Guignard Brick Works

Fun at THE WORKS!!

Kiln interior

The Guignard Brick Works is significant as an example of an early-twentieth century industrial complex, one which produced bricks for many buildings constructed in Columbia and throughout South Carolina from ca. 1900 through the mid-twentieth century, and for its association with the Guignard family, prominent in local business and civic affairs throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The complex is also significant as an excellent surviving example of a beehive or circular downdraft brick kiln, an important method of construction in brickmaking facilities from the nineteenth century well into the twentieth century. The Guignard Brick Works complex includes four brick beehive kilns, a historic brick office, and remnants of other industrial features of the brick works. Three of the four kilns were built ca. 1920. The fourth was built ca. 1932 to replace one that burned in 1932. A one-story hip roof office building, ca. 1900, stands west of the kilns. Though the extant complex dates from the first half of the twentieth century, the Guignard family began producing bricks on or near this site as early as 1801, utilizing the rich clay deposits on the banks of the Congaree River. The Guignard Brick Works flourished and expanded its operations with the building boom in Columbia which began in the late 1890s and was in full swing by 1900. The evolution of the brick works over more than one hundred years of operation at this site, in a process in which the fuels and methods for firing brick changed from wood to coal to gas, may be further illustrated by examination and interpretation of the standing structures and extant above ground features.

The Guignard Brick Works is significant as an example of an early-twentieth century industrial complex, one which produced bricks for many buildings constructed in Columbia and throughout South Carolina from ca. 1900 through the mid-twentieth century, and for its association with the Guignard family, prominent in local business and civic affairs throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The complex is also significant as an excellent surviving example of a beehive or circular downdraft brick kiln, an important method of construction in brickmaking facilities from the nineteenth century well into the twentieth century. The Guignard Brick Works complex includes four brick beehive kilns, a historic brick office, and remnants of other industrial features of the brick works. Three of the four kilns were built ca. 1920. The fourth was built ca. 1932 to replace one that burned in 1932. A one-story hip roof office building, ca. 1900, stands west of the kilns. Though the extant complex dates from the first half of the twentieth century, the Guignard family began producing bricks on or near this site as early as 1801, utilizing the rich clay deposits on the banks of the Congaree River. The Guignard Brick Works flourished and expanded its operations with the building boom in Columbia which began in the late 1890s and was in full swing by 1900. The evolution of the brick works over more than one hundred years of operation at this site, in a process in which the fuels and methods for firing brick changed from wood to coal to gas, may be further illustrated by examination and interpretation of the standing structures and extant above ground features.