Stuart/Kier/General Refractories Brickyard and Quarry

Last Saturday we had an incredible opportunity to explore the old brickyards and sandstone/silica mine of the company that gave us all those Yough, Lyon, and Salina coke oven bricks. Thanks to Mitch and his crew for taking us here! After spending the majority of this week trying to figure out what we had, we are 90% sure that we're on the right track. The 10% certainty that we're missing is the location of Child's Station on the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad (Pittsburgh, McKeesport and Youghiogheny Railroad), now the famous Great Allegheny Passage. We know from the 1897 Clay and Clay Workers Industries of Pennsylvania report that there were three brickyards located at, or near, Layton. This report only lists one as being on the west side of the river. That was us. The report also states that this company (the Stuart Fire Brick Company) made silica and sand brick only. This was also us, evidenced from the brick remaining on site. The clincher is the fact that the "silica is quarried about a half mile from the works and run in on a tramway". This is exactly what we were looking at. On the way back to the quarry and mine we walked past unmistakable evidence of this tramway. Cuts and grades still mark the path of this tramway, and are very easily identifiable today. 

 

Here's what we're missing: The date of the turnover to the Kier Fire Brick Company from the Stuart Fire Brick Company. The Kier Fire Brick Company was very active in the northernmost portion of Westmoreland County at Salina since 1845. The buildings were all still intact until a few years ago and I remember them well. The day I went out to document them, they were gone. Only a concrete pad remains today at the location.  

 

 

 

 

Stuart Fire Brick Co. advertisement from a 1901 Connellsville Courier. The question remains, is Child's Station the same location as Kier? Child's Station does not appear on any maps that we have been able to locate.

 

By 1931 this location was the site of a town named Kier:

 

 

 Is Kier the same location as Child's Station? That's obviously the big problem. 

 

 

 

 

 

Going off the evidence we have, it's an educated guess that these are one and the same.  The earliest record I can find of Kier operating in this location is in a 1918 Connellsville Courier.

 

 

 

 

 

Connellsville Courier March 25, 1918.

 

An undated Clay Worker trade journal ad showing the Kier Plant at Layton. This is definitely our place.

 

Further evidence that Kier and Child's Station are one and the same come from this early advertisement of the Kier Fire Brick Company.

 

Connellsville Courier, August 1, 1912.

 

Another Kier advertisement listing the brands they produced. We found hundreds of every one of these brands at this site, but I don't recall finding one "Etna".

 

 

 

 In 1933, all of the Kier properties were purchased by the General Refractories Company.  

 

 

 Connellsville Courier June 14, 1933

 

 

Another question remains, and that is how long did this operation last?  General Refractories operated until 1988, when it was absorbed by Belmont Industries in 1988, taken over by AP Green in 1994, which became part of Radex-Heraklith Industriebeteiligungs AG, (aka RHI), of Vienna at the same time. The plants themselves, Salina definitely lasted until the 1980's, and the Layton plant from all appearances lasted just as long. 

 

 

This is what is here today, and on a side note, please don't ask me for this location because I will not give it to you. We were here with an experienced caving team that is well trained and equipped for these types of environments. You should never, under any circumstances, enter a hole in the side of a hill without proper equipment and people that are trained to navigate these types of situations. Even then, you should think twice.

 

 

Definite haulage way.

This structure was most likely an explosive storage building. Notice the thick steel door and the way that the roof is just laid upon the structure. In case of an accident the explosion would raise upward instead of outward.

Heavy steel door.

Entrance into the silica mine.

Inside the silica mine.

Intact tracks inside of the mine.

The photos are not very clear due to the moisture content inside of the mine. The flash reflected off of the moisture, causing many of the photos I took to be worthless.

The rooms inside this mine are enormous. The ceilings are roughly 20 feet high. They are very similar to a railroad tunnel cut through this type of rock.

Part of a haulage cart inside the mine.

You can climb deep inside of a mountain and still not escape politics.

Part of a support pillar holding up the roof of the mine.

Old insulators that held the power lines.

Old tracks that ran throughout the mine. This mine is frequently used by caving groups and the way out is clearly marked. Without these markings, a person could easily get lost in the labyrinth of tunnels. Again, never go in a hole in the side of a hill.

White silica sandstone.

Holes were punched through all of the walls of the rooms. You could see into the next room. I'm unsure if this helped with ventilation or what the reason was.

A split in the tracks.

A wheel off a haulage cart.

Back outside.

To the left of the entrance is another sealed up heading,

Lou, Mitch and one of his guys.

The old quarry.

Youghiogheny River,

This is an old air shaft on top of the mine.

An enormous Salina block.

Over at the refractory. The blocks to the right of the building are the ruins of an old kiln.

 Along the back of the building are more ruins of kilns.

More kiln ruins.

Inside the old brick storage facility.

We believe the the piece of equipment toward the middle of the photo is a more modern era brick kiln.

 Products of the old brickyard.

More old kiln ruins.

This looks like part of the water supply for the brickyard.  There is a pump station by the river.

Walls of the pump house.

Old bricks along the river.