Islanders Ponder Future of Brickyard Chimney

The owners of the historic chimney at the Brickyard in Chilmark are considering the future of the 45-foot tall landmark along the town’s north shore. 

A symbol of the town’s brick making past, the chimney is one of the last standing remnants of the Island factory that came to prominence in the 1860s. But now, the brick chimney is on its last legs, and the Trustees of Reservations is evaluating its options. 

In the spring of 2025, the Trustees hired several consultants to assess the structural integrity of the chimney and evaluate potential restoration designs. The consultants found interior and exterior deterioration, along with failed mortar joints. They also determined the upper portion of the chimney to be unstable. 

Restoration of the chimney would be an expensive endeavor, said Darci Schofield, director of Trustees properties on the Vineyard and Nantucket. 

“Based on the age of the infrastructure, any kind of restoration work that would be required would need to have custom-made steel staging, and that would cost $400,000,” Ms. Schofield said. “That’s just for the staging. That doesn’t include getting it out there…no matter what we choose to do, it would be at minimum a $400,000 expense.” 

The Trustees were gifted the 20-acre Brickyard property in 2014 by the descendants of Nathaniel Harris, a Boston banker who owned and operated the brick making facility there in the 1800s. 

Workers mined clay from the property and produced as many as 800,000 bricks for the Island and beyond. Bricks from the Brickyard were used for the Dukes County courthouse, mill buildings in New Bedford and Fall River, and apartment buildings in Boston and Providence.

Operations wound down in the late 19th century, and now the Brickyard remains a historic property with walking trails, stone walls and the chimney. 

The Chilmark historical commission met with the Trustees earlier this month to talk about the chimney, and the property came up at the town select board meeting. 

Historical commission chair Katie Carroll said that there are plans to hold a public meeting to open up a dialogue with the community regarding the Brickyard’s future. 

“We plan to advertise our next meeting and perhaps hold it at the community center, in a space that’s bigger,” Ms. Carroll said. “I think we would have a pretty good turnout.” 

The Trustees estimate that a full restoration of the chimney could cost more than $1 million. No one makes bricks that are the same size as the original chimney, so new ones would have to be custom made. Additionally, the renovation would require extensive work to stabilize and reinforce the mortar joints throughout the chimney. 

“The cost estimates that we received were between $825,000 and $1.2 million,” Ms. Schofield said. “Those are estimates we received in the spring of this year, so there’s a chance those numbers have increased.” 

The Trustees and community members alike recognize the Brickyard as an important piece of the Island’s identity and hope to find a way forward, Ms. Schofield added. 

“This is really an extraordinary place, and it’s very near and dear to my heart,” she said. “It’s near and dear to the Chilmark community’s heart, and we want to honor this historic significance in a way that’s very meaningful, and in a way that is also achievable financially, and makes sense for the long term.”