Old-Fashioned Bricks

by Michael Donahue
Scripps Howard News Service

Tom Green III's employees make about 110,000 mud pies each week.

About 50,000 are on a home in Memphis, Tenn. Others can be seen on other houses in the Memphis area and in Oxford, Miss.

Green, 38, and his employees make handmade bricks at Old Mississippi Brick Co. Some machinery is used, but much of the work--taking the lumps of clay, making them the right size and putting them in brick molds--is done by hand.

Old Mississippi Brick Co., which began operations in Holly Springs, Miss., last February, is one of only about five plants in the United States that make handmade bricks that look like old bricks. "The way the bricks were made back in the olden days is the same way we're doing it," Green said. "We're just a little more automated than they used to be."

Some people want old-looking brick for "the look, the feel, the texture." If the bricks are used on a new home, building, wall, patio or walkway, it will look "like it wasn't built yesterday," he said.

Green's homemade bricks are more expensive than machine-made bricks; they cost between $500 and $550 per 1,000 bricks as opposed to about $400 for 1,000 machine-made bricks. But some people are willing to pay the price.

Marci and John Russell chose Green's bricks for the colonial home they're building in Memphis. "The texture of an old brick is prettier on a home, especially when you're building a home in an old, established neighborhood," Marci said. "They're more expensive, but it's for our personal home. I wanted something special for the house. This is my house for the rest of my life. I wanted to have a beautiful brick. I can enjoy the look forever."

The "cookie-cutter" bricks created by machine all turn out exactly alike, Green said. "You just can't get the look from a machine that you can by doing it by hand: ... No brick is the same 'cause every guy's picking up the clay, rolling it in the sand and throwing it in the box."

There's a homey feel about Old Mississippi Brick Co. Two horses--Sonny and Doc--are corralled on the plant's 20 acres to give the place a "country look."

Green's father, Tom Green Jr., 73, works at the business. "I love having him here. He just does what he wants," his son says.

Green, who grew up in West Point, Miss., discovered bricks at a young age. His father owned a grain elevator in West Point, but his business was hurt by the grain embargo in the late '70s. "He still did the agriculture business, but it was not as strong as it had been, so we looked for odd jobs to do during the off-seasons. We started tearing down old buildings. We would just salvage everything--doors and heart pine beams, odd fixtures, and the brick."

At 13, Green's job after school and on weekends was to clean the old brick. "So, I kind of got the knack of fooling with old brick."

Ten years ago, Green married Lucy Wittichen, daughter of Buddy Wittichen, owner of Wittichen Lime and Cement in Memphis. Green went to work for Wittichen's company, where he continued to deal with used brick.

With his father-in-law's blessing, Green went his own way about five years ago, starting a used-brick business. "I wanted to try something new for myself."

He branched out to buy old bricks in Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Mississippi and the Carolinas, enabling him to get brick in different colors. "Most of Memphis is reds, just because of the clay they used at that point in time."

Paul Dickerhoff, 53, who has been in the brick business 26 years, was intrigued with Green's idea. "He kind of came down here and helped us to be more automated than what I had planned on being, a lot bigger than what I planned on being."

With the exception of Dickerhoff, who now is special projects manager, no one at Old Mississippi Brick had any brick-making experience.

The clay is churned in a "pug mill," which mixes the clay and water and then shoots out the mixture. The workers pick up "slugs" (clay) and break them into the proper size to fit into wooden boxes coated with sand. Sand makes it easier for the brick-shaped pieces of clay to come out of the boxes. The moist bricks are then dried at 300 degrees so they can be stacked. They are then baked at 2,100 degrees in a kiln.

Green realized early that things weren't going to be easy. After three or four days, they had turned out only about 4,000 bricks or four carloads. "Through trial and elimination, we have just gotten better and better. Now, we're up to 20 cars a day. We make about 22,000 bricks a day by hand."

The clay for the bricks comes from the area. "We get some out of Hickory Flat, Miss., and we get some off Highway 72, all basically here in Marshall County," Green said.

Green loves to experiment with brick color. "Somebody can actually send us a brick, and we can almost match it because of the sand or playing with a little bit of color to change the color of the sand. So, we're going to be able to do a lot of, hopefully, historic preservation. If somebody wants to do an addition to a building, we can get real close.

"The other day, I got an order from Washington state. They had an old house out there that had a brick they couldn't find. He e-mailed me a picture. If somebody can send me a picture I can try to match it."

Making brick this way isn't a quick process; it takes 41 hours to fire the brick and 30 hours to cool it.

"Our process (deals) with sand and dirt. It's just amazing the parts we wear out. With this type of machinery and this type of process you're going to have breakdowns . ... Sand is not good on grease and metal. But to get the look and to get the texture, that's what we've got to do. ... "

Green still sells recycled old brick, but he's optimistic about the future of his handmade brick. "When you're passionate about your product, you can sell it."