Where was Westport Paving Brick Company?

Answer 1

Westport Paving & Brick was a Baltimore based manufacturer of bricks. The company was located in the Westport area of south Baltimore, an older industrial east coast city located in the state of Maryland.

The company was founded around 1905 by William L. Wise Sr. of Baltimore, Maryland.

At one time, Westport Paving & Brick was one of the larger manufcaturers of bricks in the DelMarVa area many of which were used in both the commercial as well as residential sectors.

So well regarded were these bricks, known as 'Baltimore Bricks' that many were exported to other municipalities for construction of government buildings, streets, alley ways and sidewalks. Often the bricks were used during shipping as the ballast itself. By the mid 1920s with more automobiles prevalent amongst the middle class, a more refined surface was needed to give drivers a smoother ride and the time of the brick street was at an end.

One place of note where the 'Baltimore Bricks' can be found in abundance is at the Ernest Hemingway house located in Key West, Florida. The bricks had initially been shipped via clipper ships to Key West in the 1910s. By the mid 1930s, the city council decided to upgrade their streets with the new easier to drive on concrete formulas so common at that time. Mr. Hemingway purchased the bricks from the city of Key West at the cost of one penny per brick. Hemingway purchased approximately 20,000 of these bricks which he used for the wall surrounding his property and also his walkways.

Westport Paving & Brick was still in business during World War II and appears to have disbanded around 1948.