Cherokee Brick and Tile Company

Cherokee Brick and Tile Company is a 4,000-acre industrial district in Macon, Georgia, that preserves every stage of brick production, from clay pits to finished product. A rail yard divides it: the manufacturing plant lies to the west and the clay mines and reserves to the east, near the Ocmulgee River. The plant's main buildings are the combined Plant Nos. 1 and 2, begun in 1904 and expanded repeatedly, and Plant No. 3, built in 1947-1949. A 1926 gambrel-roofed clay storage building feeds both through overhead conveyors. Smaller resources include a 1925 garage, a 1949 office, a laboratory dating to about 1904, and brickyard sheds. The mines range from hand-dug furrows of the 1870s to large mechanized pits, linked to the plant by roads, rail beds and a 1928 plate-girder turntable bridge over the river. The district is notable for showing how a single company grew and modernized over a century, supplying bricks for regional landmarks such as Wesleyan College's campus.