Mississauga is built on bricks. Well, at least on clay and shale, which is readily apparent for many who have tried to dig postholes across wide swaths of our geography. Clay and shale we have in abundance, which historically led to multiple brickyards over time that looked to harvest the natural materials to make bricks. All across our landscape are examples of buildings made from brick that came from this land. The inspiration for this article came from a recent visit to the Streetsville Kinsmen Senior Citizen Centre (former Streetsville Grammar School, former Town Hall and former Police Station) – which is a fascinating building with a long history – and lots of stories in brick to tell. The building features the original 1851 building, a large 1877 addition with a landmark tower, a 1972 addition that included jail cells, all of which having undergone some much-needed restoration work over the recent months.

One of the interesting finds was some bricks which were undoubtedly used, then removed from the building over time. One brick intrigued me (yes, bricks fascinate me!). It was denser/heavier than the older bricks from the 1851/1877 parts of the building. As for the brick itself, it was a curiosity in that letters could be distinctly seen in the frog of the brick: P B C. The first letter, preceding the P, was obscured by remnant mortar. However, a quick inventory of local historic brickyards gives one likely link - the Milton Pressed Brick Company, which labeled their bricks with M P B C. The Milton Pressed Brick Company operated in Streetsville from 1916 until 1930. So, the brick would most likely date to that period - which means there were likely some renovations done to the former Streetsville Grammar School building during that time.

The brick got me to thinking about other bricks, brickyards, and remembrances on our landscape. The mental inventory led me to thinking about place names, and a few came to mind. In the Streetsville area we can find McFarren Boulevard, while in the Cooksville area we see Clayhill Road and Brickyard Park.

Historic Mississauga has long traditions of brick making. Our soil, which has large concentrations of red clay and shale, provided a ready supply of the primary materials needed for brick manufacturing. Our earliest references to brick making are home-made mud bricks, baked by the sun. Many early farmers made bricks for their own use.

One of the first references to organized brick making is found with George Tolman’s brickyard near Pucky Huddle between c1856 and c1880. George Tolman was succeeded by his son Thomas Tolman as brick master. The Tolman brickyard produced bricks for the building of the Burnhamthorpe Primitive Methodist Church in 1874. Another early reference to organized brick making is from Streetsville where John Graydon, the noted builder, had a small brick making operation along the Mullet Creek in the 1880s. There is also reference to a small brickyard is association with the Barber brothers’ Toronto Woollen Mills along what is now Barbertown Road in the 1880s.

In Port Credit, in 1889, Thomas Nightingale purchased land immediately west of the village on the shores of Lake Ontario to develop a new brick yard. Nightingale already had a brickyard in operation along Yonge Street in Toronto but was looking to expand his operations. The Port Credit site was ideal. The Nightingale Pressed Brick Company struggled, in part, because the climate and the early machinery forced the company to be closed through the winter months.

However, business picked up in 1891, with supplies of good quality bricks being sent to Toronto and other Canadian cities from Port Credit. You can still find bricks marked with a “T.N.” from the Nightingale brickyard. Nightingale passed away in 1898, and the brickyard was purchased by Peter Bryan, although apparently under Bryan’s ownership, little was produced. In 1902 the property was sold to George Packham and Frank Sullivan, and under their direction the reformed Pressed Brick Company was born. In 1907 the company was purchased by J. Miller of Toronto, and later that year W.J. Haney became a partner. Miller and Haney overhauled the brickyard and reopened in 1908 as the Port Credit Brick Works. The brickyard operated until 1927, when W.J. Haney, then the company president, died. In 1929 a firm from Montreal purchased the brickyard with the intent of reopening it, but it was not to be, and in 1936 the property was sold to Lloyd Refineries Limited in 1933.

References to brick making expanded also significantly in historic Mississauga just prior to the First World War. In 1910 the Union Brick Company was being formed in Streetsville, although by 1912 apparently nothing had yet developed. In October of 1812, two more brick operations came to Streetsville: the Streetsville Brick Company and the Medina Shale Company. Both companies were in operation by the end of 1913. In 1916 the Medina Shale Company merged with another brick making firm to create the Milton Pressed Brick Company.

The Streetsville Brick Company specialized in a high-grade red brick, and with a “flashed rug faced” brick, while Milton Brick was famous for their “red rug” bricks.

The Medina/Milton Brick company operated in Streetsville for 17 years, with the plant closing in 1930. A year earlier, in 1929, the Streetsville Brick Company, which was located along Thomas Street, was purchased by F.B. McFarren. The plant was renamed the McFarren Brick Company. In 1978 McFarren Brick was sold to Jannock Limited-owned Canada Brick.

Canada Brick Limited was formed by Ernest and Ruby McSwain in 1956 on the north side of Britannia Road, just north of Streetsville. The company employed mainly workers from Italy and Portugal. In 1961 Canada Brick was purchased by the Glendare Group, who in turn sold it to Jannock Limited in 1969. At its height in 1970s, Canada Brick was the largest producer of clay bricks in Canada, and the second largest brick manufacturing facility in the country. Only the Cooksville Brickyard was larger. Canada Brick ceased operation in 2002.

Mississauga’s (and Canada’s) largest brick-making operation began in 1912-1913 when the Ontario National Brick Company recognized the profitable potential of the soil and purchased a 200-acre farm at the northeast corner of Dundas Street and Mavis Road. Over the years shale and clay were extracted from the property under a number of different company names, including the Cooksville Shale Brick Company (1922), Cooksville Brick Company Limited (1944), Cooksville Brick and Tile Company (1946), Cooksville La Prairie Brick Company (1953) and DOMTAR (1956). In 1985 Jannock Limited, under the company name of Canada Brick, purchased the site. Operations ceased in 1991.

Brickyards, the bricks they produced, and the people who made them, are a fascinating part of Mississauga’s story.