A piece of New Jersey’s building history was on display in Sayreville when the Sayreville Historical Society hosted a brickmaking demonstration led by Dr. John Meyer, co-artistic director at New Brunswick’s Thinkery & Verse, along with his assistant, Devon. Visitors got a step-by-step look at how local clay can be shaped into brick, a material that helped build the town’s identity.
The Historical Society tied the demo to Sayreville’s deeper roots. The area’s clay was first used by the Lenape for pottery. Later, those same clay deposits and the community’s location along the Raritan River supported a booming brick manufacturing industry through much of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Sayre & Fisher Brick Co., founded in 1850, grew into one of the largest brick manufacturers in the world and employed hundreds of workers, including many immigrants whose families became part of the community. At its peak, the company reported producing about 178 million bricks in 1913. By its centennial in 1950, it had produced more than 6 billion bricks, with products shipped nationwide and used in projects such as the Empire State Building and the base of the Statue of Liberty.
The Sayre & Fisher plant closed around 1970, but the brick legacy still shows up across the borough in historic buildings, homes, and artifacts. Frank Terzino of the Historical Society said the events have helped commemorate Sayreville’s 150th birthday and show how hard earlier generations worked in the yards. The group is also planning a final mosaic using the finished bricks.
For crews and owners working around open-flame activities on sites or at community events, one practical reminder from this demo is coordination. Terzino thanked the Sayreville Fire Marshal for helping make the brick firing possible, underscoring the value of early planning and local approval.
The Sayreville Historical Society operates its museum at 425 Main St., inside an 1885 brick schoolhouse. The museum holds more than 5,000 artifacts and continues to share the area’s brickmaking story, including selling authentic Sayre & Fisher bricks that connect today’s residents to that history.
Read the full, original article from TAPinto here.