Published in the Winter 2008 IBCA Journal and written by:

• John Brown #831
• LaDonna Brown #831A
• Jean Bear #622
• Peggy French #31

Several collectors, beginning with Mark and Joyce Brown at the 2006 Tulsa brick swap, have expressed interest in seeing a photographic listing of sidewalk pavers with patterns on them. Ohio collectors John and LaDonna Brown, who have an extensive collection of these bricks, kicked off the project by having the daughter of their daughter-in-law, Terri Cooper, of Columbus, take pictures of their patterned sidewalk pavers.

To these, we have added others. Many of these bricks are difficult to attribute to particular brick plants with any degree of accuracy, so we plan to list them simply by number. As information about the bricks becomes available, we will publish a list of the numbers, and the source of the bricks, if it is known. According to the theory of Rev. John Lloyd Evans, Ohio sidewalk bricks could be traced to three plants by their patterns. "Ohio Sidewalk Bricks," published in the Summer 1986 issue of the IBCA Journal, states this theory: A circle on the face of the brick denotes the Diamond plant. A star design shows that the brick is from Nelsonville, and a flower motif tells of manufacture at East Clayton, where the plant burned in 1892 and was never rebuilt. However, some of our collectors, including the late Bill Belhorn, have found indications that designs may have been shared and made in various locations.

We hope that our membership will enjoy this set of photos, and will add to the listing by sending in photos or information about the bricks. Please send your photos to Peggy for future publishing in another installment.

Reprint of the 1986 article follows.

Ohio Sidewalk Bricks

Early in their careers all fledgling brick collectors should give serious thought to spending a week or so hunting brick in southeastern Ohio. Name brands found in that area's dumps and landfills are seemingly endless and varieties abound. And for those who are particularly attracted to sidewalk pattern brick, the trip will be well worth the trouble. They are virtually everywhere.

The Ohio reverend, John Lloyd Evans, in his historical pamphlet published for the bicentennial celebration, devotes considerable space to the varieties of sidewalk brick found in and around the Nelsonville and Logan areas. He estimates that there are ten miles of such sidewalks still left in that part of Ohio.

According to Rev. Evans, the major design patterns that occur on Ohio sidewalk brick can be traced to three separate plants. 

A circle on the face of the brick denotes manufacture at the Diamond plant; a star design shows that it is a product of the Nelsonville plant; a flower motif tells of very early production at the East Clayton plant, which burned to the ground in 1892, never to be rebuilt. Among the oldest of Ohio sidewalk brick still in use are probably those that feature raised square ridges. The source of this design is currently unknown.

In the heyday of brick making in the Nelsonville area, five major plants were eventually dominant. They, at one time or another, may have all been involved in the production of sidewalk brick, along with their main product-street pavers. Rev. Evans states that at periods of peak production, each of these factories employed in the neighborhood of 120 men. That would mean at times a total of 600 persons were involved in the brick industry in the Nelsonville area alone. The majority of these workers were immigrants from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. They came seeking work in the coal fields of western Pennsylvania but switched to ceramic production when that industry began to flourish. Some were skilled clay artisans, experienced in the techniques of clay mixing, molding, and kiln firing. Their talents were found to be in great demand in the new industry.

An interview in a 1968 issue of the Logan, Ohio newspaper quotes a Mrs. Susan Carter, who had at that time, recently completed a thesis on the sidewalk bricks of Ohio. Speaking in regard to those bricks, Mrs. Carter had this to say:

"Their unique patterns seem quite simple, but like the dimensions of the Parthenon, they have some surprises. Each brick exhibits two identical patterns side by side. At first glance these enclosing patterns look like squares, but they are in fact rectangles, with longitudinal sides over a quarter of an inch longer than the transverse sides.

"The rectangular patterns are composed of ridges-thirteen on a side in the case of the circle and six-pointed star brick made at Nelsonville, ten in the case of the eight- pointed star brick, and twelve in the case of the smaller square brick.

