➤ See also our related article: Bricklyn Celebrates 150th Anniversary of Drury Bricks
November 16, 2025
by Winifred Tiler Jackson
The manufacture of bricks in northwestern Vermont has a long history, and the Drury Brick Company has been at the heart of it, providing bricks for hundreds of buildings.
As local historian Bob Blanchard has noted: “Drury bricks are to be found everywhere in the Burlington area. … In the late 1880s and early 1900s, local demand for brick was nearly insatiable. …
“The Drury brickyard was the biggest in the state, producing enough bricks not just for local consumption, but also distributing them to neighboring states. …
“Founded in 1867, it was also the last active brickyard in Vermont when it closed in 1971. [Drury’s] ability to hang on until 1971 is quite remarkable given their by then antiquated facilities. But modern, more efficient brick producers, mainly in the south proved too much to contend with … .” From “Burlington Area History. Facebook, [search “brick making” for several posts by Bob Blanchard and comments].
Turning to Brickmaking in Bricklyn
What is little known to most Vermonters is that the Drury Brick Company also built a LEGO-scaled brickmaking complex in Bricklyn.
➤ Lego-scale: All of the buildings in the Realm of Bricklyn, including the Drury brickmaking facilities, were built at 1:45 scale, when compared to Outland (human-scaled) buildings. In other words, a 45 foot high building in Burlington, Vermont, would be one foot high in Bricklyn.
This LEGO-scaled brickmaking facility continues to this day, using clay from deposits along the Brickooski River (known to Vermonters as the Winooski River) for the manufacture of bricks.
All photos of Drury operations in Bricklyn, VT, from archives of Bricklyn Historical Society, with assistance from GPT-4o AI.
Opened in 1875, Drury Bricks’ Bricklyn brickyard remains fully operational. It includes kilns, drying racks, and other accoutrements needed for turning clay into bricks; as well as for storing and then transporting the bricks to customers’ building sites.
This Bricklyn brickmaking complex, though barely known in the Outland world, is renowned among Inland cities.
Drury-made bricks became ubiquitous in Bricklyn during the boom years of the late 19th and early 20th century when the city’s population was rapidly growing.
Many Bricklyn buildings have been built with Drury-made bricks:
The Southwest Corner building in Bricklyn. Credit: Bricklyn Eagle photographer Ann Tiler Anderson.
Many downtown Bricklyn buildings, such as the Southwest Corner Building (above), make use of a pleasing buff or cream colored brick. The brick draws on clay deposits found along a portion of the Brickooski River that are low in iron and high in lime, yielding its cream color.
In 1972, the Drury Brick Company sold its Bricklyn site and facilities to a group headed by Lester Tiler Broffman (father of Dunk Them Donuts’ current CEO David Tiler Broffman), and was renamed “Drury Bricks.”
At the time, in gratitude for saving the jobs of hundreds of brick workers, there was even an effort to rename Bricklyn “Druryville.” This idea did not take hold, as many thought that name sounded too similar to “Drearyville.”
In 2021, Drury Bricks became a wholly owned subsidiary of Dunk Them Donuts.
With this corporate takeover, one local wag took to calling the brickmaking operation “Dunk Them Bricks,” a moniker which caught on and is even displayed on the walls of several Dunk Them Donuts outlets.
The donut chain has gone so far as to create a line of donuts in the shape of bricks — great for dunking in a hot mug of coffee.
Dunk Them Donuts recently funded the installation of a genuine, human-scale Drury Brick in an open space next to the Bricklyn railyard. It honors a century and a half of brickmaking in the Realm of Bricklyn. For more details, see “Bricklyn Celebrates 150th Anniversary of Drury Bricks.”
Dunk Them Donuts CEO David Tiler Broffman told us that “Drury Bricks continues to be a valuable member of the Dunk Them Donuts family. Bricks, like donuts, are an integral and time-honored part of the Realm of Bricklyn’s economy. …
“As long as there are ample clay deposits in the Brickooski River, and we are certain there will be for decades to come, Drury Bricks will remain one of the Realm’s economic engines.” (D. Broffman, personal communication, November 3, 2025).
Two other much smaller “specialty” brick makers also continue to thrive in Bricklyn, and provide important services for the end users of bricks.
