What was called The Chimney, once located at 86th Lane and East River Road, Coon Rapids, was the last remaining evidence of what was the first industry in the community – brick manufacturing.
The brick industry had a boom and bust existence over a 35-year period in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Competition and labor issues led to the demise of the brickyards and there is virtually no trace of them today.
Bricks from three Coon Creek yards were sold and shipped all over the country, while many of the buildings still standing in the city of Anoka were constructed of that brick.
At the turn of the 20th century, many cities began paving their streets with bricks and demand for this type of paving set off a new wave of brick manufacturing wherever there were raw materials and equipment to turn out the brick at a competitive price.
Dr. D.C. Dunham led a stock company that started the first brickyard on Coon Creek in 1881.
The Anoka Pressed Brick and Terra Cotta Company was located just north of the point where Coon Rapids Boulevard and East River Road intersect.
Crossroads Alternative High School, formerly Coon Rapids City Hall and the adjacent Clay Hole, where clay was mined for bricks, are located in that general area.
Much of the red brick used in rebuilding Anoka after the great fire of Aug. 15, 1884 came from this yard.
Through the 1890s there was decreasing activity in the brickyards, but Sept. 20, 1901, the Anoka County Union reported that the long idle brickyard at East River Road and 86th Lane was up and running again under new ownership, the Minnesota Clay Brick Co. of Coon Rapids with a capital stock of $300,000.
The venture did not turn out well, but in 1906 and 1907 plans were made for an even more ambitious business.
O.A. Benson, who owned the clay beds at Coon Creek just north of the railroad tracks, sold 21 acres to A. Humphreys of Minneapolis for $300 an acre and he took over the brick plant.
And the Minnesota Ceramic Company, even more ambitious at the turn of the century, employed about 100 men in the manufacture of pottery over the course of three years.
The 109-foot chimney was the last remnant of that old brick factory.
In 1953, the then-Coon Rapids Village Council rejected a proposal to grant a franchise for a garbage disposal plant and incinerator at that location using the old chimney.
The chimney was torn down July 2, 1980 when it became a safety hazard after it was struck by lightning and severely damaged during a storm June 25, 1980.
Source:
Peter Bodley, Managing Editor
ABC Newspapers (Anoka County Union/Blaine-Spring Lake Park Life/Coon Rapids Herald)
Thursday, June 4, 2009