"Within each of these enclosed ridge patterns is a second enclosing figure which again appears to be a square but is instead a rectangle, a reduced version of the larger enclosing rectangle. And within this figure is the dominant motif, either circle (actually four concentric circles), square or star. The eight-pointed star has a portion of a sphere in its center and is surrounded by a circle.

"Close examination of the manner in which each of the four patterns is executed with intersecting ridges and furrows will reveal the fact that the designs are much more sophisticated than they appear on first sight.

"This leads one, then, to the ostensibly puzzling question: why do these bricks have any designs at all? For hundreds of years walkways have been constructed of ordinary un-patterned brick; why should brick with circles, stars and squares appear in the U.S. in the late nineteenth century? And why are they both vitrified and glazed?

"The answers to such questions can be formulated only by returning for a moment to the history of the Ohio brick making industry, specifically to that of Nelsonville. Exactly when and in what plant the first vitrified, salt-glazed pattern brick were produced is not known. Certain of their features indicate that the original models were not designed for sidewalks, but were later shifted to that application. For example, glazing as a means of improving the durability of sidewalk or even pavement brick is a some-what dubious proposition. Almost completely vitrified, their absorption rates are so low-on the order of two percent-that the application of salt-glaze over some or all of their surfaces does not make much difference in their ability to repel moisture.

"However, glazing with lead, manganese and iron for decorative purposes was becoming a popular practice in the Ohio brick making industry by the year 1884. Relatively new to industrial application, these compounds enabled manufacturers to produce bricks with different colored faces, for use primarily in homes and business structures.

"Glazing, then, was something of a fad at about the time pattern brick were first produced. Yet salt-glazing, the cheapest and simplest of all glazing methods, and known to ceramics workers since colonial times, was still very popular.

"These conditions set the stage for the appearance of vitrified, salt-glazed, patterned brick. These were first introduced as a surface for packinghouse floors.

"In the 1880s and 1890s, under the guidance of men like Armour and Swift, the slaughtering and meatpacking business grew to immense proportions. As is true even today, a great deal of handwork is involved in this trade, and, to speak plainly, a great deal of blood and gore. To control such elements, and to check the possible spread of disease, slaughterhouse designers turned to the vitrified, salt-glazed, pattern brick. Such brick had to have the lowest possible absorption percentage, and in this instance it was evidently concluded that salt-glazing was worthwhile. In addition, the patterns impressed upon the brick would provide increased traction for the feet of men working on slippery slaughterhouse floors.

"Vitrified, self-glazed pattern brick lent itself to sidewalk construction for at least three reasons. First, sidewalk traffic bears very little weight; the much thicker pavers would be out of place in a sidewalk, but the thinner brick created a substantial surface without wasting material. "Second, the imprinted patterns provided a good walking surface even in wet weather. Third, the glazed surfaces of such brick were easy to clean.

"To these three practical reasons might be added a fourth: the patterns on the bricks were aesthetically attractive. They provided a kind of semi-abstract, decorative beauty common to the late nineteenth century, and they provided that beauty to an everyday urban landscape that was being increasingly darkened by industrial smoke.

"In this respect, the brick designs are related to the "gingerbread" and scroll-saw carpentry work then popular and the ornamental iron railings found on the most representative houses of the period. Such late Victorian decoration was occasionally pointless or redundant, not structurally essential, and in some instances nothing more than ostentation.

"The pattern brick designs, however, are inseparable from their function that of providing a good walking surface. They integrated both utility and aesthetic quality in a very direct, honest way."

Mrs. Carter's remarks conclude with the statement that, all things considered, it is her opinion that sidewalk pattern bricks rank with some of the best designed objects of their era. A good many IBCA members would probably agree.

Additional information from the IBCA Facebook group:

Ed Wagner: we found an advertisement in a roads journal for a company that made the machines to make these and it appears that numerous companies may have had the same machines and made identical bricks.