• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

Haverstraw Brick Museum

The Beauty of Bricks: Amsterdam, Delft & Manhattan

March 16, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

Nicasius de Sille’s house in New Utrecht with roof tiles imported from the NetherlandsIn his 1653 poem on “The Character of Holland,” a piece of stereotypical English propaganda that was written in an era of fierce Anglo-Dutch economic rivalry, poet and politician Andrew Marvell ridiculed the Low Countries as being composed of “undigested vomit from the sea.”

The satirist did not mention the fact that out of this appalling spew the Dutch created bricks that were used by architects to build their characteristic cities which, in turn, inspired the flourishing genre of the cityscape in seventeenth century painting. Both bricks and building skills were at the time exported to England and across the Atlantic. [Read more…] about The Beauty of Bricks: Amsterdam, Delft & Manhattan

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, Art History, Dutch History, Haverstraw Brick Museum, Historic Preservation, Industrial History, Manhattan, New Amsterdam, New Netherland, New York City, Rockland County

The Haverstraw Brick Museum (Podcast)

December 22, 2021 by Clare Sheridan Leave a Comment

crossroads of rockland historyOn the December 2021 episode of “Crossroads of Rockland History,” host Clare Sheridan interviewed Rachel Whitlow, the acting Executive Director of the Haverstraw Brick Museum and Center for Historic Preservation.

They discussed the Museum’s new innovation series of exhibitions; interesting collaborations with organizations, including the Pratt School of Architecture; and the museum’s goal to engage the community through history, STEAM education, and hands-on living history experiences. [Read more…] about The Haverstraw Brick Museum (Podcast)

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Architecture, Haverstraw, Haverstraw Brick Museum, Hudson River, Industrial History, Labor History, Podcasts, Pratt Institute, Rockland County

Tour The New Brick Museum in Haverstraw

January 29, 2019 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

haverstrawThe Historical Society of Rockland County has invited the public to a local history meet-up at the Haverstraw Brick Museum & Center for Historic Preservation, 12 Main Street, Haverstraw, on Sunday, February 10, at 1:30 pm.

The Haverstraw Brick Museum Center for Historic Preservation has recently completed an extensive renovation and will open later this spring. This meetup is an opportunity to get a sneak preview”of the new and improved center, including the recently refurbished Landslide Diorama created by Rockland’s John Rossi. [Read more…] about Tour The New Brick Museum in Haverstraw

Filed Under: Events, History Tagged With: Haverstraw Brick Museum, Historical Society of Rockland County, Rockland County

Moving Bricks on the Hudson Gallery Tour

January 25, 2010 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

On the closing day of the exhibit, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010, at 2 pm and at 3 pm curator T. Robins Brown will lead a gallery tour of Moving Bricks on the Hudson, the Haverstraw Brick Museum’s Hudson Fulton Champlain Quadricentennial exhibit. The show highlights the sloops, schooners, towboats, tugs and barges that transported bricks on the Hudson in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Visitors will discover the stories of the captains, crew, and boat builders that were part of the maritime enterprise that carried up to 1,000,000,000 (yes, billion) bricks annually. The exhibit brings together for the first fascinating illustrations and items donated or loaned to the museum by descendants of brick boatmen and from other individuals and museums including the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia, the Peabody Essex Institute in Salem, Massachusetts, the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston, and the Historical Society of Rockland County.

A slide show documents the dangers of transporting brick by water. A short film of 1903 gives viewers a speedy trip on the Hudson River from Haverstraw to Newburgh. A unique three-foot model of a barge with cutouts on loan from the Reynolds Shipyard Corp. allows visitors to inspect the structural system used to carry the very heavy brick cargo.

Through Jan. 31 the exhibit is open during the museum’s regular hours, Wed., Sat., and Sun, 1-4 pm. Children are welcome. A gallery guide for children encourages them to find fascinating items in the exhibit and they can also build a “tow” with model boats.

