Manitoba Bricks and Blocks

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Brick Makers | Brick Companies | Brick Samples | Concrete Blocks | Terminology | Links | Sources

Display of bricks at the Chapman Museum (September 2011)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough

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Brick Makers

William Alsip (1833-1912)

W. D. Creighton (?-?)

Robert Dorrell Hales (1859-1929)

Harry Payne (1858-?)

Brick Companies

A. Snyder and Company

Acone Brick Company

Alsip Brick Tile and Lumber Company (Winnipeg)

Birds Hill Sandstone Brick Company

Boyne Valley Brick Works Company

Brookdale Brick and Tile Company

Canada Brick and Coal Producers Limited

Canadian Petrified Brick and Stone Company

Carman (RM of Dufferin)

Darlingford Brick and Tile Company

Dominion City Brick Company (RM of Franklin)

Dominion Pressed Brick Company

Edrans-Brandon Dry Prest Brick Company (RM of North Cypress)

Gate City Brick Works Limited

Gilbert Plains Brick Company

Hardstone Brick Manufacturing Company

Hartney (RM of Cameron)

John Wardrop Brick and Tile Company

Lac du Bonnet Brick Plant (Lac du Bonnet)

Leary Brickworks (RM of Lorne)

Manitoba Brick and Tile Company

Manitoba Composite Brick Manufacturing Company

Manitoba Pressed Brick Company

Manitoba White Granite Pressed Brick Company

Modern Pressed Brick and Stone Company

Morris Brick Manufacturing Company

National Brick Company

Phoenix Brick Tile and Lumber Company

Pinto Coal and Brick Company

Portage la Prairie Brick and Tile Company

Pressed Brick and Tile Company

Red River Valley Brick Company

Reinforced Brickwork Company Limited

Reliance Brick Company Limited

Sidney Brick and Clay Works Limited (RM of North Norfolk)

Sidney Brick and Tile Company (RM of North Norfolk)

Somerset Brick Company

Souris (RM of Glenwood)

Standard Brick and Tile Company

Stephens Brick Company

Virden Brick and Tile Company

Western Brick Company

Western Brick Company

Whitemouth Brick Company

Winnipeg Brick and Tile Manufacturing Company

Winnipeg Brick Company

Winnipeg Brick and Fuel Company

Winnipeg Sandstone Brick Company (Winnipeg)

Wood’s Brick Company

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Brick Samples

Brick	Notes
Albert Business Block (1870s)	This primitive, yellow-coloured brick with no frogs was salvaged in April 2012 from the remains of the recently burned Albert Business Block on Albert Street in Winnipeg. The building is thought to have been built around 1877 and the brick veneer was added at that time, or shortly thereafter, using bricks made at Dominion City.
Snyder Bricks	These two bricks were obtained in May 2012 from the remains of the Don School and its associated teacherage, in the Rural Municipality of Mossey River. The top brick, stamped “Snyder”, came from the school’s chimney. The bottom brick, stamped “A S Co” (A. Snyder & Company), came from the teacherage ’s chimney. Each brick has a single frog and a medium yellow colour.
Unidentified bricks	This brick was obtained in May 2012 from the crumbling west wall of Eldon School, a brick-veneered, one-room schoolhouse in the Rural Municipality of Gilbert Plains. It has a single frog and is a light yellow colour, although the above photo makes it appear slightly reddish.

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Concrete Blocks

For a few years in the early 20th century, buildings around southern Manitoba were built with locally-cast concrete blocks. Much larger than bricks, these distinctive blocks could measure up to 30 to 32 inches long, 9 to 10 inches tall, and around 3 inches thick. The blocks were hollow, and were typically flat on the interior face but variously patterned on the exterior face. The blocks were made using locally quarried clay by Frank Thomson at Austin (RM of North Norfolk), David Wright at Emerson, L. C. McIntosh in the RM of Winchester, William J. McKinney in the RM of Morton, Maurice Boughton at Arden (RM of Lansdowne), and possibly others. The idea was that concrete blocks could be made with limited infrastructural investment because they did not require high-temperature firing like bricks. For reasons unknown, widespread construction use of the blocks ended around 1910.

Concrete block manufacturing on the farm of William J. McKinney (1904)
Source: Mrs. Ina McKinney, Beckoning Hills, page 73.

Men make concrete blocks at the Manitoba Agricultural College (circa 1917)
Source: Archives of Manitoba, University of Manitoba, Fort Garry Site #15.

Blocks were made at Arden, Manitoba by the Arden Cement Block and Building Company, incorporated in early 1904. [1] Parners in the enterprise included hardware merchant and tinsmith John A. Gilhuly, merchant and municipal official Maurice E. Boughton, carpenters George and William Stockdale, and stonemasons Robert Lamb and John Samuel McGorman. They used a Harmon S. Palmer block-making machine to construct several buildings around the Rural Municipality of Lansdowne. These include the municipal office and present-day post office (formerly a pharmacy and doctor’s office) on Lansdowne Avenue in Arden, and private residences in the surrounding countryside.

Examples of Manitoba buildings made with locally-cast concrete blocks:

Arden Concrete House (Arden, RM of Lansdowne), 1905

Arden Post Office (Arden, RM of Lansdowne), date unknown

Argyle Hotel (Austin, RM of North Norfolk), 1904 - demolished

Ayr School (RM of Lansdowne), 1908

Bergthaler Church Waisenamt (48 Main Street, Altona)

Casselman House (Park Street, Emerson), 1905

Clifford Barn (RM of North Norfolk), 1912

Culross School (RM of Shoal Lake) - demolished

Emerson Baptist Church (Third Street, Emerson), 1905

Emerson Presbyterian Church Manse (129 Park Street, Emerson), 1905

Ferguson Building (275 Stephen Street, Morden), 1910

A. E. Gardiner Building / Seton Centre (116 Main Street, Carberry)

Grove School (RM of Winchester), 1907

Kilkenny General Store (Broomhill, RM of Albert)

Lansdowne Municipal Office (Arden, RM of Lansdowne), 1904

Lowe Farm School (Lowe Farm, RM of Morris), 1913

Lyleton Post Office (Lyleton, RM of Edward), ?

Matchettville School (RM of South Norfolk), 1906

McKinney House (RM of Morton), 1904

Nelson Concrete House (RM of North Norfolk), date unknown

Northcote School (RM of Turtle Mountain), 1906

Otter School (RM of Brenda), 1908

Ritzer House (RM of North Norfolk), 1906

Royal Oak School No. 1354 (RM of McCreary), 1906

Shellmouth School No. 292 (Shellmouth, RM of Shellmouth), 1910 - destroyed by fire

Swan River Concrete House (500 Duncan Crescent, Swan River), possibly around 1905

Sylvester Hill School No. 1368 (1906-1938), circa 1906

Tenby School (RM of Lansdowne), 1904

Thomson Barn (RM of North Norfolk), 1908

Union Bank Building (Waskada), 1906

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Terminology

Term	Definition
Frog	A recess on one or both sides of a brick, created by inserting a spacer into the brick mould during manufacture. It creates a space for mortar that provides additional strength to the wall.

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Links:

Minnesota Bricks

MHS Centennial Business: Alsip’s Building Products and Services

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Sources:

1. “Manitoba Gazette”, Manitoba Free Press, 6 June 1904, page 9, and Legacies of Lansdowne.

Additional information used here was provided by David Butterfield, Ed Ledohowski, and Tracey Winthrop-Meyers.

Information for this page was collected and prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 7 April 2013