Welcome to Baker’s New York City Littoral Common Brick Index
This website was originally intended as a brick collecting tool for identifying brands and their variants in-the-field but has expanded to include further content. Virtually all of the over 600 brick/s and brick bats (half bricks) catalogued here were manufactured in the Hudson River Valley north of New York City between the 18th and 20th centuries encapsulating the rise and fall of this localized industry. Subsequently, they were recovered downriver- archeological artifacts from the shores of the ever growing metropolis.
Hudson River brick industry principal manufacturing districts (George V. Hutton, “The Great Hudson River Brick Industry”)
Humans have been making fired brick since the 4th century BCE and brick yards lie adjacent to developing urban centers throughout the world. The Hudson Valley’s fluvial clay deposits formed over millennia and afforded engineers the perfect building material. Upstate manufacturers were essential to the growth of New York City providing a fireproof alternative to lumber as fires repeatedly caused devastation. By the turn of the 20th century they were producing as many as a billion brick a year. As Gotham shed its skin however, older structures were torn down and replaced with new buildings, warehouses, tunnels and sewers while generating enormous amounts of detritus and refuse. This material was systematically spread across the surrounding marshlands, as the Dutch had initiated in the colonial era, significantly expanding the landmass and creating valuable real estate.
Map showing the New York City environs, landmass added since the 17th century in green and shorelines investigated by author in red
This collection spans 330 years of brick making from the 1640s to the 1970s. Sourced strictly from urban littoral zones, they can present rounded edges, barnacles and efflorescence, evidence of time spent in the surf or gripped by muddy estuaries. Here, over the centuries, unknowable multitudes of brick buttressing the fringes of the city are degrading- returning to their former granular state. They are seemingly ubiquitous and can be found along many parts of the shoreline excluding some sandy beaches, bulkheads, rip-rap revetments, etc. In other locales throughout the Five Boroughs and beyond however, extensive brick deposits exist. Clason Point in the Bronx, Coney Island Creek in Brooklyn and the Arthur Kill waterfront in Carteret, New Jersey are good examples. I believe that collectively, these diverse sites represent the largest concentration of the widest variety of discarded Hudson Valley-made brick on Earth.
(clockwise from top left) Barren Island, Brooklyn, Clason Point, Bronx, Edgemere, Queens and Coney Island Creek, Brooklyn- shorelines investigated by author in red
The common brick, as the name suggests is inexpensive, versatile, and engineered to similar dimensions throughout the world (basically 1:2:4). Weighing about 4.5 pounds, a single brick can be held in one hand while using a trowel in the other. Handmade brick require extensive labor including packing moulds then removing the excess clay by hand or moulder’s strike, traces of which can be found on older bricks, both branded and unbranded. Common brick can have brand names, initials, numbers and symbols, both raised and embossed in a variety of fonts, a practice dating back to ancient Mesopotamia. Some have reversed or rotated letters or misspelled names which can be accidental or designed as practical patenting solutions. Plain brick (those lacking indents, or ‘frogs’) with simple brands began appearing in the Hudson Valley around the 1850s. Because brick moulds needed constant repair the name plates were routinely replaced producing bricks with slight design variations of the same brand. As demand for the product surged around the turn of the century the importance of the brand was realized because “with the branding of brick, buyers of cargoes would know whence their purchases came. It was then that certain brands were known for their quality.” (Daniel de Noyelles, “Within These Gates”). Kelly & Kelly determined five categories: “(1) family names of plant owners, (2) initials or shortened versions of the company name, (3) place names that identify the location of the yard, (4) ‘nicknames’ or trade names and (5) symbols or logos that may also incorporate the company’s name or initials in some way.” While building the collection, many thousands of nameless brick were flipped and passed over in hopes of new discoveries.
Author’s collection
A journal of brick collecting excursions was maintained to record recovery and research information including artifact sketches. Each brick was submerged in a diluted acid bath and scrubbed with a plastic bristle brush to remove algae, mud and salt, then rinsed. The collection was photographed using a Canon 5D mkII / 50 mm lens at a fixed distance keeping the brick in relative scale. Silver reflectors were used to maximize brand readability and the lighting is bright for outdoor legibility on mobile devices.
Author’s field notes, etc
Hopefully this compendium can be useful to fellow collectors, researchers and archeologists and I humbly welcome corrections and feedback (see UNIDENTIFIED section). I hope my ongoing search might bring to light lesser known makers not recorded in the annals and that this site will foster interest in the fascinating and rewarding endeavor of brick collecting.
To these invaluable resources, I extend special thanks: Daniel De Noyelles (“Within These Gates”), Karl Gurcke (“Bricks and Brickmaking; A Handbook for Historical Archeology”), George V. Hutton (“The Great Hudson River Brick Industry; Commemorating Three and One Half Centuries of Brickmaking”), Roger and Marsha Kelly (“Brick Bats for Archeologists; Values of Pressed Brick Brands”), Jim Graves (“A Listing of Known Brick Manufacturers in the U.S.”), Don Bayley (brickcollecting.com), Andy Van Der Poel (Van Der Poel’s Hudson Valley Brick Collection), Stephanie LaRose Lewison (stephanielarosephotography.com), International Brick Collectors Association (internationalbrickcollectorsassociation.com), Haverstraw Brick Museum (haverstrawbrickmuseum.com), David Rumsey Map Collection (davidrumsey.com)
Chris Baker