Summer Buff

A couple of weeks ago - before I spotted the Catskill brick - another brick caught my eye on a facade near the Burger King on Central Avenue. I was waiting for my partner-in-crime to finish a phone call and noticed words stamped on the ends of some of the pale yellow bricks.

On a cold winter day, the phrase SUMMER BUFF seemed a little ironic.

It refers, of course, to the color of the bricks which are also stamped with the manufacturer's name, Hanley. Hanley bricks were used in the construction of the iconic Chrysler Building, as well as the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China, also in Manhattan. The company, based in Summerville, PA was founded in 1910 and acquired by Glen-Gary Brick in the mid-1980s.