The Elgin-Butler Brick Company manufactures structural ceramic glazed masonry products at a plant northeast of
Austin, Texas,
United States. The company has regional market dominance in structural brick and other ceramic products.
History
Originally called Butler Brick Company, the firm was founded in 1873 on the south shore of the Colorado River in Austin, Texas the current site of Butler Shores. Irish immigrant bricklayer Michael Butler while cutting trees in
Butler, Texas discovered excellent clay pits on Farm to Market 696 shortly after the Texas and New Orleans Railroad arrived there in 1871. The community that grew up around it came to be known as Butler, Texas a company town with a
company store and brick houses for employees who farmed on the side.
The town's population reached about 150 and the company also mined clay from a site now in the
utler Shoreson the east side of Barton Creek next to the now Zilker Park soccer fields in Austin. On the Butler Shores Brick Plant location clay was transported in buckets hung from mule-drawn lines to
kilns on the north bank of the Colorado River, site of the present-day
Austin High School. Another plant was located farther down the
Colorado River at the site of the
Zachary Scott Theatre
ZACH Theatre (the Zachary Scott Theatre Center) is a professional theatre company located in Austin, Texas, as well as its associated complex of theatre facilities. The company is the oldest continuously active theatre company in Texas, and one of ...
. In 1912 the firm acquired the
Austin Brick Company, and in 1965 it acquired its chief competitor,
Elgin Standard Brick Company. The Elgin Butler company supplied bricks for the
Texas State Capitol, 80 percent of the brick structures at the
University of Texas at Austin, face brick and fire brick for fireplaces in many Austin residences, and many other brick buildings in Austin. Brick from Elgin Butler Brick Company was also used for the façade of the United States Embassy in Mexico City. The company maintained offices in
Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
and
Elgin from approximately 1910, and was family-owned and operated until 2005 when it was sold to Matt Galvez from New York.
Sale of Company by the Butler Family
In December 2005, the Butler family sold the company to Matthew Galvez (an 81% shareholder) and James Nichols (a 19% shareholder) in a transaction financed by
Frost Bank
Frost Bank is a Texas-chartered bank based in San Antonio with 155 branches and 1,700 automated teller machines, all of which are in Texas. It is the primary subsidiary of Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc., a bank holding company. It is on the list of ...
with a
Small Business Administration guarantee on a portion of the acquisition financing. Around the time of the transfer, the primary products manufactured and sold by Elgin-Butler were glazed brick and large structural clay tile for use in school construction, transportation terminals such as subway stations and airports, stadiums, food processing plants, jails, multi-unit housing, restaurants, and other commercial uses. Elgin-Butler also made fire brick, fireplace liners and solar screen tile at its plant in Elgin, Texas. Following the sale of the company, Elgin-Butler’s introduced thin glazed brick as well as its subsidiaries, McIntyre Tile Company, Inc. and Trikeenan Tile Works, manufactured glazed thin brick, and art tile at their respective plants in
Healdsburg, California and
Hornell, New York
Hornell is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in Steuben County, New York, Steuben County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 8,259 at the 2020 census. The city is named after the Hornell family, early set ...
. McIntyre and Trikeenan’s glazed thin brick and art tile were almost exclusively used in commercial applications.
References
*''Handbook of Texas Online''
"ELGIN-BUTLER BRICK COMPANY" Retrieved 3 October 2006.
*In re Elgin-Butler Co., et al., No. 14-11180-tmd, at ECF No. 150 (Bankr. W.D. Tex. 2014).
Elgin-Butler Brick Company website
Brick manufacturers
Ceramics manufacturers of the United States
Manufacturing companies based in Austin, Texas
Hornell, New York