20's brick buildings

[MasonJar]

Wayne,

Fantastic study of beautiful brick buildings. They sure don't make 'em like they used to...!

Andrew

[Russ Bellinis]

I need to clarify my point about early western towns not being overly fancy in their construction. I was responding to an earlier post that mentioned fancy fronts using marble or other polished stone to decorate the front of a building while using the brick for the sides and back of the building. That may have been common in the East and in big cities on the West Coast. Probably not common in most of the western towns and cities unless they had a marble quarry nearby. Most western commercial buildings had false fronts whether constructed of wood or brick. General statements are also subject to exceptions. I have not traveled in Colorado except to pass through on the interstate. It is a state I would like to explore someday. I have traveled extensively through California, Arizona, and Nevada. Virtually all of the towns that lasted more than a few years in those three states had been burned at least once and had wood buildings replaced with brick, but other than false fronts, most construction was a lot less pretentious than the picture Mountain Man showed of Cripple Creek. I think part of what you would see depends on where people lived. The wealthy mine owners wanted to show off their wealth where they lived. If you go to Virginia City, Nevada and want to see the homes of the mine owners, you won't find them. They were in San Francisco, and were destroyed in the 1912 earthquake. The point I was trying to make is that when you build a brick building, what sort of face you put on it will depend on a number of factors and you can't just put a brick building in any town and automatically face it with polished marble or granite. I'm also not sure when people started painting brick. I believe the question that started this thread had to do with the color of brick in the 1920's. Would brick have been painted in the '20's or not? Would it have been painted everywhere, or only in cities where their was a paint manufacturer nearby? Also a brick commercial building or home might be painted. A brick industrial building would probably not have been painted. If you are modeling something that would have been painted in the 1920's, your brick could be just about whatever color you fancy unless you are trying to model a specific prototype, in which case you might want to find the correct original color. If you are modeling something that would have been left in the natural brick color, then the color would depend on what was available locally.

[MountainMan]

A couple of observations on Mountainman's pictures.
The street in Canon City doesn't have 2 buildings in a row with the same colour of brick. In the one picture I don't think any brick colour is repeated at all.
The first picture: a building with the remnants of its old neighbour still in the wall. This would take a lot of effort to model. (impressive when done)
We had a talk from a fellow who's family used to own a downtown hardware store. In the 50s the neighbouring bank decided to demolish and rebuild. Then they found that the hardware store didn't have any walls of its own; it had been hung from the walls of the existing next-door buildings. The bank had to scale back their plans by a couple of feet to leave the hardware store standing.

The bricks were made by something like eight different companies on site, using local materials, but the over-all color was fairly coherent. The problem is that many of the buildings have been painted at one time or another, nd have faded differently over time.

The color wasn't the point I was trying to amke with the pictures, but the style, after a comment by a poster that style was sacrificed for speed when Western towns rebuilt after fires.

[MountainMan]

I need to clarify my point about early western towns not being overly fancy in their construction. I was responding to an earlier post that mentioned fancy fronts using marble or other polished stone to decorate the front of a building while using the brick for the sides and back of the building. That may have been common in the East and in big cities on the West Coast. Probably not common in most of the western towns and cities unless they had a marble quarry nearby. Most western commercial buildings had false fronts whether constructed of wood or brick. General statements are also subject to exceptions. I have not traveled in Colorado except to pass through on the interstate. It is a state I would like to explore someday. I have traveled extensively through California, Arizona, and Nevada. Virtually all of the towns that lasted more than a few years in those three states had been burned at least once and had wood buildings replaced with brick, but other than false fronts, most construction was a lot less pretentious than the picture Mountain Man showed of Cripple Creek. I think part of what you would see depends on where people lived. The wealthy mine owners wanted to show off their wealth where they lived. If you go to Virginia City, Nevada and want to see the homes of the mine owners, you won't find them. They were in San Francisco, and were destroyed in the 1912 earthquake. The point I was trying to make is that when you build a brick building, what sort of face you put on it will depend on a number of factors and you can't just put a brick building in any town and automatically face it with polished marble or granite. I'm also not sure when people started painting brick. I believe the question that started this thread had to do with the color of brick in the 1920's. Would brick have been painted in the '20's or not? Would it have been painted everywhere, or only in cities where their was a paint manufacturer nearby? Also a brick commercial building or home might be painted. A brick industrial building would probably not have been painted. If you are modeling something that would have been painted in the 1920's, your brick could be just about whatever color you fancy unless you are trying to model a specific prototype, in which case you might want to find the correct original color. If you are modeling something that would have been left in the natural brick color, then the color would depend on what was available locally.

