savannah grey bricks Produced at several different locations from a distinctive strand of Georgia clay, the Savannah grey brick is the subtly-hued vein that connects the nation’s first railroad, the construction of Fort Pulaski, automobile magnate Henry Ford, and mid-20th-century suburban development as it runs through the long, complicated course of this city’s history.
Millions of them were made, and much of that by slave labor, but their connection to the city dates back to the 1730s, almost 20 years before slavery was legal in the colony. It was in those early years, when Gen. James E. Oglethorpe was still in command, that a layer of iron-carbonate clay was discovered along the bluff of the Savannah River, adjacent to Trustees Garden. The first Savannah bricks, long before the term Savannah greys came into vogue, were baked in ovens there. By the late 1790s, production had shifted some three miles upriver to a small, struggling plantation. First deeded to Joseph Ottolenghe in 1750, it was then called Exon, and was likely planted in mulberry trees. Ottolenghe was for a brief time in charge of the colony’s silk industry. In 1763, the plantation came into the possession of Capt. Patrick Mackay. Its name was also changed, to the Hermitage. In 1798, after several ownership changes caused by the uncertainties of the Revolutionary War, the Hermitage was purchased by Samuel Wall. Less than a year later, he put it up for sale. His advertisement in the Georgia Gazette turned out to be a harbinger of the plantation’s future: “If not sold within eight days, advantageous terms will be given to any person,
well recommended, who is well acquainted with the making of bricks, having eight or ten hands to carry on that business at the Hermitage, having good clay and large bodies of wood contiguous to it.” Eventually, in 1815, William I. Scott bought the Hermitage for $1,500. But, that transaction was actually made for Scott’s good friend Henry McAlpin, a recent Scottish immigrant who was not yet a citizen, and who thus could not legally own land in Georgia. Soon McAlpin, with the assistance of Scott, expanded the size of the Hermitage to more than 200 acres. An 1819 map of the property showed that it was not the typical Savannah River rice plantation, but was rather an industrial complex with some fields for cultivation, along with a saw mill, clay pits, brick kilns and wharfs. McAlpin was thus perfectly poised to take advantage of a business opportunity that arose out of a Savannah tragedy, the fire of 1820. It began at 2 a.m. on Jan. 11 in a livery stable near City Market, burned until 2 p.m., and consumed a huge swath of downtown. From Jefferson Street to Abercorn Street, and from Broughton Street to Bay Street, virtually every house was destroyed. In all, an estimated 400 buildings went up in smoke.
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