Advertisement of the Denny-Renton Clay & Coal Company. From Architect and Engineer, 1909.
At Taylor, King County, Washington, Arthur Denny opened a clay mine and formed the Denny Clay Company in 1889 to manufacture sewer pipe, firebrick,
building brick, and paving brick. At Renton, James Doyle and James R. Miller opened a clay mine in 1901 and formed the Renton
Clay Company. In May 1905, the merger of the Denny Clay Company and the Renton Clay Company resulted in the formation of the
Denny-Renton Clay & Coal Company of Seattle, Washington, with a capital stock of $1,000,000. Officers of the company were
Moritz Thomsen, James R. Miller, E. J. Mathews, Peter Larson, and T. L. Greenough.
Several clays at Taylor occurred in colors of yellow, purple, buff, and white. These clays were good for making pressed
face brick and sewer pipe. A flint clay also found here was good for making firebrick. The fire clay was reported in December 1892
to be 20 feet thick and on the mountainside 250 feet above the floor of the valley. The fire clay was mined from a decomposed
rhyolite intrusion. The Denny-Renton Clay & Coal Company continued mining the former workings of the Denny Clay Company. A
1,500-foot long tunnel intersected the Eocene Puget Group shale, sandstone, and coal strata, with long gangways extending from
the tunnel in both directions, from which both clay and coal were extracted. The coal was used for fuel in the plant. The clay
was hauled in cars by gravity on a tram down the hillside to the plant.
By 1909, the plant contained two jaw crushers used for breaking the shales. Two dry pans were used
for grinding shale. A long horizontal pug mill was used to temper the clay. One auger stiff-mud machine with an
automatic wire-cutter, having a capacity of 40,000 brick per 10 hours. Prior to firing, the brick were
dried in a waste heat drier, containing eight tunnels. The bricks were fired in eight circular down-draft kilns,
each with a capacity of 100,000 brick. Each pair of kilns fed a chimney, and these were housed inside a long wooden
building. The plant is a large rectangular building containing all of the brick and hollow tile
making machinery, a 250-horse power engine, and four boilers. This plant was a major producer of sewer pipe for
the company.
Advertisement from the Denny-Renton Clay & Coal Company. Photo courtesy of JoAnne Matsumura.
The products from this plant included sewer pipe, 4 to 36 inches in diameter, high-grade facing brick, which were made in a
great number of colors, standard and special shaped firebrick, acid brick, pressed brick, mantel brick, vitrified building
blocks, hollow building blocks, fire-proofing tile, drain tile, flue lining, vitrified wall coping, and electric conduit tile.
Fire clay was also mined and sold from this plant. Building bricks were made starting in 1905. Firebrick production began
in 1910.
Bricks sent from this plant went to building projects throughout the state. The buildings that were supplied with Denny-Renton
face bricks, pressed brick, hollow tile units, and firebrick came from the Taylor plant. The firebrick were stamped with names
such as "RENTON", "TAYLOR", AND "COLUMBIA", which were some of the brands mentioned by Gurcke, 1987, found at this plant. In 1921,
the Taylor plant filled a large order for clay conduit tile for the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company office building in
Seattle. Brick blocks were shipped to the School of Music in Seattle.
View of the Denny-Renton Clay & Coal Company plant at Taylor. From Shedd, 1909.
View of the Denny-Renton Clay & Coal Company plant at Taylor. From Evans, 1912.
Products of the Denny-Renton Clay & Coal Company exhibited at the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Fair, Seattle.
The booth was surrounded on three sides by a balustrade of cream glazed terra cotta; the piers were made of terra
cotta base and cap, with a shaft of paving brick laid in white mortar joints. On two corners the piers were capped
with two Lion Finials of cream matt glaze. On the entry piers were green glazed vases representing the garden pottery.
At the rear was a brick wall laid up with paving block, with a nine-inch salt-glazed wall coping on the top. In the
center was a replica of the Memorial Canopy of pure Gothic design, furnished the Turberculosis Hospital at Firlands,
D. W. Huntington, Architect, done in white matt glaze with a herringbone panel of face brick in three shades. From
American Clay Magazine, 1915.
R. R. Smith was the assistant superintendent of the plant prior to 1911. In 1917, John F. Keenan was general manager of the Taylor plant.
John Bulgarelle was the kiln burner. John Stunne did the salting in the kilns. Ward Harris was a mine foreman.
At the company office in Seattle, the manager was Frank C. Moore and G. L. Rogers, a ceramic engineer, was in
charge of firebrick sales. The Denny-Renton Clay & Coal Company owned three plants in Washington and one in Oregon, with
each plant specializing in different clay products. It was the largest and dominant clay products company in the Pacific Northwest.
