Presenting a collection of St. Louis bricks, sidewalk markers, and the Fleur-de-lis as architectural detail on and in city buildings, brick collecting, urban exploration, and my life by Christian Herman. Reporting from Tower Grove South in St. Louis, MO
6/4/11
Behind the Brick
Brick awaiting repointing on my back porch after being raked. Behind the fine mortar finish was a variety of small rocks which had me wondering about the mechanics of hand selection in 1912.
Its interesting to think about the source of the sand for the mortar between those bricks. Not sure about the age of the building or its brick. It shows to me a couple possibilites. Maybe the sand was local and unprocessed from a creekbed or river deposit. Or maybe it was from the bottom of a large pile of sand and it had picked up all the stones from shoveling near the bottom. We will never really know.
I was stuck thinking about the size of the pebbles and the method used to discard or separate larger stones.
The bricks are on my building which was built in 1913. I bet the bricks were made a year or two prior. Everything used had to be local since it was hauled by horses. There's a railroad spur less than a mile from my house but horses hauled pallets of brick daily from the brickyards.
I wonder how the 20 foot long fir joists were delivered.
I love the way you think. I don't know of many other people who look at the very smallest of details and wonder "...about the mechanics of hand selection in 1912."
4 comments:
Its interesting to think about the source of the sand for the mortar between those bricks. Not sure about the age of the building or its brick. It shows to me a couple possibilites. Maybe the sand was local and unprocessed from a creekbed or river deposit. Or maybe it was from the bottom of a large pile of sand and it had picked up all the stones from shoveling near the bottom. We will never really know.
Ah yes, the sand.
I was stuck thinking about the size of the pebbles and the method used to discard or separate larger stones.
The bricks are on my building which was built in 1913. I bet the bricks were made a year or two prior. Everything used had to be local since it was hauled by horses. There's a railroad spur less than a mile from my house but horses hauled pallets of brick daily from the brickyards.
I wonder how the 20 foot long fir joists were delivered.
I love the way you think. I don't know of many other people who look at the very smallest of details and wonder "...about the mechanics of hand selection in 1912."
@rwhendrix had a good theory. I like it.
Keep up the great posts.
Ah Jeanette. Thanks for that touching acknowledgement.
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