A Community of Collectors
Across the globe, there are communities of people who collect bricks, also known as “brickers”. Each collector is looking for bricks they find special, ones they haven’t seen before, with different designs or from different areas, or makers.
Southeast Ohio was a hub for brick production from the late 1800s into the 1930s, and although there are very few active brick plants in the state today, the history of the bricks that remain have continued to captivate the curious.
“For a brick collector like me, this is the best area in the world for collecting. Southeast Ohio had so many great plants and so much clay. You got the Athens Block, you got Logan, Nelsonville Star, Haydenville, Hocking Valley, Trimble, and God knows what else,” says Shiloh Anotonuccio, a collector from Athens, Ohio.
Brickers peruse the bricks at the Middleport swap.
Shiloh Antonuccio and Michelle LeMaitre chat about their brick selections.
Many stay connected through regional Facebook groups, or the International Brick Collectors Association (IBCA) A few times a season, collectors from different towns host “Brick Swaps” to offer up and claim bricks from each other.
They come from minutes to hours away to set up a selection of their bricks, and when a car horn honks, they can pick up as many bricks as they brought.
This fall there were swaps in Middleport and Pataskala, Ohio. At each, set up begins at 9am, for people to peruse the selection, at 9:30 there is the option to claim one brick by putting your foot on it. At 10 sharp, with anticipation buzzing, the host's vehicle horn is honked, and the swap begins with a flurry of people grabbing as many bricks as they can carry back to their vehicles.
Ed Newman, of Athens, doesn’t put his foot on a brick because he believes it should be a fair free for all. When asked what makes a brick special, he says “everybody likes different things in bricks, everybody here probably has a different angle on bricks.”
Some prefer different varieties, there are “pavers,” used in roads, “builders,” for buildings, and fire bricks, used for kiln building or other high-temperature structures. Others look for surface details, uncommon designs, or differences in the lettering or print.
Ed Newman picks up bricks to add to his collection at the Middleport swap.
Tyler Hampshire talks with Antonuccio about a rare “Capital” brick he got at the Pataskala swap. He says it’s the “only one known, made in Columbus, at the capital.”
Don Dzuro, 91, began as a bottle collector, but found the bricking community and wrote a book on bricks found in Ohio. He makes a note of Antonuccios double-struck Athens Block.
Michelle LeMaitre picks up bricks. Her friend made her a Nelsonville Star Brick shirt, and she wears it to most swaps.
“It’s like an escape, because, literally everything else in the world you have to pay money for … that’s not what bricking is about. It’s anything you want it to be. I feel like I’m like taking a step back 500 years because we’re trading salt and cinnamon right now, except it’s East Clayton and Athens Blocks. ”
Antonuccio eats a donut at the Pataskala swap. She ate 4 donuts that morning and complained of a stomach ache on the drive home.
The Younger Generation
Shiloh Antonuccio, 18, of Athens, has only been collecting bricks since October of 2020, but their collection has developed quickly in scale and variety. She says that “Southeast Ohio is the best place in the world for bricking.”
One of Shilohs earliest brick hauls was after she was skateboarding at someone's house and the owner told them of a brick dump in the woods nearby.
“There were hundreds and thousands of those flower ones, those circle ones, Athens and Nelsonville blocks all in perfect condition, and I took 40 bricks by hand through the woods that day… so I would carry 50 pounds of bricks at a time back and forth.”
Antonuccio has always been a collector of coins, clothing, Pokemon, and anything she deems “cool”. Her most prized brick is a double-stamped Athens Block, so far the only one they’ve seen of this variety. Even Ed Newman, a collector for over 30 years, hadn’t seen one.
Antonuccio hopes that people like her and Tyler Hampshire, of Pataskala, can “change the view of the younger generation and in older people's eyes, they're like, oh, iPhone, and then they see Tyler Hampshire, knowing everything about bricks, now, maybe they're not that bad.”
Antonuccio feels that bricks aren't “really anyone's. It's so focused on this part of history, and so many people were part of it, that it's better to appreciate it than make a buck off it.”
Antonuccio looks over their collection at their home on Farhills Drive.
Antonuccio shows off her prized double stamped Athens Block.
Antonuccio plays PokemonGO on Court St. in Athens, Ohio. She is trying to catch Yveltal, a legendary Pokemon.