He believed that while the reputation of the company would suffice, perhaps, to sell the brick on the merits of the brand, the elaborate care expended from every detail of the making and the excellence of the material at their command would create a market for the brick, even if the past record of the brand were entirely forgotten.

Jova bricks were used in the construction of the Custom House at Bowling Greene, of the Brooklyn Navy Yard buildings, and of the Public Library building of the City of New York completed in 1903.

The Arrow Yards
Next to the Rose and Jova yards, the Arrow Brick yards enjoyed all the geographical advantages of that district. The Arrow Brick Works took their name from the findings of certain old Indian arrowheads in the course of the excavations, which were made at Danskammer Point on the Hudson.

The Arrow brick Works provide a good example of young enterprise achieving the American dream. While the neighboring brickyards were turning out dozens of millions of bricks a season, the new company was able to produce over 5,000,000 in its first season, more than doubled its production by the next year, and by its third season was producing over 20,000,000 bricks annually. The owner, Mr. E.M. Armstrong, believed that, "a thoroughly modern equipment, with the best quality of clay and sand in the Hudson Valley, and an invincible determination to succeed, would surely carry the Arrow brand to its mark."

The Denning's Point Yards
The Denning's Point Brick Works, owned by the Ramsdell Estate, occupied historic ground about one mile south of Fishkill-oh-Hudson. Between the spring of 1782 and the autumn of 1783, George Washington's army had encamped on Fishkill plains.

The Denning's Point plant, founded in1881 by the firm of McLean and Company, was producing over 17,000,000 bricks a year by1904. In that first quarter century of its existence, no such thing as a strike interrupted the prosperous evenness of their progress. This plant illustrated the economic value of enterprise in its use of gravel, shale, and old brick, by means of a crushing apparatus. Even the 'sanding' was done by machinery, and the kilns used in this plant were among the first to use coal for fuel. In addition, the Denning's Point Brick Works was at the forefront of contemporary mechanical and engineering progress. However, it still was not generally a major competitor to the largest brickmaking plants in the area.