Sheffield Middle School Brick-a-Brac

I didn’t attend Sheffield Middle School, but I couldn’t resist rescuing a few souvenir bricks from the demolition pile.

It’s interesting how bricks from demolished schools are becoming popular collectibles. It seems to be something that has caught on in recent years, especially as a fundraising gimmick.

There are several different types of bricks (below) from the Sheffield Middle School demo site. (By the way, I had to chisel the mortar off those bricks for them to look so clean. I guess that makes me a chiseler.)

Some bricks have holes in them; others are lighter in color with a unique stamped pattern on the face of them. I have no idea which ones are older.

However, the most interesting bricks are darker, with METROPOLITAN stamped into them, along with CANTON, OHIO. Sometimes they have MADE IN U.S.A. on them too.

According to this article from the Canton Repository, the Metropolitan Brick Company was at one time the nation’s single largest producer of paving brick, producing 93 million pieces in 1923.

Vintage ad
(Courtesy geosurvey.ohiodnr.gov)

For information about collecting bricks, click here to visit Bricks of Ohio Blog: Tales and Trials of Brick Harvesting. It’s a great resource for collectors of vintage Ohio bricks.

And if any of you Sheffield Middle School alumni missed out on the free bricks and would like one of these, just shoot me an email.

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The demolition of the former middle school/original high school continues. The original 1923 portion is down; all that remains to be torn down is the newer section.

The view from Colorado Avenue will take some getting used to (below).