Tracking Down Brickyard Locations

Welcome to December!  In the world of historic Minnesota brick making, all the brickyards would probably be closed down now for the winter months.  They would probably continue to sell any remaining bricks from the summer’s batch, but brick making was a seasonal job.  With the approach of winter, the construction season was also winding…

I took a swing through portions of Brick Zone 5 (central Minnesota) several weeks ago and had an interesting time.  I started out near Fairfax, Minnesota, looking for old brick buildings.  Fairfax is like many small Minnesota towns, where main street is suffering.  Most of the old brick buildings in town are located there, and…

Recently, I finished a new YouTube video about the Minneapolis Stone Arch Bridge. As its name implies, the bridge was built of stone. However, I recently researched the histories of both the Minneapolis and St. Paul Union depots. These two buildings were made out of brick. The Minneapolis Stone Arch Bridge was constructed to connect…

If you sit down and think about it, what kinds of old brick buildings are still most common across Minnesota? My first thought is churches, and then maybe courthouses. When I visit a new area of the state, those are the type of buildings I am first looking for. These buildings were usually built of…

One of the things I wanted to learn when I started this web site was the number of brickyards there were in Minnesota in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  I have mentioned before that some sources have said there were 50 to 60, while other sources have said there was one in nearly every…

For those people who grew up on farms in Minnesota, you no doubt had silos on your farm.  Even people in cities can recognize and understand what silos were used for.  There were many types and styles of silos.  They were even made of different materials, like cement, clay, or wood.  As a brick lover,…