Brick ID
- Thread starter ecampbell
- Start date
Tom:
The brick you inquired about dates to between 1926 and 1943. In 1926, a group of Chicago investors acquired the Sayre & Fisher holdings and separated the various business. The new owners incorporated the brick operation as “Sayre & Fisher Brick Company” in that same year and issued stock in the new firm. The operation made it through the Great Depression, but in 1943, S&FB Co. could not meet its interest obligations and entered bankruptcy. When it emerged from court protection, it reincorporated as the “Sayre & Fisher Company” (without the word “brick”) and the automated machinery then manufactured the bricks simply stamped with just “S&F Co.” Beyond the seventeen-year range time period, I cannot pin down any closer date for its production.
Best regards,
Jerseyman
I finally had opportunity today to visit the museum in Birch Grove Park, especialy interested in the history of the Somers Brick Company. In addition to bricks from the Somers factory, there were several bricks on display with the S&F BCo brand. I commented on the Sayre & Fisher bricks, being very familiar with them from the dozens in my own collection, including many pulled from the banks of the Raritan near the old factory site. The museum attendant corrected me, claiming those were from a different named comany in the site's corporate history, called the Somers and Fram (Sp?) Company. These bricks looked identical to the countless S&F bricks I've found all over the state, but I did not press the issue, since anything is indeed possible. I found zero information on this suggested company on the net, but one of the search hits led me back to this thread, mentioning the S&F bricks, which I read years ago but had forgotten. Has anyone heard of this suggested alternate company name for the former works at Northfield? Or is this simply something the historical society mistakenly came up with?
German:
The information imparted to you is pure fakelore. Somers Brick remained Somers Brick until the end. The company fell into arrears with its property tax payments during the second half of the 1930s, forcing a sheriff's sale of their lands. During the early 1920s, the company cranked out 2 million bricks per annum.
Best regards,
Jerseyman
Thank you Jerseyman. It's always comforting getting clarification from a source I implicitly trust!