St. Louis Press Brick Company

The St. Louis Press Brick Company was incorporated on September 1, 1891, in Glen Carbon, Illinois. Owned by the Neidringhaus family, it became one of the largest brick manufacturers in Madison County at the time.^[1] Frederick and William Neidringhaus were known for their tin stamping and enameling business and the founding of the National Enameling and Stamping Company. They formulated a process of enameling iron that created a blue-gray mottled appearance called “Graniteware” and purchased 3,500 acres of land across the Mississippi River from St. Louis where they helped found Granite City, Illinois.^[2] Frederick’s son, Alexander Neidringhaus, served as the president of the St. Louis Press Brick Company.^[3]

Known for their superior bricks made from shale clay, the St. Louis Press Brick Company made a variety of products including plain common, plain narrow patio, white fire, topline paving, and decorative bricks often used in building facades.^[4] The company built rental housing in Glen Carbon for their workers, building multiple “salt-box” style houses along Main Street near the intersection with Glen Crossing Road. They also built a grand hotel at the top of the hill on Main Street.^[5] The factory attracted workers and residents to Glen Carbon. As many as two to three hundred workers were employed at one time.^[6]

On April 14, 1894, the brick plant was partially destroyed by a fire, with an estimated damage of $300,000.^[7] The brickyard was rebuilt with twelve large kilns featuring a tunnel system to provide draft. The clay was excavated from nearby shale clay deposits and transported by a narrow gauge railway to the brickyard.^[8] The factory used steam-powered machines to pump water, operate presses, and provide power to fans and other machinery. Water came from a pond northeast of the brickyard and fed into a small reservoir in the valley below. The water was then pumped to the factory for operating the steam-engine boilers and was used for mixing clay.^[9] From digging the clay to firing the brick, the process of making a finished product took about ten days.^[10]

The St. Louis Press Brick Company was relatively successful during its years of operation. In 1893, the company boasted that it could fill eight train cars a day with brick.^[11] The Chicago City Council took an interest in the company providing paving bricks for their streets. After testing the product, they concluded that the bricks made in Glen Carbon were of the highest standard of vitrified brick.^[12] They were reported to have signed a contract of 40,000,000 bricks to be supplied to Chicago in 1894.^[13] The company provided bricks to construct the Palace of Fine Arts for the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, one building of which would later become the St. Louis Art Museum.^[14] In 1906, the brickyard suffered a devastating fire that destroyed most of the buildings and the factory was not rebuilt.^[15] Although short lived, the company left an indelible mark on the built environment in the region that can still be seen today.

^[1] Joan Foster and Members of the Glen Carbon Museum and Historical Commission, “Brick Company Flourished in Glen Carbon Before Fire,” Edwardsville Intelligencer, Jan 18, 2017, https://www.theintelligencer.com/news/article/Brick-company-flourished-in-Glen-Carbon-before-10865721.php.

^[2] Jeff Manuel and James Parrill, “The National Enameling and Stamping Company (NESCO),” Madison Historical: The Online Encyclopedia and Digital Archive for Madison County, Illinois, last modified June 19, 2025, https://madison-historical.siue.edu/encyclopedia/national-enameling-and-stamping-company-nesco/.

^[3] “Alexander Niedringhaus, Ill Seven Weeks, is Dead.” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, July 26, 1912, 4. (Accessed June 19, 2025)

^[4] Joyce A. Williams, Images of America Glen Carbon, (Arcadia Publishing, 2022), 20.

^[5] Foster, “Brick Company Flourished in Glen Carbon.”

^[6] “Brickyard Strike,” Edwardsville Intelligencer, October 22, 1895, 1 (Accessed June 19, 2025).

^[7] “St. Louis Press Brick Works Burned,” The Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois), April 15, 1895, 4 (Accessed June 19, 2025).

^[8] Williams, Images of America Glen Carbon, 21-23.

^[9] Foster, “Brick Company Flourished in Glen Carbon.”

^[10] Williams, Images of America: Glen Carbon, 23.

^[11] Untitled, Edwardsville Intelligencer, April 26,1893, 5 (Accessed June 19, 2025).

^[12] “Our Brick the Best,” Edwardsville Intelligencer, January 11, 1895, 2 (Accessed June 19, 2025).

^[13] “Chicago Will Use Glen Carbon Brick,” Alton Telegraph, November 22, 1894, 5 (Accessed June 19, 2025).

^[14] “Goldie Construction Company to Put Up Permanent Structure,” The St. Louis Republic, July 2, 1902, 1.

^[15] Williams, Images of America: Glen Carbon, 23.