The recent survey of the proposed Perkasie National Historic District shows a not-so-surprising fact: bricks were the construction material of choice for generations of builders in the Borough. But where did all the bricks come from?
Bricks were an important construction resource since they were mostly made in Perkasie Borough; they were more affordable than Rockhill granite; and they also stood up much better against fire in construction than timber framing. Perkasie had a brick yard in operation for nearly 60 years, through its first major construction period ending in 1945.
Among the 915 buildings in the proposed historic district, 68 percent are primarily brick structures, and 672 brick buildings are considered historic. Some buildings, like Perkasie’s historic block homes, have granite facades but are almost all brick construction. Almost all of Perkasie’s 27 Queen Anne homes are brick, as are the Late Victorian twin houses that were popular into the 1920s.
The Early Perkasie Brickyards
Towns on the Pennsylvania and Reading train lines such as Perkasie, Lansdale, and Sellersville saw the arrival of local brickyards by the 1880s in connection with businesses from Philadelphia moving north. Sellersville had its own brickyard, operated by the Clymer family. Lansdale’s Seth Scholl maintained a large brickyard at 5th and Cannon Avenues, with a second yard at Pennbrook Station. Doylestown had the Long brickyard, while Newtown had Worstall Brothers. John H. Henckeroth operated Quakertown’s brick yards during the Victorian period.
James B. Oberly was the Perkasie area’s first brickmaker and he had a long career in the industry. In 1877, Oberly lived in Telford, and he was working as a carriage painter when he married Lydia Ann Weber of Perkasie. In late 1885, Oberly started his own brickyard just outside Perkasie on the Sellersville- Hagersville Road (now Fifth Street) called the Perkasie Brick Yards.
The Perkasie Brick Yard in 1891 On Sellersville-hagersville Road, with incorrect caption for Isaiah Barndt. Blooming Glen Road is to the right.
E.S. Noll’s 1891 map of Bucks County and other evidence shows the facility was located near the current Highland Terrace development on Fifth Street, which was then outside of Perkasie next to the Daniel Horn land tract. Oberly ran a successful business until January 1889, when he sold the yards to Isaiah C. Barndt, and he moved to Wilmington, Del., where he ran a bigger brick operation for 34 years.
Isaiah C. Barndt was best known for building the Trio House hotel at 8th and Chestnut Street in Perkasie, and for serving as a Bucks County Commissioner. He ran the Perkasie Brick Yards until February 1892, producing 800,000 bricks a year, when local store owner Henry O. Moyer acquired the business. Moyer was a real estate investor who sold goods at his store and home on Sixth and Chestnut (the current Grim, Biehn and Thatcher building). In 1899, Moyer left the brick business and leased his land to William Musselman.
Frank Weber: Perkasie’s Premier Brick Maker
Perkasie got another brickyard in late 1896 when East Rockhill’s Frank Weber bought 25 acres of land on the Branch Creek in South Perkasie. According to a presentation given by Weber’s grandson, Franklin Horn (recalled in the Perkasie News-Herald in 1994), Weber also worked at Henry O. Moyer’s brick yard.
In “A Genealogical and Personal History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania,” William Watts Hart Davis said Weber’s sister, Annie, was married to Henry O. Moyer and he actually was Moyer’s brickyard partner for two years. Weber was also a trained brick molder. The current Weber Brick Yard location is the area near Lenape Tooling and Southgate Commons. The former name of Constitution Avenue in Perkasie was Brickyard Road, since it led to Weber’s business.
Frank Weber was Perkasie’s best-known and prolific brickmaker, and one of the long-time leaders of Trinity Lutheran Church. According to Franklin Horn, the work at the Weber Brick Yards was difficult, time consuming and much was done by hand. Clay from the creek was pressed into molds, and each mold had one indented brick called a “frog” (also known as a “kick” in the trade) with the name “Weber” on it. Indented bricks had several construction advantages: they were lighter to transport and could take on more mortar, but lacked structural strength unless they were facing up and used in a limited fashion.
Weber’s South Perkasie brickyards at Walnut Street
There were various types of bricks produced, depending on their position in the mold. In addition to the common building bricks (“stretchers”) fired in the kiln, bricks at the kiln’s hottest point were very hard and called “black heads” while the softest bricks farthest from the fire were called salmon bricks and only used for a building’s interior. It took more than a week for the bricks to dry in a kiln, and each resulting load was enough to build four houses in Perkasie.
Weber was also an early Perkasie Electric company customer, since he used an electric press for his bricks. Between 1896 and 1921, Weber supplied bricks for Perkasie’s block houses, twin residences, single homes and businesses, including his own stylish house at Third and Market Streets.
Frank Weber’s home today, noted for its fine brick work
Weber’s competition in Perkasie was J. Frank Afflerbach, a former teacher and farmer who started a brick business in June 1900 on the Branch Creek south of Second and Race Streets. He used the name “Perkasie Brick Yards” for his business. Afflerbach’s bricks were used for two sets on block houses on Fifth Street below Race Street. However, Afflerbach’s business went into receivership in 1908 after a financial scandal, and it was eventually acquired by Frank Weber in 1913 as “Weber Brick Yard No. 2.”
J. Frank Afflerbach’s Queen Anne at Fifth and Vine Street.
The Second Perkasie Brick Yards
Changes soon came to Frank Weber’s business when he could not produce bricks in 1918 due to World War I business conditions. In September 1918, Weber sold Brick Yard No. 1 on Walnut Street to William Krout, who converted the property into a “truck farm.”
In April 1920, Weber sold his Race Street brickyard to the officials of the Sellersville Gauge Works, who formed the American Brick Company. Two years later, veteran brickyard manager John Goodwin of Philadelphia acquired the American Brick Company yard and changed its name to the Perkasie Brick Company.
The American Brick Company yard in 1921, between Race and Vine below Second Street.
John Goodwin’s nephew Ed Goodwin ran the business for more than two decades. Goodwin’s “frog bricks” pressed at Race Street now had the word “Perkasie” embedded in them. The company’s name was changed to the Perkasie Brick Works in 1940. Perkasie Brick remained in the borough until at least 1945, and then the plant was then disbanded. In March 1995, Perkasie Borough acquired the former Perkasie Brick Company property for $55,000 and added the land near the Branch Creek to its public parks and open space system.
In the 1920s, the Perkasie Brick Company’s motto was, “For Beauty and Permancy, build with brick.” It promised using brick for construction eliminated “upkeep costs, high insurance rates, and the constant depreciation in value common to substitute materials.” Today, Perkasie’s fine collection of brick buildings remaining in use makes those statements a promise that came true.
