This winter, we are exploring the world of the brickyards through the men, women, and children who lived and worked in and around them. Brick-making was often a family affair, and in Haverstraw, children edged green bricks. As they aged into teenagers, older children worked alongside their fathers and neighbors, learning the job's parameters as they went. It was common to begin working full-time in the brickyards around age 13; by age 18, these young men had typically performed every job in the brickyard and were positioned to start a brickyard of their own.

As we mark Native American Heritage Month, the Haverstraw Brick Museum would like to acknowledge that the Museum, and the entire village of Haverstraw, is located on the traditional land of the Lenape people. The story of the Lenape, and the early relationships between natives and European settlers, is an essential part of the history of Haverstraw.

In her landmark study Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for American Independence, historian Carol Berkin explores the roles women played in the Revolutionary War. While not soldiers, officers, or politicians, these women nonetheless exerted sway over the outcome of the war, through their activities as protestors and demonstrators, as writers, as supporters and suppliers of the Army, and even as spies.

In Haverstraw one women quietly supported the Patriot cause, providing food and goods to the local militia and Washington’s Continental Army. Her tale has mostly gone untold.

The story of Haverstraw is a story of industry. And the story of industry is a story of immigration. As we mark the end of Hispanic Heritage month, we dipped into the archives of the Haverstraw Brick Museum to learn more about the hispanic community in Haverstraw. The history of the community stretches back to the mid-1800s, when immigrants came to Haverstraw to work in the brickyards and learn the brick trade. A distinctive aspect of the brick industry here was that it did not necessarily require land ownership; in a model piloted by James Wood, a Haverstraw native, many early brick-making sites were built on leased land and with leased machinery. As he famously said, “Brickmaking is a poor man’s game.”