(Update: the town Westmont, IL, was originally named Gregg because it started with William L. Gregg's brick making plant. There were also brick yards along the North Shore Channel.)
A PBS video about chicago common brick (source)
JoAnne Gazarek Bloom I represented a client whose old building in North Loop
made of Chicago brick that was significantly damaged by the Deep Tunnel Project. The problem was damages: It was worth more torn down & sold for the brick than it was to repair.
Carter O'Brien Fantastic piece. I was able to research our basement brick manufacturer's stamp (Brisch) to discover we have a "Polish flat", added shortly after WW2 when families with returning GIs would have a workers cottage lifted up and a new brick garden unit and foundation added; in Avondale many of these older cottages were just built on slabs, so it was a smart two-fer approach driven by a housing shortage due to war rationing of building materials.This is a very cool page showing all the nuances of how bricks can be laid in various patterns for specific advantages:https://medium.com/.../guide-to-types-of-brick...
[It takes a lot of BTUs to fire bricks. So recycling them avoids putting more CO2 into the atmosphere.]
There were so many brick buildings in Chicago because, after the 1871 fire, a new city ordinance required that new buildings in the downtown area use fire resistant materials. Fortunately, Chicago was the lake bottom of the glacial lake that was 60 feet higher than our current Lake Michigan during the last ice age. So there are significant deposits of clay that were suitable for making bricks. Several brick companies formed along what is now the North Branch Canal and dug clay pits along what became that canal. (Ogden finished digging the canal so that he would have more lake front properties that he could sell to industries that wanted ship access such as lumber yards.) The land between the North Branch of the Chicago River and Clybourne and between Diversey and Fullerton was also pocked with clay pits. William Deering filled in those pits creating an 85-acre plot in the city on which he built his Deering Harvester Company Plant. (The Chicago River An illustrated History and Guide to the River and Its Waterways, 2nd Edition, 2006, David M. Solzman, p.81)
As the little clay pits in the downtown area played out and the land was reused for other applications, bigger deposits of clay further from downtown were used. Two that I have found so far are the Cary and Blue Island brick works.
Note that other river towns in Northeast Illinois also had brick works, for example Streator, IL. It had four shale and clay working factories making brick, tile, and sewer pipe. When I researched the railroads of Streator, I read that the Streator brick industry flourished after the 1871 fire. One of the companies must have survived until recently because it was still on the Brick Collection history page, but the link is now broke. The invention of steel-framed buildings that allowed a lot of glass to be used in the walls for sunlight was probably a significant blow to the brick making industry.
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Chicago History explains that Cary Brick Works had created a big pit digging out clay for bricks. It had also built a big tailings hill next to that pit. (In this case the tailings would be dirt, gravel, etc.) The combination of the hill and the pit provided a 285-foot vertical drop --- the highest within hundreds of miles. This steep incline was turned into a ski resort called Thunder Mountain. (I could not find the drop of Four Lakes which was made from the tailings and pit of a surface coal mine.)
I'll let you read Chicago History about Thunder Mountain, I'm more interested in the brick works. This 1938 aerial photo shows the works was between Diversey and Fullerton and between Normandy and Narragansett.
It is now big-box and strip mall retail stores including The Brickyard and plenty of suburban style parking. What amazes me is that the track for the Milwaukee branch that went through the yard to Diversey still exists including the crossing at Grand Ave. I don't see an exempt sign on the crossing so that means school buses and trucks carrying flammable liquids still must stop traffic to look for a train that will never exist. Certainly Target and Home Depot will never have rail service. And judging from the size of the trees growing in the tracks, this building will never see rail service again.
A PBS video about chicago common brick (source)
JoAnne Gazarek Bloom I represented a client whose old building in North Loop
made of Chicago brick that was significantly damaged by the Deep Tunnel Project. The problem was damages: It was worth more torn down & sold for the brick than it was to repair.
Carter O'Brien Fantastic piece. I was able to research our basement brick manufacturer's stamp (Brisch) to discover we have a "Polish flat", added shortly after WW2 when families with returning GIs would have a workers cottage lifted up and a new brick garden unit and foundation added; in Avondale many of these older cottages were just built on slabs, so it was a smart two-fer approach driven by a housing shortage due to war rationing of building materials.This is a very cool page showing all the nuances of how bricks can be laid in various patterns for specific advantages:https://medium.com/.../guide-to-types-of-brick...
[It takes a lot of BTUs to fire bricks. So recycling them avoids putting more CO2 into the atmosphere.]
