Masonry Dating

Masonry construction has retained much its historic character since even today masons continue to assemble brick walls by hand one brick at a time. However, the elaborate bonding patterns once seen in structural brick bearing walls became less common (after the late nineenth and early twentieth century period) as composite brick veneer walls became a dominent form of building construction.

An important dating indicator is the transition from hand-made bricks assembled with soft lime mortar to machine-made bricks with hard mortar. The transition to harder bricks and mortar began in the 1880s with the introduction of Portland cement.


	Masonry Structural System Masonry construction has retained much its historic character since even today masons continue to assemble brick walls by hand one brick at a time. However, the elaborate bonding patterns once seen in structural brick bearing walls became less common (after the late nineenth and early twentieth century period) as composite brick veneer walls became a dominent form of building construction. An important dating indicator is the transition from hand-made bricks assembled with soft lime mortar to machine-made bricks with hard mortar. The transition to harder bricks and mortar began in the 1880s with the introduction of Portland cement.
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