LACLEDE BRICK COMPANY

From: PICTORIAL ST. LOUIS: METROPOLIS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
Camille N. Dry (artist), designed and edited by Richard J. Compton St. Louis: 1875.

p. 50

LACLEDE FIRE-BRICK MANUFACTURING COMPANY.

The factory of this company is located at Cheltenham, five and a half miles from the city, on the line of the Pacific Railroad, and is a fine two-story brick building, 165 feet front by 85 feet deep, and a wing 100 by 65 feet, also two stories. The clay-banks are situated in the immediate rear of the works, and connected by a tramway, which deposits the clay in any part of the building. This company has grown out of the firm of Hambleton & Green, which was organized in 1865, but which, in 1867, gave way to the present joint-stock company, with a paid-tip capital of $100,000, for the purpose of manufacturing fire-brick, tiles and clay retorts. The machinery is of the most improved pattern, and is impelled by a fine 100-horse-power Bradley engine. One machine is capable of turning out 14,000 bricks every ten hours. These works have a capacity for 160,000 fire-brick per week, and give employment to about one hundred hands when in full operation. The officers are: James Green, president; Samuel Hambleton, vice-president; and J. L. Richardson, secretary. The city offices of the company are on the northwest corner of Ninth and Pine Streets.