"Cream City"

Newly Transformed Travelbug!

For the past 6 years I have worked in Illinois in the Laborer's Union as a Mason Tender. A day doesn't go by that I don't touch a brick and some mortar. My mission for this Travel Bug is to see places that were also built with Cream City brick and have it's photo taken next to them.

This brick was salvaged from my house when we remodeled and put a door in. The house was built in 1852, and the brick just makes the place as beautiful as ever. (see photo)


Cream City brick is a cream or light yellow-colored brick made from a clay found around Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the Menomonee River Valley and on the western banks of Lake Michigan. These bricks were one of the most common building materials used in Milwaukee during the mid and late 1800s, giving the city the nickname "Cream City" and the bricks the name "Cream City bricks".


Cream City bricks are made from a red clay containing elevated amounts of lime and sulfur; this clay is common in regions of Wisconsin, especially near Milwaukee. When the bricks are fired, they become creamy-yellow in color.


Although light-colored when first made, Cream City bricks are porous, causing them to absorb dirt and other pollutants; this tends to make structures constructed out of them dark-colored as time passes. Once Cream City bricks absorb pollutants, they are difficult to clean, a problem with which restoration experts in Milwaukee have been faced since the 1970s. Initially, sandblasting was attempted; however, it not only proved to be ineffective, but damaged the bricks. Currently, chemical washes are accepted as the most effective method of cleaning Cream City bricks.