By Shavonne Walker

shavonne.walker@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Artist Bob Timberlake, astronaut Neil Armstrong, singer Mariah Carey, actress Andie McDowell and singer Jennifer Lopez all have something in common — they’ve all had homes built from brick made right here in Rowan County at Old Carolina Handmade Brick.

The 45-year-old company has provided their handmade bricks to build celebrity homes and for restoration projects from Colonial Williamsburg to Yale University. The brick is hand moulded on site at its 475 Majolica Road facility.

“Twenty percent of our work is restoration,” said Art Burkhart, vice president of marketing and sales.

Not many brick companies in the world still create hand moulded bricks. In fact, Old Carolina has been dubbed the “Rolls Royce” of the brick industry. The family-owned company is unique in that it does custom work on residential and commercial buildings, said David Frame, co-president of the company.

Some of the features of handmade moulded bricks are the distinctive folds, finger marks, surface irregularities that add character to each finished brick.

However, the brick making business has changed over the years and now companies are gathering inspiration elsewhere to use brick products in a different way.

No longer are companies just manufacturing bricks for homes and commercial structures, but they are also making pavers, and bringing bricks inside as focal walls.

David Frame operates the Salisbury facility while his brother, Scott Frame, operates another in Alabama.

“North Carolina has a long history of brick making even in Rowan County. We get the material from Gold Hill,” David said.

The materials used to make brick are clay and shale, which are patted into shape, rolled into sand, thrown into moulds, heated in a kiln up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The company not only manufactures handmade bricks, but also pavers, thin brick, and shaped bricks.

But the story of Old Carolina Handmade Brick began in 1972 with founder Dudley Frame.

The beginning

In 1942, Dudley Frame graduated with a degree in ceramic engineering from Ohio State University. He went to work for Harrop Kiln Services then joined the Army Corps of Engineers at the outbreak of WWII. He served in Africa and Europe. When the war ended, Frame returned to Ohio to work for Harrop in the design and construction of kilns and brick plants around the world.

In the mid 1950s, Dudley Frame and his wife Katherine moved to Salisbury. Dudley went to work for Miller Equipment Company to design and build kilns and brick plants. In 1963, the couple sold their home and bought a small brick plant in Piedmont, Ala.

A friend of Dudley’s, Ladd Johnson, actually came up with the idea of handmade brick. Johnson built the original plant in 1968 and in 1972 Dudley Frame bought the company.

Dudley Frame died in 2012 of a brain aneurysm, leaving his sons to continue the family business.

The products

Architects are knowledgeable of what’s popular in the brick industry, Frame said, so when they shifted toward bringing bricks indoors, the company shifted toward providing thin bricks for focal walls.

Old Carolina is also using bricks as part of  interior design features and outdoors including brick chips that are used similarly to mulch. Thin brick, which is a brick whose front is sawed off can then be used like tile to line a back splash in a kitchen, or in a vaulted ceiling, or as the interior of a bathroom.

Old Carolina Brick works with 150 distributors across the country who put the products in the hands of designers, architects and contractors nationwide from North Carolina to Brazil.

Charleston and Savannah are the company’s biggest markets, but they also have numerous historical restorations in Monticello, Mount Vernon, and Georgetown.

For more information about Old Carolina Brick Company visit its website at www.handmadebrick.com or call 704-636-8850.