Gideon Cobb, (1791-1864), was the first Brighton resident to discover and identify the clay deposits in Brighton as being economically useful. His enterprise in locating the clay deposits along with the mineral wealth of sand, gravel, and limestone deposits, led him to establish  the first Brick factory within our community. Gideon’s Yard later combined with the Brighton Yards of  Burton and Wilson in 1853 to form the

Rochester Brick & Tile Company (RB&TCo.).

This site is an attempt to create a visualization

of the RB&TCo. as it existed in 1900.

Yes! a conjectural visualization, for  all was not revealed in text and pictures but  historic records were available to complete the details to our drawing.

The watercolor illustration above was constructed in 2002 without any reference to actual details,...for was thought that none existed.

Then recently my friend,  Jim Weller, alerted me to a three page, 1900 dated, detailed word description of the Brick Yard. Further search located six photographs of the Brick Yard.

So.....we put it all together...please to proceed.