Thursday, May 15, 2008

the American Enameled Brick & Tile Co.


This white enameled brick, manufactured by the American Enameled Brick and Tile Co., was found in Brooklyn, New York, on a street in South Williamsburg. The enameling certainly makes it at least slightly less common as bricks go, and this particular example, due to the location of the find, was likely used as a face brick on a building front- an alternative aesthetic choice to the ubiquitous red brick. Often, enameled bricks actually had a much more practical application- in bathrooms, kitchens, laundries, hospitals, breweries, and abattoirs- anywhere a higher standard of sanitary conditions was required.


This brick is also notable because it is stamped with its year of manufacture- 1924. I've yet to see another American Enameled Brick and Tile Co. brick with any kind of dating, and would be interested to hear from anyone who has seen others.

The American Enameled Brick and Tile Co. was established in 1893 in South River, New Jersey, by Julius Steurberg, his son Herbert Steurberg, and Francis Booraem. With offices in New York City, they were major players in the city's construction- their bricks being used for the wall facings of the newly built subway system, among very many other things.

In June, 1934, the South River plant was destroyed by fire, never to be rebuilt, thus ending the brief history of the company.

Advertisement from
The Architectural League of New York Illustrated Catalog of 1897:


Advertisement from Architecture and Building, January 1912:


In this postcard view of the Raritan River Railroad bridge, the buildings of the American Enameled Brick and Tile Co. can be seen to the left of the tracks, c. 1915 (courtesy of South River Historical and Preservation Society):

4 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

I read your interesting article about American Enameled Brick & Tile Co. I was researching a brick that I found today and it is identical to the one in your article except mine is stamped with the date 1923 instead on 1924 like the one on your site. You commented that you would be interested to hear about anyone seeing these bricks. I found mine in a rubble pile in Black Mountain, NC. I've never seen anything like it.

April 20, 2011 at 1:52 PM  
Blogger grrl8trax said...

I found an American Enameled Brick today in Boston, Ma. I write much the same kind of blog as you here: http://brickfrog.wordpress.com/
and found yours to be charming and informative.

November 30, 2011 at 9:36 PM  
Blogger Beachgirl said...

I found one of these bricks in Michigan, it washed up on my beach on Lake Erie. Pretty cool!!
I was pretty excited when I cleaned all the debris off of it and saw the date!

September 7, 2018 at 7:11 PM  
Blogger Acadian said...

Hi there from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada :)

I found your blog while I was doing some research on the American Enamel & Tile Brick Co. after finding dozens of them at the site of the former factory of Hamilton's Otis Elevator Company. Recently, the massive 1907 plant was demolished, leaving on a fraction of the old structure, and alot of discarded bricks: some are heaped in a large pile or two, others are arranged on skids for recycling, many more are scattered all over the grounds.

The other day I scooped one up (date-stamped 12 19 12), took it home and started to look into the company that made them. The oldest that I was was a 1911 brick, but there are many 1912, 1913, 1914, etc. (none going into the 1920's) enamel American bricks.

I found it odd that the builders used bricks from New York and New Jersey (also many H.B. Co. bricks there as well), and not local Hamilton bricks or bricks fired in Toronto, an hour east of the city.

I don't see an option to upload any images from a PC - so I can't provide you with some pretty cool photos of what I suppose would be a brick collectors treasure trove :)

May 11, 2021 at 5:39 PM  

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