There were so many brick buildings in Chicago because, after the 1871 fire, a new city ordinance required that new buildings in the downtown area use fire resistant materials. Fortunately, Chicago was the lake bottom of the glacial lake that was 60 feet higher than our current Lake Michigan during the last ice age. So there are significant deposits of clay that were suitable for making bricks. Several brick companies formed along what is now the North Branch Canal and dug clay pits along what became that canal. (Ogden finished digging the canal so that he would have more lake front properties that he could sell to industries that wanted ship access such as lumber yards.) The land between the North Branch of the Chicago River and Clybourne and between Diversey and Fullerton was also pocked with clay pits. William Deering filled in those pits creating an 85-acre plot in the city on which he built his Deering Harvester Company Plant. (The Chicago River An illustrated History and Guide to the River and Its Waterways, 2nd Edition, 2006, David M. Solzman, p.81)
As the little clay pits in the downtown area played out and the land was reused for other applications, bigger deposits of clay further from downtown were used. Two that I have found so far are the Cary and Blue Island brick works.
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Cary Brick Works
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| 1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP |
I'll let you read Chicago History about Thunder Mountain, I'm more interested in the brick works. This 1938 aerial photo shows the works was between Diversey and Fullerton and between Normandy and Narragansett.
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| From ChicagoTonight |
The Carey brickyard actually continued in operation during the ski resort era and beyond. They made Chicago common bricks. Carey was the last place that made these bricks. The kilns needed to produce these didn’t meet modern environmental standards and Carey closed in 1980. Today whenever a brick building is torn down, companies are brought in to salvage the bricks and re-use them. [ChicagoTonight].
Blue Island Illinois Brick Companies' Yard 22
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| Steve OConnor shared The clay pit of the Illinois Brick Company in Blue Island which eventually the city would turn into a park. Note the small industrial steam locomotive working the pit. Fullton Grace I believe this is the area immediately south of 123rd street between Kedzie and California. Between the Grand Trunk and B&O tracks. This clay pit at one time also connected, via train tunnel to another quarry that ran between 123rd and 119th street. It was filled in with garbage and later made into a golf course. Mike Summa posted a photo that is overexposed. Michael Brandt posted The caption said Blue Island Brick Yard, I don't know but after Robert Markman found the awesome A real pic of Tuthill Building Material, change the Chimney configuration a little for more furnaces and you got Tuthill Building Material possibly. Michael Brandt: Now they call it Riverdale and earlier Blue Island, HMMMM |
Robert Markman posted two photos with the comment: "Blue Island Yard 22 Clay hole. At the time, one of the biggest in the world, and a cool picture of a clay digging machine. I wonder if one of those is at the bottom of the Riverdale Clay hole."
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| Mike Summa posted Very old pictures of the Illinois Brick Yard in Blue Island, Illinois. Huge facility had its own railroad. I do not know what kind of engines they are, but feel free to describe. Pictures courtesy Blue Island Historical Society. Thank you. |
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| Dan Quine posted 3ft gauge geared steam locomotive of the Illinois Brick Company's Blue Island quarry in Chicago. Rick Perry: Wonder if final drive is gear or chain drive? Nice local blacksmith built unit. |
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| Phil Wiegman commented on Dan's post Here is a photo of there 1953 Plymouth gas locomotive that did survive and was restored at the Hesston steam museum in Indiana. It was one of the later locomotives that replaced the steam engine. Restored 2018. From another page. |
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| Phil commented on his comment At the brickyard after closing. Before being saved and restored. |
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| Phil Wiegman commented on Dan's post Closed around 1980 not meeting EPA regulations on there kilns. I know much of the equipment sat for years before being scraped or sold. Had a friend that worked there in the 70s. |
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| Steve OConnor commented on above posting |
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| Steve OConnor commented on above posting |
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| Steve OConnor commented on above posting |
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| 1938 Aerial photo from ILHAP |
Tyson Park There were other brickyards, not just on the South Side. There was the large Carey brickyard along the Dunning Line of the Milwaukee Road on the city's far west side which gave its name later to the Brickyard shopping center. Another large brickyard was in Glenview where north of Chestnut and east of the Milwaukee Road (now CP/Amtrak/Metra) tracks. https://www.journal-topics.com/.../how-brick-company.../
Tyson Park The Carey brickyard in the Belmont-Cragin neighborhood of Chicago was turned into a ski hill for a short period. https://www.dnainfo.com/.../thunder-mountain-chicago-ski.../
Tuthill
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| Michael Brandt posted This is a much sharper picture of Tuthill's brick factory that was at 138th and Halsted. 138th Street to the left and Ashland Ave at the top of the picture. You can actually see some detail in this one. Michaels description on his post of the fuzzier photo was: "The brickyard that was at 138th Street which is to the left and Ashland Ave at the top of picture and Barr Yard to the right.It began in 1892 when James B. Tuthill started a business to manufacture and sell common brick to Chicago construction companies who were fueling the city's rapid expansion." |
I did not realize that the B&OCT railyard is aa rather recent development.
