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| A photo overlay of the narrow gauge railroad that supplied the Orviston brick works with clay and coal |
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.
To access the clay mines, a narrow-gauge railroad was constructed from the brick works up the mountain. While never officially incorporated, it was referred to as the Mountain View Railroad. Men with picks and shovels filled small railroad cars that would be taken down the mountain by a Heisler-type geared steam locomotive. During special events, citizens of Orviston would pile into the clay cars and the locomotive would take them to the top of the mountain for picnics and berry-picking.
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| A topographic map from 1921 showing Orviston. The tracks heading up the mountain is the narrow-gauge railroad Map Retrieved From: https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/topoexplorer/index.html |
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.
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.
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| 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 brick works in the region. 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, several critical factors would ultimately prove fatal for the enterprise. 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 coal trestle. Many of the company houses still stand as private homes. De Haas Road was built 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.
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| The site of the brick works as it appears today Author's Photo |
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| The elevated track for unloading coal Author's Photo |
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| Foundations Author's Photo |
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| Broken segments of a wall or chimney Author's Photo |
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| Examples of bricks produced at Orviston Author's Photo |
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2.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
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5.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
6. Orviston. (2020, March 29). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orviston,_Pennsylvania
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