DENNING'S POINT BRICK WORKS
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LocationDenning's Point Brick Works' first location is a peninsula that juts out into the Hudson River approximately 58 miles north of New York City in Dutchess County in the southwest portion of Beacon, NY. It's in the center of your screen in this Google Satellite view. If you zoom in, you can see some of the remains of the brick factory buildings. (Scroll down for more pics.)
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A Brief History of Denning's Point
4000BC: Numerous artifacts from as far back as the Archaic Period have been found on Denning's Point confirming the presence of Native Americans here. Noted Hudson River author Arthur G. Adams writes there were burial grounds of the Wiccapee and Shenandoah tribes here.2
1609: Henry Hudson moored mid-river between Denning's Point and Newburgh. Whether any of his crew
actually came ashore onto what was then called "the Island in Fishkill Bay" is unknown.1
Aug 8, 1683: Francis Rombout and Gulian Verplank purchased 85,000 acres from the Wappinger tribe. Called the Rombout Patent, this land included what is today known as Denning's Point.
1691: Francis Rombout dies and wills his share of the Patent to his daughter, Catharyna.
1709: Catharyna, now married to Roger Brett, built a gristmill at the mouth of Fishkill Creek (next to Denning's Point).
1743: Now a widow, Madam Brett built the Frankfort Storehouse and Freight Depot just north of the Point. Here flour ground in her mill along with produce from over twenty Dutchess County area farmers awaited shipment to New York on her fleet of sailboats.1 The Storehouse continued in business until the 1840s.
1738: Madam Brett sold the land to Jacobus de Peyster who renamed it "DePeyster's Point."
1776: The Point served as eastern terminus of Revolutionary period ferry to Newburgh and New Windsor.
1781: Alexander Hamilton rented a home at DePeyster's Point (also known then as "Fishkill Hook"). Historians now believe it was here that Hamilton penned articles that were precursors to the Federalist Papers.1
 Mount Beacon as seen from Denning's Point 1785: Adjutant-General William Denning of George Washington's staff
(also a New York merchant) purchased the land. The Denning family built a mansion "Presqu’ile" on the southern part of the point.
1868: The Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad purchased property at Denning's Point adjacent to Dutchess Junction. Their grand plan was to connect New England cities with a shipping terminal on the Hudson River but they went bankrupt in 1870.
1872: Newburgh's Homer Ramsdell (president of the Erie Railroad 1853-1857 and owner of the Ferry Landings at Newburgh and Beacon before the Mid-Hudson Bridge) bought the portions of the Point from the bankrupt railroad.
 Plymouth locomotive, side dump hoppers and shovel loading clay at Denning's Point Brick Co. (Photo courtesy of John Stewart. Click to see larger version.) 1881: Taking advantage of the clay deposits, plentiful sand and convenient river and rail transportation. Ransdell had a brickyard built by McLean & Co. Emily Denning Van Rensselaer and family stayed in "Presqu’ile" (even though brickyard activities came to surround them). The "Denning's Point Brick Co" employed 150 men, and sold 15 million brick. Note: early bricks found on the site are marked "DPBCo." At some point the name was changed to "Denning's Point Brick Works" and the brand marking became "DPBW."
1890: Emily Denning Van Rensselaer’s daughter Emily left the Denning mansion. Brick workers’ families moved in. 1920s: The Denning mansion was in ruins, but the brickyards were in their heyday under the management of David Strickland. In 1911 he patented Improved Brickmaking Machinery. In 1920 he created the Strickland Automatic Brick-making Machine. In 1925, a low-pressure steam brick dryer. These innovations plus numerous other patents were employed at the DPBW and at its peak, production reached 400,000 bricks per day.1
 "Coney Island" today 1920s-1930s: Thousands of swimmers came to Denning’s Point, the "Coney Island of Dutchess County."
1939: The Denning’s Point Brick Works pulled out of their original home and moved a few miles north to Brockway to find new sources of clay. At its height "DPBW"
fired enough bricks - 400,000 during a peak day - to help build the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center.
1948: The site was taken over by a manufacturer of construction panels called Durisol. The panels were made from a mixture of Portland concrete and wood chips and were tough and acoustically friendly. Durisol constructed new factory buildings on the point using its own materials, which were also used in the construction of several modernist houses around nearby Cold Spring, and for sound barrier walls lining the New York State Thruway. Durisol later relocated, but the Noesting Pin Ticket Company continued to use the point until about 1980.
1988: New York state bought the 64-acre peninsula - a favorite haunt of bald eagles - for an estimated $6 million. Historian Jim Heron, author of Denning’s Point: A Hudson River History
2003: NY Governor George Pataki spoke at Denning’s Point to celebrate the choosing of Beacon for the site of the $27 million dollar research facility, the Rivers and Estuaries Center.
2006: The Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries celebrated groundbreaking on Building One at Denning's Point. Construction on the second building (the old Noesting/Durisol factory) is slated to begin in 2008.
 Work underway converting old DPBW Machine Shop to Institute "Building One"
Sources Consulted:
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Denning's Point,
(all photos copyright, DSBayley)
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BRICK COLLECTING.com
Hudson River Brickmaking |
Brick History/How Bricks Were Made |
Links |