Checked out the old courthouse in Springfield and the brickwork is wild

Took my kid there for a school project. The arches over the main entrance are insane. Each one has these tiny, tight radial bricks. Must have been a nightmare to lay. How did they even cut them that precise back then? Anyone know what that style is called?

3 comments

3 Comments

olivia_barnes971mo agoTop Commenter

Took a masonry class years ago and we tried to replicate that. It's called gauged brickwork. They'd soak the bricks in water, then cut them with a special saw that had a wire blade. The wet clay was easier to shape. The real trick was the lime putty mortar they used, it set slow so you could adjust each brick for a perfect fit. Modern mortar is too fast.

evana711mo ago

Used to think it was just regular brickwork. Seeing it up close makes you appreciate the insane skill it took.

schmidt.blake7d ago

Oh man, gauged brickwork is next level. I saw some like that on an old bank building downtown and just stared at it for ten minutes. It's one of those things where the longer you look, the more you realize every single brick is a custom piece. Totally blows modern prefab stuff out of the water. Makes you wonder how many hours some poor mason spent just shaping bricks in a puddle of water.