Open House Maker Spotlight

Makers Mark

Histories Mysteries

Down the rabbit hole

Many of the old building in this town have odd little features that you can't understand without doing a little digging into the past. The building on Maple street where the mural is going has alway had an old black strip. With a little research, it makes sense. There used to be a wood building butting right up against it. This black strip, from the wood buildings roof, is the last remnant of that building that everyone has forgotten about. But that's not the mystery that had me diving down a rabbit hole today.

Pink/red indicates brick construction. Yellow is for wood construction.

In the process of taking bricks out where the roof line was, we found some bricks with maker’s marks. Several brick’s were marked DeLong. It took a little while, but I found out these were made by the Glens Falls Brick Company off Glenwood Avenue.

The Glens Falls Brick Company was established in 1848 and owned was by D.P. DeLong and A.Z. DeLong. The water powered plant had access to 50 acres of “boulder clay”.

According to a 1903 edition of “The Clay Worker”, bricks took 5 days to fire in the wood fueled kiln. Wood was delivered for $3.00 a cord.

Delong Brick Makers Layout

The “Clay Worker”

In addition to the Delong bricks, the section added in 1911 also has bricks with a three star makers mark. If anyone knows whose maker’s mark 3 stars is, please let me know. There were multiple brick plants in the area at that time, but I have not found any references to this maker’s mark yet.

This is conjecture now, but because there’s a mix of maker’s marks, I’m wondering if the bricks were recycled from other buildings that had been demolished. Or maybe there were not enough bricks available at the time so they had to source them from multiple suppliers.

The bricks that were in the section of wall that butted up against the adjacent building hidden from view, had no maker’s marks. Just guessing again, but these seem older and probably were recycled.

If you’re interested in learning more about the historic brick making process, especially in New York, check out the Brick Collecting website. They have some great information and images! They also have a really great collection of makers marks and information on the makers, when possible. Unfortunately neither of these marks is on there, yet.