photographs of abandoned places #38

Nelsonville Brick Park

Southeast Ohio has hills, and beneath the top soil there is clay, and coal. After the War for the Preservation of the Union, industry and building expanded. In Athens County which has county government, and the first college in the Old Northwest, the second town is Nelsonville. The region had several brick, and block making villages, and towns. This is inside a ruined kiln. [foto:jz]

Nelsonville Brick Company began in 1870s, this is an 1880 expansion. Nelsonville had a few different brickyards. Nelsonville Block got first prize at St. Louis World Fair in 1904. What made the bricks superior was a salt glaze applied during firing. Indianapolis Speedway is called the "Brickyard". In 1909 it was paved with Nelsonville pavers, it had opened earlier in the year as a mostly dirt track. . In the years that followed concrete sidewalks and streets, and asphalt paving overtook bricks. Bricks were no longer produced in Nelsonville after 1937. Some of the kilns were used to make charcoal, and that went bust in 1971.

In 1980, the three remaining kilns became the center of a park. Since then they have deteriorated. Water damage, and a falling tree intervened.

This gate is no longer attached.

There is a rectangular chimney, and a round one. At the bottom of the kilns an exhaust path lead up into the chimneys. [foto:jz]

from the bottom of the chimney looking up