Brickyards
After it was discovered in the early 1850s that rich deposits of clay surrounded the ridge, Blue Island became the center of a significant brick-making industry that lasted for over a century. In the early years, these efforts were small with the bricks being made by hand and the turnout created mostly for local use, but by 1886 the Illinois Pressed Brick Company (organized in 1884) was employing about 80 men and using "steam power and the most approved machinery", which allowed them to produce 50,000 brick per day. By 1900 the Clifton Brickyard alone (which had opened in 1883 under the name of Purington at the far north-east corner of the village) was producing 150,000,000 bricks a year. In 1886, the Chicago architectural firm of Adler and Sullivan designed a large complex for the Wahl Brothers brickyard (the main building of which was 250' x 350') on the west side of the Grand Trunk tracks between 119th and 123rd St. These buildings had been demolished by 1935, and all of Blue Island's brickyards were re-purposed by the latter part of the mid-20th Century. The larger ones for a while become landfills, and the Wahl Brothers location is now the site of the Meadows Golf Club.
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