A look back: Follow the Ballard Brick Road

By William Murray

Recently a hiker in Carkeek Park stopped to ponder the trail names and asked about the history of the Clay Pit and Brick Road Trail. Dale Johnson, an avid hiker and Carkeek Park trail builder, replied. “The clay pit where the clay for the brick factory came from is on the west side of the Clay Pit Trail a little way uphill from where it starts at the Airplane Field parking lot.  We named the Brick Road Trail that because bricks stick up through the surface.  It was originally a road to some buildings where the trail intersects the Hillside Trail, where the road builders used brick debris to build up the grade of the road. There are also bricks sticking up through the side of the park road above the Y in the road, likely from brick debris used to build up the road bed. ” 

Black and white photocopy of original faded photo of Ballard Brick Yards, located where Carkeek Park is today. Owned & operated by George Orovitz family (immigrants from Czeckoslovakia). Large brick structure with three chimneys. Courtesy of Ballard Historical Society archives.

For many years starting in the late 1800s, bricks were manufactured at the Ballard Brick yard located in what is now Carkeek Park. The devastating fire of 1889 in downtown Seattle spawned the opening of many new brickyards as demand exploded for fireproof building material. The process of creating bricks uses clay as raw material that is first prepared, formed, and dried. The firing of clay bricks is then performed through hacking, heating, burning, cooling, and de-hacking. The mineral content of the clay would determine the brick’s color—clays rich with iron oxide would turn reddish. 

At the turn of the last century Broadview was home to large farms settled by families such as the Pipers from Germany and the Bauers who came from North Dakota in 1889. Joe Bauer grew up on the family’s strawberry farm at 125th and 12th Ave NW and worked at the Ballard brickyards. Jim Bauer remembered that just for fun, children who lived near the Brickyard used to bake bread in the kilns that remained hot long after closing time. The brickyard was destroyed by a severe winter storm in 1916. 

Source: Recollections from Broadview/Bitter Lake Community History [1995]

Ballard bricks were used in many local construction projects and can still be found today in salvage yards. These bricks owned by the author are 3” thick and  each weigh close to 8 lbs.!