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| 1929 Blue Island Quad @ 62,500 |
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| 1953 Blue Island Quad @ 24,000 |
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| Michael Brandt posted A Clayhole in the Making at 138th and Halsted from the early 1930s, our best pic of Tuthill's Brick factory lower left( an official Grainery Brick goes to the Person who finds a picture of Tuthill's Brick factory at 138th and Halsted) That's ( Tuthill Building Material Co. ) Raymond Boerema: Tuthill Building Materials Co. was its proper title, not Tuthill Brick Factory. Carl Durnavich: In 1931 the four area brickyards in Blue Island produced 1,500,000 bricks A DAY! In the 1930's they provided the bricks for the Chicago Post Office building expansion--the old one we drove under on the Eisenhauer. |
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| David Shilling posted Photo is just missing H&H, but is a good view of the clay pit, both RR yards, and the Acme peninsula. |
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| Carl Durnavich commented on David's post Great find! Guess "41" may mean 1941? We don't see the Halsted Outdoor Theater, which opened in the late 1940's, but see the Pipe 'O Peace golf course, which opened in 1928. So maybe 1941. Here's a labeled view of Dave's find. Guess the "runway" Bill Urbon mentions is the long, brick factory building in the clayhole. David Shilling: The 41 is the sequence number of the photos. I think the photo is the 1920's or 1930's. I found it here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/page449 Also, that long strip to the river shows up in a lot of aerials from that era. We have discussed some ideas of what it was. Maybe a canal or short rail line used to transport materials to the river? Maybe a way to pump out the groundwater from the clay pit? |
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| Michael Brandt posted A shot of the Barr Yard and a very rare shot of Tuthill's Brick Factory at 138th and Halsted in background. |
10:18 Tuthill Company History Video
Update:
David Daruszka commented on a posting:
Purington was located just south of 119th Street between the two Rock Island lines in Blue Island. The clay pit was eventually filled in.The Nov. 24, 2016, issue of the Chicago Tribune had big article on brick collecting in its A&E Section. Part of an introductory paragraph is of particular interest:
From a history of Blue Island:
BrickyardsAfter it was discovered in the early 1850s that rich deposits of clay surrounded the ridge, Blue Island became the center of a significant brick-making industry that lasted for over a century. In the early years, these efforts were small, with the bricks being made by hand and the turnout created mostly for local use, but by 1886 the Illinois Pressed Brick Company (organized in 1884) was employing about 80 men and using “steam power and the most approved machinery”, which allowed them to produce 50,000 bricks per day.] By 1900, the Clifton Brickyard alone—which had opened in 1883 under the name of Purington at the far northeast corner of the village was producing 150,000,000 bricks a year. In 1886, the Chicago architectural firm of Adler and Sullivan designed a large complex for the Wahl Brothers brickyard (the main building of which was 250 by 350 feet on the west side of the Grand Trunk tracks between 119th and 123rd streets. These buildings had been demolished by 1935, and all of Blue Island’s brickyards were re-purposed by the latter part of the mid-20th century. The larger ones for a while become landfills, and the Wahl Brothers location is now the site of the Meadows Golf Club
Chicago --- rich in clay deposits used for brick-making, having burned down in 1871 --- was a ripe canvas, rebuilt as a brick metropolis. By the 1890s the area boasted more than 60 brickyards, clustered near Blue Island; manufacturers pumped out 600 million bricks a year. Before the industry peaked in the 1920s, before steel and concrete competed for attention, Chicago had become an international hub for brick production.In addition to the brick collecting link near the top of this posting, the International Brick Collectors Association has an official and a member's sites.
I found this to be a very interesting article. My landmark "rowhouse" in the Pullman National Historical Park and Pullman Historical Landmark District incorporates the use of Chicago common brick as does all the houses & remaining buildings. Indiana was also a source of bricks for the town of Pullman.
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