Yule Marble Company, located appropriately enough in Marble, Colorado.

Canon City used a lot of local stone for accents, quarried out of the hill at the west end of town by inmates when the Colorado Territorial Prison was built of the stuff and the excess made available.

More Cripple Creek:

This one is a modeler's dream waiting to happen:


The old depot, rear view, tracks at second floor opposite side:



Another view of Main Street buildings:



Painted brick buildings:



Close-up of painted brick building seen previously:



And from the front:



American Legion Hall:



Elk's Hall:



Carr Manor:



More painted brick:



The old Teller county Sheriff's Office:

[MountainMan]

Canon city:

Colorado Territorial Prison Deputy Warden's House - "C" House - and my on-call location when I worked there:



Saint Scholastica Girl's School, run by Benedictine nuns who originally came form Germany. My wife went to school here.



More building on Main Street:



Large business block:



St. Cloud hotel:



The Peabody House:

[sgtcarl1]

(in my best John Wayne voice interpretation,) Ya Done Good, Doc!!

[sgtcarl1]

You, too, Mtn Man!!!

[BR60103]

As an observer of bricklaying, I would like to comment on Doctorwayne's picture of the Brantford freight shed.
The brick pattern is Flemish Bond, which I think is the most attractive form. This is characterised by alternating headers and stretchers (or the ends and the sides of the bricks). The headers hold together 2 layers of bricks, done in a time when the bricks actually held up the structure. The result is made fancier by using 2 contrasting colours of brick.
(sorry, this is one of my enthusiasms. I am collecting pictures for a thread on it.)

[doctorwayne]

Here are a few more examples of brick colours:












Wayne

[Brakie]

Wayne,That New Castle Refractories Company begs to be modeled.

[jim currie]

lot of good modeling ideas are showing up here. this first photo shows somthing that older brick buildings have star washers used on the ends of rods as reinforcments, not shure but think there use went out just before the first world war.
the other two photo of what doc was saying about buildings being torn down leaving a trace on the building left photos are in b&w but show the traces of other structure.
jim

[LynnB]

These have been really great examples and I think I get the idea now. I also found a picture of how I'd like to paint the two buildings like this

I already painted the building on the left a red primer color and building on left a grey primer color. How do I get the not colored front on left building a concrete color? as well as building on left side walls a concrete color or would the grey primer paint be same. Its just the regular primer paint.

[doctorwayne]

Wayne,That New Castle Refractories Company begs to be modeled.

You're right, Larry: it reminds me somewhat of Walthers' "Waterfront Warehouse", which I used to kitbash the Languay Pump & Compressor building.


Another similar structure is Walthers' "Greatland Sugar Refining" - mine is as-yet unbuilt, but destined to be a cigarette factory.

Wayne

[MountainMan]

Ashlar stone block construction at CTCF. The blocks, and all of the blocks for the admin building, cellhouses, industries and infirmary as well as the high stone walls and guard towrs, were cut by inmate labor from the rock you see behind the "Original Hard Rock Cafe". Although you cannot see it in this image, a canal runs from the Arkansas River at th mouth of the Royal Gorge directly through the Territorial Prison and right out the other side, a unique feature in any prison in America. Equally unique is a railroad directly across the street.



Along the front of the prison yard, you can clearly see the canal that feeds water to the entire Canon City irrigation system and the city itself, with multiple bridges crossing it to cell blocks. Along the lower edge of the image are visible the train tracks, specifically the spur off of the Royal Gorge route which feeds into the city power plant. Note the old stone guard tower on the bluff in the upper left that watched over the quarry and inmates before completion of the walls, cut from the same stone.


Tower Three, still in use and the sealed up old Main Gate. Note the quality of the workmanship and the decorative embellishments and corniches. This part of the walls still serves it's intended purpose to this day. This type of construction cries out to be modeled, perhaps an old prison served by a prison train as an "industry"?

[LynnB]

These have been really great examples and I think I get the idea now. I also found a picture of how I'd like to paint the two buildings like this

I already painted the building on the left a red primer color and building on left a grey primer color. How do I get the not colored front on left building a concrete color? as well as building on left side walls a concrete color or would the grey primer paint be same. Its just the regular primer paint.

I thought I'd try bumping this up to see if any of you's fine modelers would have input on whether concrete color would be the same as standard grey primer?