THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 5, 1994 TAG: 9410040589
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
About 6,500 handmade bricks from Colonial Williamsburg will line the walks of the Rose Garden as part of a White House memorial to former first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis.
Rex Scouten, White House curator, said the bricks were chosen because they match pathways of Colonial Williamsburg bricks laid down at the White House in 1964.
Artisans using 18th-century techniques made thousands of bricks in the 1930s and 1940s for the restoration of the Colonial village, but those efforts dwindled in the 1960s.
Bill Weldon, Colonial Williamsburg manager of historic building trades, revived the craft in 1988 after spending a year interviewing geologists and ceramic engineers and sifting through 18th-century documents.
Now Weldon and his crew spend each summer mixing clay in a pit with their bare feet and forming bricks. Each fall they fire those bricks in 2,000-degree heat at a kiln in the re-created village.
``Our best product is comparable to a commercially made brick,'' Weldon said. ``But I think the White House curator wanted bricks of that look and texture of handmade brick.''
Colonial Williamsburg sent samples to the White House this summer. The White House replied Sept. 13 that it wanted the bricks in nine days.
That caused some problems because the kiln had not been unloaded since last fall's firing, Weldon said. Weldon's crew scrambled to unload the kiln and sort the 10,500 bricks. On the average, only about one-third of the bricks from any firing pass Weldon's inspection.
``With what remained from two years ago and what we were able to get from the last firing, we were able to get them 6,500,'' Weldon said.
Neither the White House nor Colonial Williamsburg would say how much the bricks cost.
Artisans using 18th-century techniques made thousands of bricks in the 1930s and 1940s for the restoration of the colonial village, but those efforts dwindled in the 1960s.
Weldon revived the craft in 1988 after spending a year interviewing geologists and ceramic engineers and sifting through 18th-century documents.
Now Weldon and his crew spend each summer mixing clay in a pit with their bare feet and forming bricks.
Each fall they fire those bricks in 2,000-degree heat at a kiln in the re-created village.
``Our best product is comparable to a commercially made brick,'' Weldon said. ``But I think the White House curator wanted bricks of that look and texture of handmade brick. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Associated Press
Ralph Thurman, left, assistant historic trades interpreter for
Colonial Williamsburg, and Andrew Barry, a brickmaker, stack bricks
after removing them from the kiln Monday in preparation for cleaning
the kiln. The kiln will begin firing bricks again Oct. 21.
by CNB