During the 1920s, demand for other clay products also declined when concrete replaced brick and terra cotta wall tile in structural
building materials. In 1927, Gladding, McBean & Company, a California-based company, purchased the Denny-Renton Clay &
Coal Company and turned the Taylor plant into a sewer pipe plant.
Denny-Renton Clay & Coal Company Bricks From the Taylor Plant
Renton Firebrick
The Renton firebrick is light gray and uniform in color. Form is good with straight edges and smooth surfaces.
The edges and corners are rounded. Surface displays black spots of iron oxide. Faces display faint velour texture from
the wire-cut. The marked face displays the company name of "RENTON" in recessed block letters that is set inside a shallow
rectangular plate outline. Screw imprints may be visible before and after the name. Interior clay body is fine granular clay
with white quartz, feldspar, and black iron oxide, all mostly less than 1/8 inch in diameter. It was made using the stiff-mud
process and repressed. No dimensions are available.
View of the marked face of the Renton firebrick. Photo courtesy of JoAnne Matsumura
A typical version of the Renton firebrick is shown below. It is light salmon and uniform in color. The form is very good,
with straight and sharp edges and sharp corners. Yellow clay chunks are visible on the surface along with some brown iron
oxide. Steep curved wirecut grooves on a slight velour surface. The face is marked with the brand name "RENTON" in recessed
block letters. This brick was made using the stiff mud process. No dimenions are available.
Photo courtesy of Dave Garcia
R1 is probably a variant of the Renton firebrick. It is buff to salmon and mottled. The surface is smooth with steep wirecut
grooves on a faint velour texture. Yellow clay chunks are visible on the surface. The face is marked with the brand name "R1"
inside a rectangular frog. This brick was made using the stiff mud process and repressed. No dimensions are available.
Photo courtesy of Dave Garcia
Taylor Firebrick
The Taylor firebrick is brownish buff and uniform in color. Form is good with straight edges and smooth surfaces.
The edges and corners are sharp if not broken. Surface displays white specks of feldspar. Sides may display stack indentions. Faces
display faint velour texture from the wire-cut with steep angled grooves. The marked face displays the company name of "TAYLOR"
in recessed block letters that is set inside a rectangular frog. The name spans 5 1/4 inches and stands 1 inch tall. The frog
is 6 1/4 inches in length and 1 1/2 inches in width. Screw imprints may be visible before and after the name. Interior clay body is
granular clay with 3 percent white feldspar and quartz, all mostly less than 1/8 inch in diameter. It was made using the stiff-mud
process and repressed. Dimensions are length 9, width 4 1/4, and height ? inches.
View of the marked face of the Taylor firebrick. Photo courtesy of Karl Gurcke.
Columbia Firebrick
A salmon colored firebrick with good form The marked face has the brand name "COLUMBIA" in recessed block letters. No
dimensions are available.
Photo courtesy of Dave Garcia
References
A Growing Seattle Enterprise, Brick, v. 31, no. 5, November 1909, p. 194.
Architect and Engineer, v. 16, no. 3, April 1909, p. 146.
Bambergers are in Clay Works Merger, Clay Record, v. 26, no. 511, 15 June 1905, p. 35.
Clay Record, v. 26, no. 12, 30 June 1905, p. 37.
Evans, George W., The Coal Fields of King County, Washington Geological Survey Bulletin 3, 1912.
Garcia, Dave, written communications, 2019.
Gurcke, Karl, Bricks and Brickmaking, University of Idaho Press, Moscow, Idaho, 1987.
Gurcke, Karl, written communications, 2017.
Hilding, Tina, Renton history built with bricks, Black Diamond History, accessed 3 November 2017,
https://blackdiamondhistory.wordpress.com/2017/08/26/renton-history-built-with-bricks/.
Matsumura, JoAnn, written communications, 2017.
Pacific Coast Architect, v. 2, no. 3, December 1911, p. 113.
Pacific Coast Architect, v. 2, no. 5, February 1912, p. 210.
Roberts, Milnor, Ores, Coals and Useful Rocks of Washington With Manufactured Mineral Products of the State, The College of
Mines Series, Seattle, April 1917.
Shedd, Solon, The Clays of the State of Washington, State College of Washington, Pullman, Washington,
June 1910.
Warren James, Paving the way: King County bricks built roads around the world, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, accessed 4 November 2017,
https//blackdiamondhistory.wordpress.com/2014/12/07/paving-the-way-king-county-bricks-built-roads-around-the-world/.
Washington Company Secures Big Contract, Clay Worker, v. 75, no. 4, March 25, 1921, p. 394.
