Orviston Brick Works (Centre County)

A photo overlay of the narrow-gauge railroad that supplied the Orviston brick works with clay and coal. Now Dehaas Road

Off the beaten path in northern Centre County lies a former company town that has outlived the industry that created it. It has remained relatively unchanged since the day the factory whistle echoed off the mountains for the final time. Though its industrial heartbeat has faded, citizens continue to celebrate their heritage. Welcome to Orviston, population 94.

Orviston traces its roots to the mining boom of the early 1900’s. Originally named Hayes Run, the community was built to tap into the rich fire clay deposits in the surrounding mountains. In 1904, Ellis Orvis and several other businessmen founded the Hayes Run Fire Brick Company to produce heat resistant refractory brick. When Orvis was elected Centre County’s judge in 1905 the community’s name was changed to Orviston in his honor.

 By 1907, the brick kilns were producing 60,000 refractory bricks daily. Around 200 employees worked at the brick works, many living in company owned houses or the boarding house. A company store, church, and school rounded out the community. A devastating fire destroyed the plant's main building in July 1909. A new "fire proof" building was quickly erected to get the works back up and running. 

Two important raw materials were needed to run the operation, coal and fire clay. Veins of both were conveniently located on the ridge above the brick works. To access the mines, a narrow-gauge railroad was constructed from the brick works up the mountain. Men with picks and shovels filled small railroad cars that would be taken to an incline plane above the works. Clay and coal were then transported 700 feet down the mountain directly into the works. 

An early photo of the brick works showing the incline plane at left
Photo Retrieved From: Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Archives

Locals called the little mining railroad the Mountain View Railroad. During special events and holidays, citizens of Orviston would pile into the small cars and the locomotive would take them to the top of the mountain for picnics and berry-picking.

A Heisler type steam locomotive and clay/coal car at the bottom of the Mountain View Railroad
Photo Retrieved From: Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Archives

Later on, an unloading trestle was added. Only the concrete pillars that once held the rails remain
Author's Photo

Drying the raw or "green" bricks was done in large coal-fired kilns. According to a 1922 bulletin published by Penn State University’s School of Mineral Industries, it was calculated that 1.2 tons of coal and 4 tons of clay were required to manufacture every 1,000 bricks at Orviston.

The men that worked the kilns were a no nonsense bunch. Getting a kiln to reach the proper temperature of around 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit required shoveling coal constantly. When the drying process was complete, the kiln was shut down and allowed to cool. Cool was a relative term as workers unloaded the dried bricks and stacked green bricks while the temperature inside the kiln was still in excess of 100 degrees. 

Examples of bricks produced at Orviston
Author's Photo

In 1922, Hayes Run Fire Brick Company was purchased by General Refractories, an industry conglomerate that had also absorbed the Pennsylvania Fire Brick Company in nearby Beech Creek. General Refractories was the second largest producer of refractory brick behind Harbison-Walker, the industry’s leading manufacturer. Harbison-Walker operated the brick works three miles downstream in the village of Monument.

A view of Orviston and the brick works in 1937
Photo Retrieved From: Penn Pilot

Brick production in Orviston and other operations along Beech Creek continued energetically for the next several decades. After the economic boom that followed the end of World War II, refractories across Pennsylvania began experiencing a decline. Modernization within the industry and a decrease in market demand spelled the end for many local brickmaking operations. Harbison-Walker closed its Monument operation in 1953. A year later, General Refractories ceased production at its Beech Creek plant to focus its efforts at Orviston.

While Orviston was now the center of production, although this would not changed the operation's precarious position. Shipping costs were increasing and Orviston’s remote location only amplified these rates. Additional woes stemmed from the plant’s aging facilities that required constant maintenance and were inferior compared to modern kilns. Resolving these issues was a moot point. In the fall of 1962, the curtain fell and the brick works closed. Equipment from the plant was moved to company owned refractories at Sproul, in neighboring Blair County, and Rockdale, Wisconsin. General Refractories demolished the Orviston plant in 1965.

Little remains of this once booming industry. The lot where the plant stood serves as a parking area for the Bloody Skillet ATV Trail. Scattered around the site are various remnants of the brick works: portions of brick walls, rotting railroad ties, concrete foundations, and the piers of the elevated trestle. Many of the company houses still stand as private homes. DeHaas Road was built partially upon the former narrow-gauge railroad grade. Throughout production, the company stamped its bricks with various trade names. HAYES RUN, HARVEY, KELSO, CURTIN, and ORIVS can be found on bricks around the area.

The site of the brick works as it appears today
Author's Photo

Foundations
Author's Photo

Broken segments of a wall or chimney
Author's Photo

Information Retrieved From:

Albertin-Vernon. (2007). The brick town trail. Retrieved from http://www.docs.dcnr.pa.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/document/dcnr_004939.pdf

Bezilla, M. (2017). Branch line empires. Indiana University Press. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com/books?id=Vi48DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA200&dq=hayes+run+fire+brick+orviston&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi7wvva2MDfAhUUyYMKHYUPCZgQ6AEIXDAJ#v=snippet&q=hayes%20run%20&f=false

 Broderick & Bascome Rope Company (1920). The yellow strand. [Google Books]. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Yellow_Strand/IUJKAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0&bsq=orviston

Shaw. J. (1930). The ceramic industries of Pennsylvania. School of Mineral Industries. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=7r0mAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA150&dq=general+refractories+orviston&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-kYqE6MDfAhUL84MKHWqBAqoQ6AEIMDAB#v=onepage&q=general%20refractories%20orviston&f=false

Wallace, K. (1993). Brickyard towns. National Park Service. Retrieved from
https://archive.org/stream/brickyard-towns/brickyard-towns_djvu.txt Brick Town Trail Study http://pa-centrecounty.civicplus.com/DocumentCenter/View/501

 Orviston. (2020, March 29). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orviston,_Pennsylvania

T. A. Randall & Company (1904). Editorial notes and clippings. Clay-Worker. 41-42. Retrieved from:

https://books.google.com/books?id=VjA-AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA174&dq=hayes+run+fire+brick+%2B+incline&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi8sIiKrtCHAxWRD1kFHY2WKAIQ6AF6BAgKEAI#v=onepage&q=hayes%20run%20fire%20brick%20%2B%20incline&f=false