Andrew Dykeman, a contractor from Portage la Prairie, established a brick yard near Lavenham in the autumn of 1907. By August 1908, he had fired his first kiln of red-coloured bricks, with AD imprinted in the frog. In 1910, the local railway spur was extended to his yard site. By September 1912, he could not keep up with customer orders, which forced him to temporarily shut down brick production to allow the brick driers to catch up. Four single brick and two double brick houses in Lavenham were built using Dykeman’s bricks. In 1910, most of his year’s production was shipped to Regina, Saskatchewan for use in the city’s new government buildings. Dykeman’s brick yard was listed in the local directories until 1919.
Manitoba Brick Yards by Randy Rostecki, Manitoba Historic Resources Branch Report, May 2010.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 12 December 2021
Manitoba Bricks and Blocks
A history of the manufacture of bricks and concrete blocks in Manitoba, based on research by Randy Rostecki for the Manitoba Historic Resources Branch and supplemented by information compiled by Gordon Goldsborough of the Manitoba Historical Society. .
Bricks | Blocks | People | Glossary
We thank Hugh Arklie, Gordon McDiarmid, and Heather Bertnick for their help in the development of this online guide. Financial support of the Thomas Sill Foundation is gratefully acknowledged. Additional information was provided by Ina Bramadat, David Butterfield, Neil Christoffersen, Frank Korvemaker, Ed Ledohowski, Ken Storie, Lynette Stow, and Tracey Winthrop-Meyers.
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Randy Rostecki, Manitoba Historic Resources Branch, Gordon Goldsborough, and Manitoba Historical Society.
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