“My Colored Brick” focuses on the production of bricks having a range of colors. Coloring is usually accomplished by either adding colorant oxides or dyes to the clay mixture before it is fired or set, or by changes in the oxygen level during firing. For example, low oxygen “reduction firing” is often used to create blue colored bricks. Producing bricks in a variety of colors is both an art and a science. 📍See also “What determines the colour of a brick?” and “Influences on Colour“.
Distinctive blue, green, and even violet colored brick buildings can be found in downtown Bricklyn. Above is a view along Lower North Street.
Credit: Bricklyn Eagle staff photographer Ann Tiler Anderson.
The “Matching Bricks Company” has a different, but equally important, role. It produces replacement bricks for buildings with damaged or defaced bricks. These bricks are made to closely match the color, grain (surface texture), and general condition of undamaged bricks from the involved building
All told, the brick manufacturing sector provides some four hundred good paying jobs for Bricklynites. To this one can also add dozens of skilled brick masons and brick layers working for contractors or independently.
While we do not have room today to cover the role of the Inland Union of Bricklayers & Masons (IUBM) in organizing for workers’ rights, and the impact of the 2023 strike by the IUBM against Dunk Them Donuts and its Drury Bricks subsidiary, we would refer you to the entry about the IUBM in the online Bricklyn Glossary. ✥
W.T. Jackson’s Suggestions for Viewing on YouTube:
How Bricks Are Made, by Insider, offers a short five minute overview of the brickmaking process (note that in Bricklyn, clay is typically used, not shale as shown in this video, though occasionally shale is mixed in with the clay).
Inside Japan’s Oldest Brick Factory: How Red Bricks Are Made, by
Japanese craftsmanship -Kodawari, takes a look at the production of beautiful red bricks in the Okada Brick Factory, which opened in 1897. The video covers the key steps in the process: clay being dug; refined; and molded into bricks, and then the bricks being cut; dried; stacked; fired; and finally packaged for shipment. Don’t miss the views of an 1898 building built with Okada bricks (at 17:37 in the video). Also, be sure you have captions visible to read the descriptions of what you’re viewing.
The Nile Series: Brick-making tradition lives through centuries, by CGTN Africa, looks at bricks still made in Egypt using methods that are thousands of years old — molding mud from the Nile River, then adding straw and manure before baking the bricks. Truly fascinating. If you want more on Egyptian brickmaking, see “DIG IN! Authentic Brick Making in Egypt,” by Appian Media.
We welcome Letters to the Editor. Please email to: bricklynvt@gmail.com
To the Editor: Wow! W.T. Jackson really went to town in writing this. But I have to ask, can I just enjoy seeing our wonderful brick buildings without understanding their chemistry? Because when it comes to trying to understand the science of brick making or of producing colored bricks, I have to admit that I’m just what this Jethro Tull album of mine says, Thick As A Brick! — Tommy T. Brickface, Bricklyn, VT.
To the Editor: I’m in Mr. Arnold’s English composition class at Bricklyn High School this year. As one of our assignments we need to write about something being reported on in your newspaper. So I read Ms. Jackson’s article (btw, I haven’t had her yet for history).
What I want to write about is why Dunk Them Donuts was interested enough in buying Drury Bricks. I thought making donuts was their claim to fame. So what’s with their interest in bricks? I’m going to try to corner Mr. Broffman about that. He’s the GOAT of business. Side note: often see him rolling through town in his black roadster. Here’s a shot I took of him a couple of months ago! — Turbo B. Turtle, South Bricklyn, VT.
To the Editor: As a resident of Burlington, Vermont, I have to say we’ve also benefitted immensely from our brick heritage. I’m glad to hear that Drury Bricks lives on — albeit in a greatly reduced size — in Bricklyn. One problem that does plague our brick buildings is the spread of graffiti. It not only destroys the beauty of our built environment, but is often time-consuming and costly to remove. Solutions seem hard to come by. The photos in your article seem to indicate that Bricklyn is graffiti-free. Very much hope that’s actually the case. — Stanley M., Burlington, VT.
Reply from the Editor: Thank you for your comment. Yes, Bricklyn is, and has always been, graffiti-free. As far as we’re aware that’s also true of other Inland realms. It’s an interesting question why that’s the case, which may well involve deeper questions of Outlander versus Inlander psychology. Perhaps one of our reporters can address this in a future Bricklyn Eagle article.
