Char House & Groesbeck Brick

The Sugar Land Heritage Foundation has a copy of the Texas Commercial News printed in Sugar Land on December 12, 1925.  It contains an article on the newly completed Char House, which you can view in its entirety by clicking on this link.

I have taken the following excerpt about the brick used in its construction.  

The Char House, just completed, is built of brick. One million blocks of burned clay furnished by the Groesbeck Standard Brick Company and shipped from their plant at Groesbeck, Texas; selected for their quality -- their beauty in appearance. Their color is a bright cherry red, non-scumming, very attractive, but insignificant all when compared with the actual quality of the product within itself.

The "Groesbeck" Brick is noted in Texas and over the south for its hardness of texture -- its low absorption. In meeting the tests layed down by the American Society for Testing Materials, it rated 319% higher than their requirements called for in compressive strength. 20% higher in modulus of rupture (cross bending strength) and showed to have three percent less absorption. The last figure is nine percent lower than that exacted by government architects in the erection of Federal Buildings.

The "Groesbeck" Cherry Red Face Brick is made in three styles and textures, different from the square cornered smooth texture product used in the Char House. A round edge face brick, matte face brick and a ruffmingle complete the quartet. The latter is an entirely new product introduced in the first part of this month and designed particularly for the new irregular styles in residence construction.

These four separate products, three of which are Face Brick, have grown from the reputation of the old brick manufactured at Groesbeck and sold for years in small stock quantities for lumber yards.

The present management under the leadership of A. M. Smith, for years associated with the brick industry in Texas, has within the last two years greatly enlarged the plant, modernizing it in every respect, and is now one of the leaders in the brick industry in Texas. Millions of their product are distributed annually within Texas, with large shipments into New Mexico, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, in many cases where the freight is larger than the cost of the product itself.