Brickyard

LOCATION: Kimball near Hyde Street

All Sites, Tours, Shows, and Rides at Historic Nauvoo are FREE!

Family Friendly – Wheelchair Accessible

To the Latter-day Saints, brick homes and shops meant beauty and permanence. There were seven brickyards in Nauvoo in the 1840s, five of them on the bluff and two more on the flats. Those seven brickyards were capable of producing four million bricks in a single season. The three ingredients needed for making bricks, clay containing iron oxide, sand, and water, were all readily available here in Nauvoo.

Many early settlers lived for years in log cabins while they built their brick homes, only to enjoy them for a few short months before they left to begin their trek westward. Nauvoo boasted 350 brick buildings before the Saints left in 1846. Of these, 49 were still standing in the 1960s when the restoration of Nauvoo began. Many of these, including the homes of Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff and Heber C. Kimball, have been restored and made available for public viewing. Others are now homes for missionaries.

The brickmaker will demonstrate how bricks were formed, dried and baked here in Old Nauvoo. You may take home a souvenir Nauvoo brick to help you remember your visit.