Cream City Bricks

Wisconsin has many unique things to be proud about. Many of these are obvious to most people, like our dairy industry, the Green Bay Packers, and being a national leader in many other areas of food and beverage production. This site is dedicated to another unique feature of Wisconsin, one that is probably not on many people's radar, but that has greatly shaped the architecture and development of much of Wisconsin. It is Cream City Brick, the cream colored brick unique to southeastern Wisconsin that built our towns and cities, and jump started our industrial development in the 1800s.

Cream City Brick Fachwerk barn on my parents' farm.

Growing up in rural southern Wisconsin, I was surrounded by this cream colored brick, although I did not pay much attention to it until very recently. The entire downtown of Watertown, where I grew up, is built out of it, as are most towns in southeastern Wisconsin. After recently completing an amateur masonry project in my back yard, I have developed an interest (obsession) with this brick. This blog will feature photos from all over Wisconsin showcasing the beautiful architecture of our state, most of which was built with this brick.

Cream City Brick is most famous in Milwaukee, since it is the largest city in Wisconsin, and the entire downtown area was built out of it in the mid 1800s. Milwaukee became known as the Cream City, since it's downtown was so bright and light colored compared to the red or brown brick construction of most cities in the US. Cream City Brick is equally prevalent in all small towns as well. In Watertown many people call it Watertown brick, so I think there must have been a local pride for it going way back.

My completed outdoor kitchen project.

What makes Cream City Brick so unique, and why doesn't it exist anywhere else? It has to do with the clay in the glaciated portion of Wisconsin. The predominant bedrock of this region is dolomite and limestone. Dolomite is composed of calcium magnesium carbonate, and limestone is calcium carbonate. When the glaciers came through, they ground this bedrock into a fine clay, and deposited huge beds of clay along river banks and the shores of Lake Michigan. This clay is very unique in its chemical composition compared to most brick-making clays. It is very high in calcium and magnesium. These two elements are crucial to the color of the brick, as well as it's strength and composition. The great abundance of this clay fueled the brick-making industry all over Wisconsin. Most towns had their own brick factories which supplied bricks for their own construction, and were shipped all over the country and beyond. Production remained strong until the turn of the 20th century, when concrete construction replaced the demand for brick. Thankfully, due to their solid construction, most cream brick buildings in Wisconsin still stand, and the often ornate architecture they were constructed in can still be appreciated today.