Eagle Feathers #299 – Brick Solid

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

Brick manufacturing in Massachusetts began as early as 1629, the year of Charlestown’s charter.

In 1678, Charlestown’s Peter Tufts built a brick home for his son in Medford. It is the oldest brick house in New England. Through the years, this extended Tufts family became large landowners and brick makers in both Medford and Somerville.

Somerville’s underlying clay surface produced an industry that spawned many brickyards. Over twenty of them dotted Somerville’s landscape which contributed to the building of Boston, Cambridge, Lowell and many other cities and towns. For years, the burning kilns’ smoke filled the days and their fires illuminated the nights.

Somerville’s rich clay deposits produced millions of bricks which were some of the best-made of their time. The largest natural deposits of clay were found along the Mystic’s marshes near Ten Hills which is today’s Foss Park and the Assembly Square area. They were also found along the Millers River’s marshes which ran from today’s Cobble Hill to the Union Square area.

These two brickyard locations shared both American history and Somerville history.

Ten Hills         

• The home of Massachusetts first governor, John Winthrop.
• The launching of New England’s first ship, the Blessing of the Bay, on July 4, 1631
• The British landing and attack of the Powder House on September 1, 1774

Millers River

• The Battle of Lexington – April 19, 1775
• The Battle of Bunker Hill – June 17, 1775
• The first American Flag raising – January 1, 1776
• The siege and evacuation of Boston – April 19, 1775 to March 17, 1776

The nickname for the brick workers’ housing section at the Ten Hills brickyard was Happy Hollow. The nickname for the brick workers’ housing section at the Millers River was Brick Bottom or New Dublin.

Millers River under I-93 highway~Photo courtesy of Bostonnow, CC BY-SA 4.0

What goes around comes around! Brick ovens died out in the 1880’s only to return to our Davis and Union Squares one hundred years later. This time in the pleasant form of brick-oven pizzas and adobe-oven Tacos.