09/04/2026
- The next couple of weeks will feature images of Centre County from the air.
Aerial view of the quarry of the silica brick plant at Port Matilda.
C. 1950, Sherm Lutz
"The last refractories brickyard to be established was an outlier: it sourced ganister rather than clay. Ganister is an extremely hard, quartz-rich sandstone with a high silica content, from which silica brick could be made. The mining and manufacturing processes were more difficult and expensive, but silica refractories typically could withstand higher heat than fire-clay brick and consequently commanded higher prices. The ubiquitous Ellis Orvis and some of his partners from the Orviston and Snow Shoe works spearheaded the creation of the new plant in 1917 at Port Matilda, with Philipsburg coal operator James F. Stott a new addition to the group as majority shareholder. The brickyard—having an initial daily capacity of about 35,000 brick—sat adjacent to the PRR’s Bald Eagle Branch. It obtained ganister from a 500-acre tract that ran longitudinally above the plant along the northwest slope of Bald Eagle Mountain. The mountain itself marked the approximate northern edge of the Tuscarora sandstone formation, which was most famously concentrated in southern Huntingdon County, where brickyards at Mount Union enabled that community to lead the nation for many years in silica brick production."
"In 1926 Superior Silica was sold to the McFeely Brick Company of Latrobe, which would operate the brickyard for the next thirty years. (Company founder Fred McFeely was the maternal grandfather of children's television personality Mr. Rogers.)" Mike Bezilla, CCHS Mansion Notes Fall, 2024
From "Centre County in Pictures: 1800-1950" published by the Centre County Historical Society and the Centre County Sesqui-centennial Committee.
