We like brick. yup. 17th Century bricks-as-ship ballast were used for our first brick buildings. Colonial brick is a signal of stature.
I love this story as witnessed in a NCC Historic Review Board meeting some years back:
A Pennsylvania-based expert’s report, which featured the notion of brick-as-lower-status, was presented in an attempt to diminish the importance of one of NCC’s historic buildings by way of showing that the owner must not have been very well off to have used brick not stone for his house.
The HRB scoffed at the pronounced justification for destroying the historic home. (IIRC the demo application was for Carmine Crisconi who hoped to demolish the manor house in his lower county development of Farmington).
The HRB countered that Crisconi’s PA expert must not have realized that, in landscapes situated below the peidmont, stone was hard to come by. While common in PA, stone homes in lower DE just weren’t built because there wasn’t much stone lying around. There was plenty of other evidence, however, that the owner was wealthy and a person of great stature in our state. ‘Nuff said.
And I’m a little upset John Rollins is putting the kabosh on Kelley this morning. He could have done the same things with O’Donnell but chose not too, I guess. Trying to manipulate the Dem primary to run Bill Montgomery heads up against Dennis Williams is a pretty sleazy move since I’m guessing they think Bill Montgomery is more of a patsy that Williams is.
I hope Kelley stays in the race. It seems too well timed a story for it not to be manufactured.
Brick was used in the construction of houses and churches in the Colonial period. From a historic perspective, houses, churches and a few other buildings were built of brick that did come from ships carrying cargo to the ports of Wilmington, New Castle, De. City , some of Port Penn, Odessa, and down below onto Lewes.
There were basically two types of brick: The “Hard Brick” , which consisted of more sand with iron oxide in it. – These were used on the exterior of buildings because it was of harder, more durable strength. The other type of brick was called “Salmon Brick”. – This type of brick had far more Clay in it’s composition,was a softer brick and was used ion the construction of the interior walls because it would disintegrate left exposed to the elements. A lot of the unique features of construction of these older buildings was the level of detail and attractiveness by using brick in interesting patterns. One can observe on these old buildings as an example, every 5 “Courses” or layers, the bricks would not be laid the long way, but the short way so the end of the brick is seen in a row to break up the monotony.- This also meant that the brick wall was thicker than just one brick because the brick row which was laid so the end was showing,meant the wall was two bricks thick, as a brick is as long as two bricks wide. In today’s construction of brick structures/houses, the brick is just plain featureless, of no structural value and purely for a cosmetic facade. That being said, the brick houses built around the Glasgow area, were of a little later construction than those along Delaware’s coast and the brick used predominately in them was manufactured in Pa. , because of the clay resources for their brick industry. Some bricks even came from Md. and Nj. , but most came from Pa.
So, that being said, some of the people who comment here, (Well, not really some and that can be narrowed down to possibly one) on this blog have a blog of their own.; But, no one comments on that blog even though she claims to be “Very informed with factual information”, which is really rumors and gossip with a heavy dose of Conspiracy. – Thereby making that person/persons, “Dumb as a Brick” !!!
Looks like Dover. Of course, pretty much everything that isn’t beach in this state looks like Dover. The state motto should be “We like brick.”
University of Delaware, view from the Morris library.
We like brick. yup. 17th Century bricks-as-ship ballast were used for our first brick buildings. Colonial brick is a signal of stature.
I love this story as witnessed in a NCC Historic Review Board meeting some years back:
A Pennsylvania-based expert’s report, which featured the notion of brick-as-lower-status, was presented in an attempt to diminish the importance of one of NCC’s historic buildings by way of showing that the owner must not have been very well off to have used brick not stone for his house.
The HRB scoffed at the pronounced justification for destroying the historic home. (IIRC the demo application was for Carmine Crisconi who hoped to demolish the manor house in his lower county development of Farmington).
The HRB countered that Crisconi’s PA expert must not have realized that, in landscapes situated below the peidmont, stone was hard to come by. While common in PA, stone homes in lower DE just weren’t built because there wasn’t much stone lying around. There was plenty of other evidence, however, that the owner was wealthy and a person of great stature in our state. ‘Nuff said.
UD definitely.
And I’m a little upset John Rollins is putting the kabosh on Kelley this morning. He could have done the same things with O’Donnell but chose not too, I guess. Trying to manipulate the Dem primary to run Bill Montgomery heads up against Dennis Williams is a pretty sleazy move since I’m guessing they think Bill Montgomery is more of a patsy that Williams is.
I hope Kelley stays in the race. It seems too well timed a story for it not to be manufactured.
University of Virginia turns down obama campaign’s request for rally on their campus next week. So much for hope and change
Rusty, wouldn’t you be happier at delawarepolitics.net?
Brick was used in the construction of houses and churches in the Colonial period. From a historic perspective, houses, churches and a few other buildings were built of brick that did come from ships carrying cargo to the ports of Wilmington, New Castle, De. City , some of Port Penn, Odessa, and down below onto Lewes.
There were basically two types of brick: The “Hard Brick” , which consisted of more sand with iron oxide in it. – These were used on the exterior of buildings because it was of harder, more durable strength. The other type of brick was called “Salmon Brick”. – This type of brick had far more Clay in it’s composition,was a softer brick and was used ion the construction of the interior walls because it would disintegrate left exposed to the elements. A lot of the unique features of construction of these older buildings was the level of detail and attractiveness by using brick in interesting patterns. One can observe on these old buildings as an example, every 5 “Courses” or layers, the bricks would not be laid the long way, but the short way so the end of the brick is seen in a row to break up the monotony.- This also meant that the brick wall was thicker than just one brick because the brick row which was laid so the end was showing,meant the wall was two bricks thick, as a brick is as long as two bricks wide. In today’s construction of brick structures/houses, the brick is just plain featureless, of no structural value and purely for a cosmetic facade. That being said, the brick houses built around the Glasgow area, were of a little later construction than those along Delaware’s coast and the brick used predominately in them was manufactured in Pa. , because of the clay resources for their brick industry. Some bricks even came from Md. and Nj. , but most came from Pa.
So, that being said, some of the people who comment here, (Well, not really some and that can be narrowed down to possibly one) on this blog have a blog of their own.; But, no one comments on that blog even though she claims to be “Very informed with factual information”, which is really rumors and gossip with a heavy dose of Conspiracy. – Thereby making that person/persons, “Dumb as a Brick” !!!