Washington Brick & Lime. The Company that made Clayton great and the people that made WB&L great
The boiler room for the brick plant was the first to be built. Here are the boilers the day they burned the plant in 1957. After this they were turned to scrap metal. The plant ceased to exist when they shut the boilers down.
The brick plant from Railroad Avenue.
A view of the brick plant looking southwest. The plant covered a large area north of the railroad tracks and the town of Clayton.
This barren field is what remained when the brick plant was cleared and the site leveled. They did a nice job but it's quite a scar that will take years to heal.
Here is the Carpenter Pit on Price Road today. It was used for ice skating parties in the late 1940s. A bon fire, snacks and lots of girls to decorate the snow covered terrain. Jack Lewis did a few select stunts, such as switching ends in mid air then picking himself up after a one point landing on his head.
Trees planted by Mother Nature on the former plant site make a picturesque background for the Clayton Brickyard Day parade. Across the site there are spring fed ponds.
An early thaw and the streets turned to ruts and mud. Nothing looks particularly inviting until the roads dry and the land turns green.
There were a great number of different types of bricks fired at the plant. Among the types were Red Rug, Buff Rug, Red Roman, Buff Roman, Common, Uncommon and sort of by accident Clinker. This is a picture of an uncommon brick. Ben Renner started working at the plant in 1920 and never saw one of these made. Every time I look at the brick and the model one thinks of Mike Carrabell cruising slowly down the highway in a similar car heading for Scottie's station.
A little girl in a little town with a little bit of the brick plant a little ways back.
Fred Swanback was another boss. He supervised the setting crew and was a jack of all trades and master of all. He could work and talk at the same time telling jokes or his life experiences. He also had his own dance band in which he played the fiddle. The band played almost every Saturday night in granges and dance halls in Springdale, Clayton, Loon Lake, Gardenspot, Williams Valley and many more. At the south end of the bar at the Clayton Tavern was his favorite stool. On holidays he would have a special of a tall cold glass of draft beer with a raw egg in it. He lived on a farm not far from the west edge of Deer Park.
Bill Sebright captured the fall colors at the pond filling the Clayton clay pit.
Some of the smaller stacks were blasted by Leno Prestini and his crew and some were toppled by Lyle Nord and his dozer. In one way or another all were demolished.
Much is made of the loss at the closing of the brick plant and loss of the Mercantile as shown here during the 1957-58 period. But little is mentioned about the people who threw all caution to the wind to save the town from a repeat preformance of 1908. With Matt's Tavern less than 2 feet away they did the impossible by scaling to the Tavern roof and battled the unbearable heat to a stand still.
It took 50 fire tankers of water from the Harry Gettman irrigation pond to contain this disasterous distruction of the Historic Clayton Mercantile but they did it.
Nearly 50 years later Clayton suffered another devastating loss due to an unfriendly fire at the Clayton Grange # 456. This fire crew and local men & women pitched in and stopped it from spreading to Wilma Cailcoat's log home.
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Clayton from the northwest with the Moose Hall/Grange Hall in the foreground.
Denuty Antique Post Cards supplied this rare card to Peter Coffin to add to our Webpage. We say Thank you Mr. Denuty
The terra cotta plant was located on the east side of the plant complex. The men who worked there were artisans producing decorative pieces.
Massive clay pits were dug in the surrounding area. The largest one was on the north side of the plant itself. Four were developed in the area near Clayton. West and north of the present day Gardenspot Grange were the Neafus and A. B. pits. Just south of them was the Conner pit and another was just east of Big Foot Valley on Bill Carpenter's farm southwest of Clayton. A contemporary picture of this pit is just to the left.
Mr. Ben Renner was a boss, nicknamed "Pinkey" because of his reddish hair. He was a good boss. The plant superintendent was Mr. Neal Fosseen who became the Mayor of Spokane after the plant closed.
Here is an early picture of the brick plant crew. If you can identify even one of these men, please let us know!
A precious few of these bricks were fired in the early days of the plant. Perhaps for special a purpose such as for the terra cotta building. Eddie Olson worked at the plant from 1937 on and never saw a brick like this one. There are only 5 known to exist today. The owner of this paricular brick turned down a cash offer of $5,000 from a collector!
Mr. & Mrs. Fred Schonfeld at their 50th wedding anniversary party. Fred was the plant manager and answered directly to Neal Fosseen. Ben Renner and other department supervisors reported to Mr. Schonfeld.
The 1896 architectural drawing of what the plant was to be.
Stoking the fires in a a kiln at Clayton.
Dismantling the brick plant 3 years after the closing.
After a half century of firing the finest of terra cotta, fire finishes off the terra cotta building.
The main plant was burned and the rubble pushed into the clay pits and covered with clay.
Clayton from the west on a sunny, pleasant day.
And then the walls came tumbling down.
As close as we can find from newspaper records and local diaries the main smoke stack fell on April 24, 1961. CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE. CLAYTON 'S WB&L 2
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