Provo Pressed Brick
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Provo Pressed Brick Co.
January 27, 1891
"Brief reference was made in The Herald of January 23, to an enterprise of W. C. Van Gundy in establishing an extensive brick business in Provo. It developes that additional interest has been manifest in the project, resulting in a company being formed by the following named gentlemen: W. C. Van Gundy. D. O. Ward and J. F. Wilson, who have subscribed $8,000 to purchase land and put in the plant. The style of the company will be the Provo Pressed Brick works, operated with a new patented kiln that will provent the damage from the weather, so common to brick kilns. (Salt Lake Herald, January 27, 1891)
January 28, 1891
The following comes from the January 28, 1891 issue of the Provo Dispatch newspaper.
A boom in the way of manufactories is to begin operations in a few days. The gentlemen interested in this new project are Messrs. McGundy, Waid & Wilson. The gentlemen propose putting in a pressed brick plant, and ground for the same has been obtained from Mr. E. C. Henrichsen, proprietor of the Provo Pottery. This land is located in the south-western part of the city, on the line of the R. G. W. Everything will be on the most improved plan.
In conversation with a Dispatch reporter. Mr. McGundy explained the advantagss over the old kiln the new Cotton patent had. A permanent cone-like structure is erected, in which the brick are placed after being dried by the aid of the shelver. Sun-drying is done away with, while drying under heat takes its place. Four of these kilns will be constructed so that one will be going at all times. These kilns are self-regulating, and take but thirty-six hours to burn the brick to the required temperature. A side track from the R. G. W. will be laid, and this will give means for transportation.
Pressed brick has many advantages over the old style brick. While they are all the same color and hardness, they look better in every way. and are twice as durable as the old time brick. In color, the brick to be manufactured by this new firm will be a rich cream.
August 12, 1891
The following excerpts come from the August 12, 1891 issue of the Provo Dispatch newspaper.
- The works are located on the Springville road, some two miles south of Provo.
- 700,000 bricks had been manufactured this season.
- The mud is first put through a Quaker pressed brick machine, which is one of the most simple and perfect made.
- The mold is filled under pressure of ten tons, guaranteeing a good solid brick.
The bricks are taken from the machine on a revolving rack, lifted to a truck and then wheeled to a covered shed nearby, and there stacked carefully, where they they are air dried instead of sun dried as is usually the way in the old process of manufacturing. This keeps the brick smooth and neat with corners well defined.
Bricks designed especially for fronts, flue tops, mantel and ornamental work go through another process, and are equal and superior to the far famed Omaha and Ogden pressed brick. After passing through the first press and being dried for thirty-six hours, each brick separately is put through a perfection repress, under a pressure of twenty tons. They are then allowed to dry slowly out of the sun, and burned in a special manner.
The kilns are what is known as Cotton down draft kilns. A red brick is burned by this company from the first press, for ordinary building, but they cannot be, and are not, so solid and durable as the white brick, as the clay in this vicinity when burned properly turns white, and red bricks made from it are more or less rotten. The high-priced, extra- pressed brick, made especially for fronts, are of a beautiful white or buff color, and this is the only objection to them by anyone.
It seems that the people have been educated up to seeing only red bricks, and they think all brick should red. The white, or buff color, however, is preferable in the east, and in places where nothing but red brick can be made. The brick made by Van Gundy & Co., would sell anywhere for the far-famed Milwaukee brick for color, and are far superior to them in quality, and equal to them in finish.
