Dated brick

[Kentucky point]

I like looking for old bricks in my favorite town of Portsmouth Ohio. Two weeks ago, I saw a pile in a vacant lot beside a 140 year old building. I looked and this brick was inside the pile. A 1906 dated brick from Portsmouth!

[BabaORiley]

Wow Ky. That is really cool. It could make a nice centerpiece in a landscape setup. Good grab man...

[OnewiththewilD]

I grew up in an old mill town here in R.I. and a lot of our mills date back to the mid 1800’s. Lots of old bricks and cobblestones can be found in my local river. I’ve kept a few old cobblestones here and there.

[OnewiththewilD]

I collect a lot of random stuff myself too,I’m curious why you collect bricks?

[Kentucky point]

I was walking through the woods, during turkey season, when all of a sudden I fall flat on my face. It was half of an old brick with a stamp on it. I figured I could start a collection of Ohio/Kentucky marked bricks. That's one reason. The other, is I like collecting things with town names from my local area. In the early 20th century, Portsmouth Ohio had some of the best brick makers in the world located along the banks of the Ohio river. Thus, when I pick up a brick, I am holding the very material that built the town of Portsmouth, and the surrounding community's. Plus, its surprisingly fun!

[OnewiththewilD]

Right on, that’s cool man

[Havenhunter]

Bricks & cobbles-- love them both. I got tired of the old railroad ties rotting out on either side of my parking pad so I began collecting cobbles. When I had enough, a guy poured concrete footers & we placed the cobbles on top. You can drive over them with a semi and not hurt them. I used old ballast brick to form a serpentine path in my garden.
Deb

[Kentucky point]

That's pretty cool! Where I live there are zero cobbles. Just 100,000,000,000 tons of bricks.

[Hoss]

cool find man thanks for sharing the brick with us.

[Tam]

I have 2 old fireplaces that are over100 years old on a small lot in Georgia . I started researching the find and found out that in the early 1900’s they had advertisements for brick .
They called it the age of fireproofing . No more log cabins going up in flames . So now when I see a brick structure I look at it different .
Not to mention our areas are all red clay . Was listening to an old timer tell me stories of the brick makers ... so if I am old and he is an old timer then that puts the dates right there .

[Kentucky point]

That's a really cool brick. If it has a town name on it it is doubly cool.

[Kentucky point]

I also like collecting varieties. As the photo shows, a manufacturer could make many different varieties of brick. Peebles Block, a brick maker in Portsmouth, made many types of street pavers and building bricks. Some had raised letters, some recessed, some with dates, and some with a generic "Peebles" stamped in the center. There is also a difference between a brick, and a paver. A brick is generally thinner, and lighter, and may not have a stamp. (all though many older types do) Pavers, are made of clay, slightly bigger and heavier than normal bricks. The average paver is 10lbs. so when I find them, I usually have a work out carrying four at a time. Also, pavers sometimes have a glaze, while bricks don't. I collect pavers mostly, but I also have a collection of stamped bricks from the 1910s-1930s.

[Tam]

Yeah yours really says it all . This is just a type that when the people came in this area in the 1700’s and started pushing out the Creek nations .
Some were asked to homstead the NA grounds in the 1800’s then the brick came into play another 100 years later .