Photo: On Minisceongo Creek, a “bricker,” a brick-carrying schooner, awaits its cargo of bricks from the Shankey brickyard. On board are brickyard workers as well as the brick boat’s crew. The two women, the wives of the captain and first mate, were likely part of the boat’s crew. They lived aboard and cooked, watched tides, pumped bilge water, and performed other tasks that required less strength. Photograph from de Noyelles, Within These Gates.

Filed Under: New Exhibits Tagged With: Haverstraw Brick Museum, Hudson River, Maritime History

Hudson River ‘Brickers’ Focus of New Exhibit

September 16, 2009 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

There will be an opening reception of the Haverstraw Brick Museum’s new exhibit, Moving Bricks on the Hudson, on September 20, 2009 between 1 and 4 pm at the museum at 12 Main Street in Haverstraw, Rockland County, New York. In celebration of the Hudson River and the Hudson Fulton Champlain Quadricentennial, the exhibit highlights sloops, schooners, towboats, tugs, and barges that transported bricks on the Hudson in the 19th and early 20th centuries. At its peak the brick industry was the dominant industry on the Hudson River and diverse boats carried one billion bricks annually. Visitors will learn about the brick boats and their boatmen and women, the dangers of river transport, and the shipyards that built and repaired the “brickers.”

The exhibit was inspired by the donation of the papers of the Reilly & Clark brick company to the museum. This collection, along with documenting the manufacturer, contains extensive records for the schooners that carried the firm’s bricks to market between 1885 and 1905. Items range from hundreds of receipts for tows, dock fees, and night watchmen to detailed accountings of the number of bricks carried each trip. The exhibit’s curator, T. Robins Brown, has a personal connection to cargo-carrying sailing ships as her great-grandfather, William T. Robins, was the owner and captain of the schooner Ella Worden on the Chesapeake Bay.

Moving Bricks on the Hudson is open on Sunday, September 13 from 11 am to 4 pm for the Annual Haverstraw Street Fair and until January 31, 2010 during the museum’s regular hours Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 1-4 pm. It is also open by appointment by calling 845-947-3505 or emailing haverstrawbrickmuseum.org.

The mission of the Haverstraw Brick Museum is to collect, preserve, research and exhibit materials and cultures of the brick making industry within the Hudson River Valley.

Photo: On Minisceongo Creek, a “bricker,” a brick-carrying schooner, awaits its cargo of bricks from the Shankey brickyard. On board are brickyard workers as well as the brick boat’s crew. The two women, the wives of the captain and first mate, were likely part of the boat’s crew. They lived aboard and cooked, watched tides, pumped bilge water, and performed other tasks that required less strength. Photograph from de Noyelles, Within These Gates.

Filed Under: New Exhibits Tagged With: Haverstraw Brick Museum, Hudson River, Rockland County, Transportation

Primary Sidebar

Help Support The Almanack

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • Arlene Steinberg on Study: Climate Change Has Altered Human-Raptor Relationships
  • Richard Daly on The Decline of the New York State Museum
  • Deb on The Decline of the New York State Museum
  • Don Rittner on The Decline of the New York State Museum
  • Pat Boomhower on The Decline of the New York State Museum
  • Carol Kammen on The Decline of the New York State Museum
  • Judith A Berdy on The Decline of the New York State Museum
  • Bob Meyer on The Decline of the New York State Museum
  • Amber on The Decline of the New York State Museum
  • John Collier on Dr. John Swinburne’s Life in Crime, War & Politics

Recent New York Books

The Transcendentalist and their world
“The Amazing Iroquois” and the Invention of the Empire State
american inheritance
Norman Rockwell's Models
The 1947 Utica Blue Sox Book Cover
vanishing point
From the Battlefield to the Stage
field of corpses
Madison's Militia

Secondary Sidebar

Mohawk Valley Trading Company Honey, Honey Comb, Buckwheat Honey, Beeswax Candles, Maple Syrup, Maple Sugar
preservation league