June 3, 1903
"Provo. June 2. - The Provo Pressed Brick company has filed articles of incorporation with the county recorder. The purpose of the corporation is to engage in the manufacture of pressed brick in this city. The limit of the capital stock is $50,000, divided into shares of the par value of $5 each. The directors are L. Holbrook, Hugh Clayton, Thomas Boardman, S. H. Belmont and Arthur Dixon." (Salt Lake Herald, June 3, 1903)
March 12, 1904
"The land, 98 acres, formerly leased from the Henry A. Dixon estate by the Provo Pressed Brick company, has been purchased by the company. President Holbrook, of the brick company, has sold his interest in the company to Messrs, S. H. Belmont, Arthur Dixon und Thomas Boardman and Mr. Belmont has been elected president in place of Mr. Holbrook." (Deseret News, March 12, 1904)
"There have been a number of important changes in the affairs of the Provo Pressed Brick company. S. H. Belmont, Arthur Dixon and Thomas Boardman have purchased the interests of L. Holbrook. The former gentleman has been elected president. The company has purchased the Dixon farm, on which they have held a lease." -- Salt Lake Tribune, March 12, 1904
May 5, 1906
"William Kuhn of San Francisco arrived here today to set up machines for the Provo Pressed brick company, for making wire-cut and Haverstraw brick and plain tile. The company finished burning the first kiln of brick of the season today." (Salt Lake Herald, May 5, 1906)
March 7, 1907
"The Provo Pressed Brick company will go extensively into the manufacture of drain tile this season. Machinery with a capacity of from 15,000 to 20,000 a day has benn set up." (Spanish Fork Press, March 7, 1907)
April 8, 1916
"The Provo Pressed Brick company, which is developing an immense bed of fire clay, two miles northeast of the city, has completed a giant kiln, 80 by 30 feet, with a capacity of 180,000 to 200,000 brick. Burning will commence as soon as it is filled." (Salt Lake Herald, April 8, 1916)
May 16, 1916
"As a forerunner to the development of a large bed of fire-clay that was recently discovered about two miles north of Provo, Utah, the Provo Pressed Brick Company, backed by business men of that city, has erected a kiln eighty by thirty feet, in which to burn the fire-brick that are to be made." (Brick and Clay Record magazine, May 16, 1916)
July 13, 1916
"Provo, July 12. - S. H. Belmont of the Provo Pressed Brick company is back from a trip to Ohio and Illinois, where he went to purchase machinery for making drain tile and sewer pipe which will be installed in the company's yards here. He also investigated the manufacture of paving brick and the material used, and is of the opinion that the slate shale of Slate canyon will make a very superior paving brick. In order to give this a test he has had slate shale hauled to the yards today. Mr. Belmont states that vitrified brick is the most popular paving material in the east." (Ogden Standard Examiner, July 13, 1916)
January 11, 1917
"The Provo Pressed Brick company has turned out its first commercial kiln of glazed fire brick of beautiful chocolate and green colors. Builders who have seen these brick have expressed the opinion that they are of very superior quality and attractive appearance - equal, if not superior to any which have heretofore appeared on the market." (Provo Daily Herald, January 11, 1917)
March 23, 1917
"S. H. Belmont of the Provo Pressed Brick company says that the farmers are calling for drain tile aa fast as the company can manufacture it and hundreds of acres of waterlogged land will be drained and planted in Utah county this spring. The demand for brick for building purposes is also very heavy." (Provo Post, March 23, 1917)
July 14, 1918
"Provo, July 13. - The largest order ever given the Provo Pressed Brick company was received today from the Heuser-Packard company, who ask the brick company to furnish 88,000 feet of drain tile for the Benjamin and Lake Shore drainage districts. This tile will be from six to sixteen inches in size and will keep the local plant running for practically the balance of the season to complete the order. The cost of the tile will be about $10,000." (Salt Lake Herald, July 14, 1918)
December 16, 1918
"Sidney H. Belmont has filed suit against Provo Pressed Brick company and Thomas Boardman as indorsor, to collect $4,000 with interest on a promissory note. Plaintiff is the vice president of the company and defendant, Boardman is the president." (Deseret News, December 16, 1918)
February 15, 1919
"Provo. Feb. 14. - The Provo Commercial & Savings bank has filed suit against tha Provo Pressed Brick company to recover on a promissory note $21,500 and intereat since August 27, 1917, with an additional $500 attorney's fees and costs. The promissory note is secured by a mortgage on all real estate, chattels, personal property, etc., owned by the company. A judgment for $4000 and $200 intereat was rendered against the company and Thomas Boardman last Monday." (Salt Lake Tribune, February 15, 1919)
May 20, 1919
"Provo, May 20. - The property of the Provo Pressed Brick company, which was sold recently to the Provo Commercial and Savings Bank of this city to satisfy a judgment of about $25,000 has been leased to a number of former employees, who have commenced operation. The new firm will be known as the Provo Brick and Tile company. Jess Curtis will assume the general management and Frank Dyson will be the assistant manager. These with G. H. Sizemore, Earnest Long, C. D. Brown, Joseph Reymand, James Clayton, John Nelson and William McArdle are the lessees." (Deseret News, May 20, 1919)
September 4, 1919
D&RG railroad lowered its freight rate on brick shipments from Provo Pressed Brick company to Raines, Utah, from 17 cents per 100 pounds to 12 cents per 100 pounds. The rate from Provo Pressed Brick to Grand Junction was also lowered from 37-1/2 cents per 100 pounds, to 27 cents per 100 pounds. (Salt Lake Tribune, September 4, 1919)
Provo Pressed Brick & Tile Co.
