Don Valley Brick Works - Update 6.15.2018
In 1882, a young farmer in the Don Valley, by the name of William Taylor, dug a fence-post into the ground and discovered a thick red clay. He mixed this with water from the mud creek, sent it off to a local kiln where it was test-fired and sure enough it came out a deep beautiful red; very popular with Victorian builders. In 1889 The Taylor brothers (William Thomas Taylor , George Arthur Taylor, and John Frederick Taylor) launched The Don Valley Pressed Brickworks. A company that produced "fine pressed bricks". In 1901 the Taylor brothers faced some financial difficulties, ownership passed on to brother-in-law Robert Davies. It was under Davies' proprietorship that the name changed to the Don Valley Brickworks. Clay, shale, sand and water... the materials that came out of this quarry literally helped build the city of Toronto. In 1904, for instance, there was a massive fire in downtown Toronto that destroyed most of what later became the central business distr...