Building New York City

By the first half of the 19th Century a series of great fires had all essentially erased the wooden city of New Amsterdam. Now was the time to rebuild New York in its new American image. No more a rickety flammable woodpile, the city would now be fashioned of handsome yellow brick and luxurious brownstone. But where would all of this come from? The answer lay in an isolated park miles from the ferry in Staten Island, and in the cliffs that line the Hudson on the Jersey side.

Today, Clay Pits Pond Preserve nysparks.state.ny.us/parks/info.asp is a beautiful boggy park ringed with bridle paths and walking trails. But over a hundred years ago, this was where ordinary yellow mud was spun into gold. The Kaolin clay of this unassuming location would rebuild a city ravaged by fire, make industrialists into millionaires and provide daily bread to three generations of German workers and craftsmen.

In 1845 Balthazar Kreischer built his great brickworks in the Charleston section of Staten Island, using clay mined from what is now Clay Pits Pond Preserve. He would be joined by several other brickmakers including: the Manhattan Firebrick and Enameled Clay Retort Works and the Richmond Brick Company among others who would collectively render the natural Kaolin clay of this remote spot into the building blocks of the City. Until all of the brickworks closed completely in the 1920s, the distinctive light yellow colored bricks would make their appearances all over New York.

Today, Kreischer is long gone, the Kreischer mansion stands empty on Staten Island and the locals tell stories about long ago scandals and the ghost that supposedly haunts their once happy family home www.realhaunts.com/united-states/kreischer-mansion/all-comments/, but the beautiful brick lives on in Kreishcer Street in Staten Island, Matthew model flats in Ridgewood, Queens, and the odd yellow-brick building in Old Astoria.

Three little pigs aside, it takes more than brick to build a great city-it takes Brownstone too. The coveted brownstones of New York City were built piece by piece from the palisades of New Jersey just the other side of the Hudson River. These magnificent cliffs were in danger of disappearing stone by stone until a coterie of powerful men led by John D. Rockefeller and JP Morgan partner, George W. Perkins, put an end to the quarrying of this magnificent stone at the turn of the last century and decreed that the area would be forever wild.

Today the area just off route 9W in New Jersey is known for its hiking trails, and several rest stops are popular with birders who enjoy terrific views of hawks, vultures, and other migratory birds coasting the river's thermals and feasting on the myriad fish that school in the Hudson's rich waters.

Perhaps the best place to view the cliffs is from its Mr. Perkin's old digs, Wave Hill http:www.wavehill.org/visit/. This beautiful garden features two lovely mansions and enduring beauty and history.

Resources:

Forgotten New York
www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/Steinway/steinway.html

brickcollecting.com/collection2.htm