Arlington Public Library: Oral History: West Brothers Brick Company

Arlington VA

29 April, 2021

11:57 AM

Description

Press release from Arlington Public Library: April 29, 2021 Interview with Rayfield Barber Oral histories are used to understand historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of real people's personal experiences. West Brothers Brick Company offices at 720 15th NW in Washington, D.C., 1902. West Brothers brickyard panoramic, 1903. Cas Cocklin: Tell us a little bit around the brickyard.  How large was it more or less?  And how many people were employed there?  I know perhaps you don't know the exact number but roughly? Rayfield Barber: It was a pretty large brickyard because they made bricks and tile at West Brothers Brick Company. CC: To whom were they selling these?  To the government or to private contractors? RB: They was selling them to the government and to private contractors.  They had a bunch of Dutch kilns which they start the bricks in.  What would happen, they would bring this through the machine, they had one machine that ran over and over with molds in it and then clay would fall into the molds and when it come around and it had a belt, a conveyor belt . . . CC: Now was this just one mold at a time or did they have a row of molds? RB: No, it was a whole lot of molds in this here wheel-like thing and it was big tubs in there and it would fill up, I guess it was just 4 x 8 for the bricks and then the clay would fall in there and then pat down and when it come around it had something like a knife blade, cut it off and when they did that, the plunge would drop down and knock the bricks out and they'd come right out on this conveyor belt and they'd have men standing in line, about five men standing in line off bearing the bricks. Putting them, setting them on these carts. CC: Were they also inspecting them at the same time, in case one was broken or something? RB: No, if it was broken, the men would just throw that brick away. Edmund Campbell: Where did you get clay? RB: The clay was right now where the Pentagon City is, there's a clay field right down in there and it had a little dinky, a little engine that ran by steam. The West Brothers brick kilns, right, were eventually razed to build Pentagon. Photo from 1942. Central Library, First Floor 1015 North Quincy Street Arlington VA 22201 703-228-5990 This press release was produced by Arlington Public Library. The views expressed here are the author's own.