Clement Brick Museum

Frank and Jane Clement Brick Museum- Table of Contents

Frank and Jane Clement Brick Museum
6291 Mile Strip Road, Orchard Park, NY

Visitors: Free viewing by appointment only
716-662-5817 ......... Email

Introduction - Museum brick collection

TEXT Beneath Illustrations

Click on illustrations for larger size -- and additional information
Some bricks have been shellacked and color-highlighted


12,000 "brand" bricks from across the country	Inside the garage: Frank Clement holds one of the prized bricks of the museum	1867 double-headed eagle of Austria.	Another section of the museum with a mounted hammer collection on the right

Another section of the museum with terra cotta chimney pots in the foreground	Backyard patio	Backyard. Top section of photo is actually a raised step framed railroad ties	Another raised step in another section of the backyard

Another raised step in another section of the backyard

Frank and Jane Clement's home at 6291 Milestrip Road in Orchard Park has a driveway that, in 1995, featured 12,000 "brand" bricks from across the country.

Brands are markings on a face of the brick, impressed or scraped into the wet clay before firing. Using brands began in the 1860s as a form of advertising. Not all bricks carry brands, According to Clement, only about 1 in 5,000 bricks will bear a brand. Only about a quarter of all buildings have what collectors consider "interesting bricks."

"Frogs": Early molds had no "frog," an indentation in the panel which in later years held the brand, so the brands were sometimes burned into the wood and sometimes cut with a knife.

The "frog," which dates at least to 1690 in England, was indeed important, for a number of reasons. This indentation on the bottom of the brick not only provided a place for the brand, it also saved material and provided a "key" for the mortar, insuring a better bond during bricklaying.

Very early brands were hand-drawn in the clay, and Clement notes that the literacy of laborers is sometimes evident in misspellings or reversed 'N's and 'S's. Later brands were mass-produced using wood or metal dies inserted in the brick molds; occasionally the screws holding the die to the backing panel of the mold also will be reproduced in the finished brick.

Kelly and Kelly characterize brand types in several categories:

Family names of plant owners (Patton, Brush, etc.)
Initials of company names, especially yards with multiple owners (DFjr&Co)
Place names (Angola, Attica, Gallup, Alamo, etc.)
Trade names or nicknames (Trojan, Keystone, etc.)
Combinations of symbols or logo designs (e.g. letters within a crescent or oval)

There are other categories as well, including pure symbols and messages, Perhaps the most famous of the latter bricks are the "DON'T SPIT ON THE SIDEWALK" warnings emblazoned on bricks produced in Kansas as part of Dr. Samuel J. Crumbine's early 20th Century campaign to limit the spread of tuberculosis.

The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. also has a research and display collection of bricks, including 1,500 donated in 1994 by Raymond Chase of Peekskill, NY. Included are bricks with the messages "Pray" and "Merry Christmas."