Sepetember 17, 1920
"Provo, Sept. 17. - The Provo Brick and Tile company has filed articles of incorporation with the county clerk. S. H. Belmont is named as president and general manager of the company; Jesse Curtis vice president; T. H. Heal, secretary and treasurer. These with May Belmont and Frank Tyson constitute the board of directors. The company is capitalized at $50,000, divided into 50,000 shares with a par value of $1 a share. The now company has taken ovar the former plant of the Provo Pressed Brick company." (Deseret News, September 18, 1920)
February 14, 1922
"The Provo Pressed Brick & Tile company, through its manager. S. H. Belmont, announces that this company recently installed a modern saw mill in connection with other plant equipment, and in the near future expects to saw for its own use 20,000 feet of lumber. This lumber, Mr. Belmont says, will be used in the erection of a large dryer, in which all kinds of hollow-ware, such as farm drain tile, hollow building blocks, sewer pipes, etc., will be dried." (Provo Post, February 14, 1922)
The Provo Pressed Brick & Tile company received its clay from a quarry in Park City, Utah, shipped by rail car. Five cars in October 1923, and 20 cars in May 1924.
April 27, 1969
"Flames and smoke rose Saturday from one of Provo's oldest remaining landmarks, the Provo Brick and Tile Company. The fire was deliberately set to aid in the razing of the old structures to clear the property for real estate development. Some of it has already been cleared for the BYU Diagonal which will go north of the remaining structures. Shut down in 1965, it made its last brick in 1964. Its predecessor, on the same site, was the old Provo Pressed Brick Company and it believed to have been started very near the start of the of present century." (Provo Sunday Herald, April 27, 1969)
October 12, 1970
"The brick yard, which operated before the turn of the century, became the Provo Pressed Brick Company in 1903. Later, in 1918, the company was dissolved, but the yard continued operation and reopened as the Provo Rrick and Tile Company in 1923. One of the persons most commonly associated with the brick yard, S. H. Belmont, was originally a stone cutter, and later went into the cement and brick business when those became the popular building materials. S. H. Belmont's son, Sidney Belmont, operated the plant in more recent times." (Provo Daily Herald, Octobre 12, 1970)
August 6, 1974
The following comes from the August 6, 1974 issue of the Provo Daily Herald newspaper.
The smokestack of the old Provo Brick and Tile Co., a Provo landmark on Second West Street since 1920, was razed late Monday afternoon [August 5th] to make room for a chain hamburger restaurant.
Sidney Belmont, president of brick company at the time it ceased production in 1964, noted the company purchased the property after the original concern, Provo Pressed Brick, went bankrupt in 1917.
He noted the stack was built in 1920 when the company had the Provo High School contract. "We produced three million brick a year with a peak production of four million in the 1940's," he said.
Mr. Belmont noted the concern was started in 1920 with his father, S. H. Belmont, as president and his mother, Mary E. Belmont, as vice president. The early directors included Jesse Curtis and Frank Dyson. Mr. Curtis was plant superintendent until his death in 1928. Sidney Belmont became superintendent until 1941 when he then became president of the corporation after his father's death.
The plant received its electrical power by use of a waterwheel turned by the Provo River. When agricultural demands reduced the stream below the necessary 100 second feet of water, the power plant was closed and the building was subsequently razed.
Mr. Belmont said 100 to 110 men were employed in making bricks for Provo Brick and Tile Co., in the 1940's. He added the company obtained clay from Spanish Fork Canyon, Provo Canyon, Midway, Cedar Valley, Hennifer and other parts of the state.
The former president added the firm produced red, black, brown and blue brick. The colors were achieved through the mixing of the various clays. "The clay looked red until it was fired," he explained.
After the closing of the plant in 1964, Mr. Belmont's children began acquiring stock in the corporation. With the dissolvement of the enterprise this past March the assets were divided among the stockholders.
Mrs. Calvin Monk, of Spanish Fork, Mrs. Belmont's daughter, received the portion that included the smokestack.
Approximately one acre was then sold to Peter Lysenko of New York who stated he will build the first Burger King in the state.
Construction of the restaurant is expected to begin soon and the place will open for business sometime in late fall. Mr. Lysenko is the son of Fedro Lysenko of Provo.
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