View of the Gladding, McBean and Company plant at Mica,
Washington. From Gladding, McBean and Company, 1951.
History
In September 1929, a California-based pottery manufacturer, Gladding, McBean and Company, purchased the American Fire Clay
brick plant at Mica, Spokane County, Washington, for about $250,000. Gladding, McBean and Company wanted to extend its northern
marketing territory into eastern Washington and reduce shipping costs of its ceramic wares. The company officers for the
Pacific Northwest region were Raymond Smith, vice-president; Willis E. Clark, supervisor of
factories; W. E. Lemley, general superintendent; and G. L. Rogers, chief engineer. In 1956, R. J. McAlpin was
manager and Del McConnell was plant superintendent at Mica.
Gladding McBean obtained clay from four different locations near the Mica plant. A white fire clay deposit
occurred a quarter mile north of the plant where it was mined in a quarry 700 feet long and 50 to 150 feet wide.
The working face was 30 feet high. This clay was derived from decomposed granite. The white clay was loosened by
blasting and loaded by hand into cars. A gas-engine locomotive hauled the clay cars to the plant. This fire clay
was used for all refractory products.
A second clay deposit occurred 200 yards east of the plant in a large pit 300 by 400 feet with
a 45-foot high face. The light colored clay was mixed with some of the overlying Palouse
clay for making red sewer pipe.
A horizontal white clay bed overlain by a yellow sandy clay occurred in a small pit 300 yards
northeast of the plant. The pit was 15 feet deep in the white clay which was mined by a
tractor-powered shovel and mixed with the overlying yellow sandy clay to be used in red-firing
mixtures.
The fourth pit was in the Palouse clay on a hill 600 feet east of the plant. The clay was a buff brown
loess of the Palouse clay. It was scraped from an area of 150 feet in diameter and to a depth of 15 feet.
It was carried by truck to the plant and used for red-firing mixtures.
At the plant, clay was drawn from one or more of the storage sheds containing different kinds of
clay and conveyed to a 9-foot dry pan for grinding. The ground clay then was elevated to screens
and dropped into storage bins. The desired clay was sent from the storage bins by automatic feeder
to a combination pug mill and auger machine to be mixed and tempered and extruded onto the cutting
table, where a 14-brick automatic cutter sliced the clay column into bricks of desired size.
Common and face bricks and firebricks were made. Firebrick were put in a repress machine.
Drying was done in a coal-fired tunnel drier for four days. The bricks were fired in round
down-draft periodic kilns. There were one 26-foot, two 28-foot, five 30-foot, and one 32-foot
diameter kilns. Firebrick were fired for 8 days to a temperature of cone 14. In 1957, the plant
was upgraded with a tunnel kiln that fired to temperatures of 2100 degrees F.
Clay for hollow ware was fed by gravity to one of two wet-pans for grinding and then by
conveyor belt to a sewer-pipe press. The press extruded sewer pipe, hollow block, and drain
tile. The wares were dried on a steam-heated floor. Sewer pipe required 7 days of firing in
the kiln at cone 3. In 1937, the plant output was reported to be 60,000 face and common brick
and 20,000 firebrick per day.
In 1957, a new $1.3 million plant was built to manufacture super, high, intermediate, and low-duty
firebrick at a rate of 14 million brick per year.
Bricks were used at the Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington State University, Starbucks coffee
shops, Evergreen State College, Bellevue High School, and many fire stations, retail and office
buildings.
In 1962, Gladding, McBean and Company merged with the Lock Joint Pipe Company in New Jersey to
form the International Pipe and Ceramics (Interpace) Corporation of New Jersey. Interpace continued
to operate the Mica plant until 1990, when it was sold to Mutual Materials.
Gladding McBean Bricks Made at Mica
Firebricks
American firebrick is light gray and uniform in color. Form is excellent with straight and sharp edges and
sharp corners, if not broken. Surface is smooth and may display cracks and tiny pits. Faces show faint angled
wire-cut marks. The marked face displays the brand name "AMERICAN" in recessed block letters inside a
rectangular name plate. This brick was made using the stiff-mud process and repressed. No dimensions are available.
View of the marked face of the American firebrick. Photo courtesy of Mike McWatters.
Another version of a marked American firebrick, made c. 1957, shows a thicker lettered font style of the brand
name within a tight rectangular name plate. Longitudinal grooves are visible on the larger faces. Slight brownish
flashing is displayed on the sides. Length 9, width 4 3/8, height 2 3/8 inches.
Photo courtesy of Pamela Swanson
References
Gladding, McBean and Company, Refractories Handbook, 1951.
Glover, Sheldon L., Clays and Shales of Washington, Washington Division of Geology Bulletin 24, 1941.
Gurcke, Karl, Bricks and Brickmaking, University of Idaho Press, Moscow, Idaho, 1987.
Gurcke, Karl, written communication, 2017.
McWatters, Mike, written communication, 2017.
Swanson, Pamela, Extreme Demolition, written communication, 2019.
Tinsley, Jesse, Spokane Then and Now: Mica Brickyard, The Spokesman-Review, May 1, 2017, accessed 7 November 2017,
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/may/01/mica-brickyard/#/0.
Two New Plants for Gladding, McBean & Co., American Ceramic Society Bulletin v. 35, no. 8, 1956, p. 333.
