Savannah Greys

Savannah Greys are bricks made in Savannah by hand in the early 1800s by enslaved black folk at the Hermitage Plantation on the Savannah River. (It’s now International Paper.) Henry McAlpin owned the Hermitage, which makes me wonder if McAlpin Square is named after him 🤔

The plantation sat on a grey-colored clay instead of soil. It couldn’t grow crops worth a damn, but it was perfect for making bricks.

In 1820, Downtown Savannah had a HUGE fire. What had happened was: a stable caught on fire behind a boarding house. The fire spread to Bay Street then City Market where it met illegal kegs of gunpowder and exploded, burning almost 500 businesses and homes to the ground. They believe it was arson tho no one but the dead knows for sure 🙃

After the fire, white folks preferred brick to wood structures and started ordering up Savannah Greys. Business was booming (altho the actual brick makers and layers didn’t profit from it 🙄). Some of em did, howeva, use the bricks to help rebuild the old First African Baptist Church in 1855.

The start of the Civil War in 1861 stopped production and the end of the war in 1865 signaled emancipation. So that was that. No more made. Altho I’d bet my bottom dollar, the black folk once they were freed still made and sold it. Y’all know we hustlas through and through.

Around 1937, more than 70 years after the Civil War, Henry Ford (founder of the Ford Motor Company) bought the Hermitage plantation, renamed it the Ford Plantation, and had his mansion (he called it the Main House) built outta restored Savannah Greys.

Today they are hella rare and expensive. About four years ago, a local construction company found a dumpster full of em. When you’ont know betta, you treat treasure like trash 🤷🏾‍♀️ Buddy put 10,000 Savannah Greys up for sale, $4 a brick, and sold out. A regla’ass brick at Lowe’s is about 60 cents. Do the math.

I got the first/primary picture from my friend, Sharon Norwood. I got the other three from Southern Pine Company (they’re one company who sells it).

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