Excelsior Brickyard
Hauling Clay, Exelsior Brickyard cira 1900, Haverstraw Times
ABOUT
The Excelsior Brick Company with its signature diamond mark was owned by the Fowler family. This yard started at the Bowline yards beyond lower main street in Haverstraw. One of the last yards to close on July 31, 1933 it was sold off at auction by order of foreclosure in 1935. One of two brickyards owned by the Fowler family, the Excelsior Brick Company was known for producing extremely high quality dark gray bricks. This high quality gray brick was achieved through combining the superior quality dredged grey clay from the bottom of the Hudson River with a very fine black sand which also added to the strength of the bricks. You can still see examples of Excelsior bricks if you walk along the shores of the Hudson River in Haverstraw today.
The Cofferdam
In 1883, Daniel de Noyelles built a Cofferdam off the shores of the Hudson River for the purposes of excavating the hard to reach clay at the bottom of the River. For 25 years the Cofferdam, a rectangular barrier sequestering eleven and a half acres, kept the Hudson River out through the use of two large pumps placed at either end of the Cofferdam.
While the De Noyelles yard, excavated clay from below the Hudson River by pumping the water out, the Fowler and Excelsior brickyards came up with an innovative method to dredge the clay without pumping water out. Both the Fowler and Excelsior yards used big, floating continuous steam powered chain bucket dredges to load rail mounted dump cars that were floated out to the dredges on barges so they could reach the clay that was below the surface of the water.
Loading barges with dredged clay, Diorama, Haverstraw Brick Museum
THE COVERED YARD
The Excelsior brickyards on land had a very small footprint right on the river front. Because of this a feature of the brickyard was large covered sheds where the bricks were stored on pallets after molding and dried in racks. A clever pulley system controlled shutters that enabled sunlight to reach the bricks at all times, but protected the bricks during inclement weather.
Brick Drying, Excelsior Brickyard Company, Circa 1900
End of Jeffries Street, showing the Excelsior, Giles and Eckerman Yards circa 1902
Example Dredged Clay Yard with Seven Machines, Haverstraw
The Shores of the Bowline, Excelsior Brickyard circa 1900