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Hutton Bricks
Hutton Bricks (Photo: Cory Seamer on Flickr (CC BY-NC-2.0))

10 Facts About HV Bricks

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Scattered along the shores of the Hudson River, it’s not hard to find red “rocks” — or the remnants of bricks. Sometimes you’ll even find one intact enough to still display the name of the factory where it was made. These bricks are the lingering traces of a once-flourishing brick making industry in the Hudson Valley.

Hutton Bricks
Hutton Bricks (Photo: Cory Seamer on Flickr (CC BY-NC-2.0))
  • What made the region a nexus for brickmaking? An abundance of clay, deposited at the bottom of glacial lakes at the end of the last Ice Age, about 12,000 years ago. Some of these deposits were up to 100 feet deep.
  • At the industry’s height, brickworks were located in more than 2 dozen riverfront communities. By the end of the 19th century, there were over 130 different operations that employed around 10,000 workers, primarily immigrants.
  • Two prime reasons for this industry’s success: 1) A construction boom in Manhattan that led to a 20-fold increase in the number of buildings between 1790 and 1910, and 2) new building codes there in the mid-19th century that required masonry construction (to prevent devastating fires like those that occurred in the 1830s and ’40s).
  • Historians have made a rough estimate that it took somewhere between 28-56 BILLION bricks — about 100 million tons — to meet construction needs in Manhattan alone.
  • By the late 19th century, Hudson Valley brickyards were supplying NYC with up to 1 billion bricks a year. A real breakthrough in production occurred in 1852, when Rockland County’s Richard VerValen invented a machine for molding bricks.
  • Haverstraw, in Rockland County, was the brick-making capital of the region — and America. Brickworks there remained in operation from the 1700s to the 1940s. Between the Civil War and the 1920s, they produced at least 350 million bricks a year.
  • The lower quality of clay in the valley led local brickyards to specialize in producing molded “common” bricks, used for inner walls, as opposed to “face” bricks that adorn building exteriors.
  • The emergence of steel and concrete combined with competition from cheaper European bricks doomed the region’s brickmaking operations.
  • In 2001, the last Hudson Valley brick manufacturer — the Powell and Minnock Brick Company in Coeymans, Albany County — closed up shop.
  • Today, the valley’s only intact brickmaking buildings remain at the Hutton Brickyards in Kingston, in operation from 1865-1980. Now it’s a popular event space.
Hutton Brickyard Ruins
Hutton Brickyard Ruins (Photo: Cory Seamer on Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0))

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Our mission is to immerse you in the storied history, fresh happenings, and coming solutions for making the Hudson Valley greener and more livable long-term.

Viewfinder is published by Scenic Hudson, the celebrated nonprofit credited with launching the modern grassroots environmental movement in 1963. With over 25,000 passionate supporters, Scenic Hudson’s mission is to sustain and enhance the Hudson Valley’s inspirational beauty and health for generations to come. Viewfinder supports that mission, because the better people understand what makes this place special, the more they will invest in protecting it. 

Keep up with the latest stories by subscribing to Scenic Hudson’s monthly digital newsletter, and connect with us on social via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Threads.

Lynn Freehill-Maye
Managing Editor
editorial@scenichudson.org 

Riley Johndonnell
Director Creative Strategies & Communications
rjohndonnell@scenichudson.org

Lynn Freehill-Maye
Managing Editor
editorial@scenichudson.org 

Riley Johndonnell
Director Creative Strategies & Communications
rjohndonnell@scenichudson.org

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We’re always looking for ideas around our main topic areas of Climate Solutions, Land + Air + Water, Plants + Animals, History + Culture, Outdoors, and Community.
  • Journalists and writers who have deep familiarity with New York and the Hudson Valley, we’d love to have you contribute! Please do introduce yourself by email, sharing writing samples and any relevant pitches you may have.
  • Photographers and videographers, we’d love to hear from you and see what you do. Please send along a portfolio with images or footage that showcases your best and/or most relevant work, with an emphasis on anything captured outdoors. 
  • Illustrators, we commission artwork on the regular. Drop us a note with some of the beauty you’ve created.
  • Media Partners & Social Media Influencers, we welcome opportunities to team up on series and campaigns. Reach out with any background about yourselves and your ideas.
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  • We love to collaborate with media outlets, especially on episodic series (like these) of interest to our shared audiences. Past collaborations have included radio interviews, panel discussions and other events, original artwork, and e-blasts, all furthering the campaign’s excitement and reach. 
  • We also love to partner with other organizations whose missions align with Scenic Hudson’s. Feel free to reach out with some background on your group and its work.
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