Notre Dame buys thousands of yellow bricks from 19th-century factory being demolished

greenfieldreporter.com ^ | Kevin Allen

[BenLurkin]

a strong market for those materials, too.

For example, the Wilson complex — like many other factories its age — is a repository of old-growth timbers that have become extremely rare. The hard maple flooring and heart-pine support beams inside the buildings were cut from trees that had been growing for hundreds of years. Old factories are some of the last places where such wood can be found.

The factory's deconstruction is a stroke of luck for the University of Notre Dame as well.

The four oldest buildings in the Wilson complex happen to be made of the same type of yellow bricks that are a distinction of the oldest buildings on Notre Dame's campus.

Those bricks — handmade from sand and marl out of the lakes on campus — haven't been manufactured in decades, and they haven't been used to build anything at Notre Dame since the 1920s. The only way to find replacements for those bricks is to reclaim them from other structures, and Notre Dame has done that when the university has taken down certain buildings, such as the old Fieldhouse in the 1960s.

Doug Marsh, who is Notre Dame's head architect, said the university is buying tens of thousands of bricks from the Wilson property. He said those bricks will be stored and used, as needed, for repairs and maintenance on old campus buildings.

[taterjay]

Meanwhile, Notre Dame caves to Obamacare.

[Bratch]

[tumblindice]

[yarddog]

I saw on the local news several months ago that the City of Dothan, was taking bids to have their old library building demolished.

I think most of the bids were pretty high, then one company said they would do it for nothing. The value of the used bricks etc. would cover the cost.

[irish guard]

Sadly, money is no object for my alma mater........

[shhrubbery!]

The yellow bricks are probably sand-lime bricks. They are still popular in Sweden -