Interstate Brick

The Salt Lake Pressed Brick Company was founded in 1891 and continued in business until 1936. It specialized in manufacturing bricks and related materials. In 1936 it was reorganized as Interstate Brick.

The Salt Lake Pressed Brick Company was incorporated January 6, 1891, with John P. Cahoon as president. On a capital of $50,000, the company built its first plant in Salt Lake City and struggled through the depression of the 1890s, after which business picked up enough that the company was able to build a second plant and employ new technology and many new emigrant employees from Sweden. Unfortunately, by 1907, despite the fact that the company had received production awards, and that its bricks had been used to build some of the more prominent buildings in Salt Lake City (including the Hotel Utah), Salt Lake Pressed Brick was unable to make its payroll; forced to pay its employees in bonds and credit, the company continued to struggle financially through the onslaught of World War I (despite aid from the War Manpower Commission). At that point (1918), Cahoon threw the interests of the company in with the Common Brick Manufacturer's Association, and the company decided to expand its inventory, introducing new products which allowed it to gain investors, acquire new equipment and clay pits, and build an additional plant (dubbed 'C'). During the early 1920s, the company gained additional clay sources and built plant D. Next, in an attempt, ultimately, to protect the brick market, it sponsored a bricklaying class, and teams of skilled students began contracting for home-building jobs. By this point, however, sales had begun to decline due to changes in the construction industry and its techniques (in particular the growing market for cinder block and steel framing) as well as to rumors of poor quality. Over the next several years, Salt Lake Pressed Brick made repeated attempts to divide the Utah-Idaho-Nevada market with other companies, all of which ended in failure. This, combined with the apparently counterproductive expansion following World War I and The Great Depression of 1929, rendered the company less and less able to redeem its bonds, until, in November 1931, the company became insolvent; the market continued to decline, the equipment and facilities continued to degenerate, and Salt Lake Pressed Brick became involved in a U.S. District Court suit for its inability to pay its debts. As a result, in 1936, the company was reorganized as Interstate Brick Company.

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