Did you know that Columbia used to be home to several brickworks and quarries? Not just the one that still operates on Creasy Springs Road, but several others.
The Boone County History & Culture Center is looking for old bricks.
In 2014, I was privileged to interview the now late Liz Kennedy whose family owned Columbia’s last operating brickworks Columbia Brick and Tile that closed in 1984. She said at one time that brickworks turned out 35,000 bricks a day and had 35 workers on the payroll. That brickworks was once known as the Edwards-Conley Brick and Tile and was owned by W.E. Edwards and Sanford Conley.
The quarry, she said, was located roughly where Lowe’s and Walmart on Conley Road are today.
Here’s the entire article on Columbia’s quarries.