Friends of Mecom Fountain: 40,000 Yale St. Bridge Bricks Could Use Some Friends, Too

Yale St. Bridge bricks being removed, Yale St. at I-10, Heights, Houston, 77007

An indiegogo page has just been launched to crowdfund the removal and reuse of an unexpectedly large group of well-preserved 1930s bricks from the now-under-deconstruction Yale St. bridge over White Oak Bayou. The group calling itself Friends of Houston’s Yale Bridge Bricks says the funds will be used to preserve the bricks for reuse both around the bridge and elsewhere around the city.

The fundraising effort shares some organizers with Friends of the Fountain, which launched the late-February campaign to crowdfund the de-restoration and subsequent repair of the Mecom Fountain following its short-lived experiment with limestone couture. That effort raised more than $50,000 toward a $60k goal in one month; Bill Baldwin (of both Friends groups) says it the fountain’s fundraiser received over $100k in total, including offline donations. This latest round of online crowdfunding the preservation of National Register of Historic Places structures is starting the bar higher, with a goal of $100,000 shown on the fundraising page.

Photo of work on Yale St. Bridge and Memorial Park Mattress Firm: Friends of Houston’s Yale Bridge Bricks

Follow the Yale Brick Road

11 Comment

  • Isn’t using the bricks in the bridge sidewalk in txdot’s plan?

  • Oh can we just please stop with the saving bricks.

    If this adds a single hour to the bridge reconstruction I’ll be pissed.

  • The people who want to save these bricks will be the same people who complain about how long the reconstruction is taking.

  • Walked home from Great Clips (10/10, would go again) over the bridge. Few thoughts:
    1) No one working made this easy. This a Saturday thing or a rain thing?
    2) Half of the bricks alread gone (southbound lane) best I can tell
    3) The rest of the bricks are not great. This isn’t a house. They’ve been driven on for a really long time. Those potholes on the bridge? Affected the bricks too.
    4) Can’t say I’m a brick expert, but these don’t seem really worth saving. And the ones that are, rough guess is it’s less than 10k. $100k makes that $10/brick. Really?

  • There are so many other reasons to raise 100,000 . Saving bricks ? Are the bricks really reusable ?
    What about Friends of Busted Sidewalks in the Heights , is that out there ?

  • By my rough estimate I have about 23,000 bricks in the wall of my 1910 house. (Three bricks thick, and the vast majority of them are in good shape.) So if anybody wants to give me $230,000 for it, let me know…

  • all bricks matter

  • Spoon man- apparently if you prance around light on your feet and wave the jazz hands you can get it.

  • @toasty * ha ha! *

  • Maybe they can bring them over to 4th Ward so the “Save the Slave Bricks” crowd will finally let the city fix the deteriorating roads and utilities along Andrews street.

  • Try to save brick is very difficult. Assuming you my be able to salvage just the face of brick at a 15 through 25 brick per 100 they will need a lot of work for bricklayer to reuse. All side of the brick have to be trimmed to remove old mortar joints. Not all bricklayers have that talent. Not to insult my fellow brickers,but we all know how challenging that can be.