Somers Brick Company
Gabe, Michael, et al.:
I hope you can add to the information below, Michael, as Gabe has requested. This is what I have in my files:
The Somers Brick Company filed its incorporation papers with the New Jersey Secretary of State on 8 May 1900. The official corporate office for the company stood at the corner of Arctic and Missouri avenues and Warren Somers served as the agent for the firm. The company established its brickyard in Bakersville, the old name of the present-day City of Northfield. This was where workmen excavated the company’s raw material from a large clay deposit describable as part of the Cape May formation. The formation had three layers to it and an acceptable common brick could only be produced by blending the top and bottom clay layers, adding as little water as possible, and then forming the green brick under high pressure. Somers shipped much of its product to feed the building boom occurring in Atlantic City at that time. The manufacturing plant featured an Autobrik Machine for producing the green bricks. Manufactured by the Lancaster Iron Works, Incorporated, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the Autobrik required only one person to man its operations and the Lancaster Iron Works still manufactures these brick-making machines today. The machine had the capacity of tempering and pressing the clay, bumping the molds for uniformity, dumping the pressed green bricks on pallets, and then delivering the pallets to the trucks used to transport the brick to the next phase of the manufacturing process: the waste-heat, hot-air drying room, where the green brick was prepared to enter one of the eleven kilns at the Somers Brick Company. The Autobrik operation made it easy to stamp the brick with identifying initials or name. In its advertising literature, Lancaster noted, “Building brick made by the AutoBrik Machine is known as the “Common building brick with face brick characteristics.” Here is a view of an AutoBrik Machine:
And a view of the machine in operation:
The Somers Company used a Browning Engineering steam-powered clamshell bucket shovel, manufactured in Cleveland, to remove overburden and excavate the clay from the pits:
Somers employed a relatively large black labor force and provided the men with on-site housing. Recent Italian emigrants also worked for the brick company. In 1906, the Somers Brick Company employed 75 men; six years later, the payroll had increased to 100; and, in 1918, the number of workers further expanded to 150 men. Finally, in 1927, the workforce had dropped to 70 laborers and the company began throttling down towards its demise.
Here is a map of the yard in 1924:
By 1933, however, the Sanborn Map indicates the brickyard had already closed:
And by 1942, all of the manufacturing equipment and kilns had disappeared, with any metal elements probably going to the war effort:
After the brickyard closed during the Great Depression, the company could not pay its property taxes, so the City of Northfield gained control and ownership of the land through court action. A man named Engelbert Breunig led the charge to convert the former brickyard and its associated clay pits into a public space named Birch Grove Park. The city fathers dedicated the land as a park in August 1951 and opened the new facility in March 1952. When it first debuted, the park boasted of 29 lakes, created from the clay pits, with swimming and boating areas. Since then, the city has filled in several of the lakes. The park also featured a covered bridge at one time. As Michael has noted, the park can still be enjoyed today. The Northfield Historical Museum sits on or near the site of a Somers Brick Company kiln.
Best regards,
Jerseyman
