Fire and Clay: How Bricks Reveal the Hidden History of Chicago

by Will Quam

A remarkable exploration of Chicago’s architectural history through the humble brick.
 
By the late 1920s, at its peak of brick making and consumption, Chicago was making over a billion bricks a year for its buildings and importing almost another billion nicer face bricks for their front facades. Throughout Chicago’s history, brick dramatically transformed from a simple fireproof building material into an integral piece of architectural design. And no one knows the hidden details and stories of this fascinating history like Chicago’s foremost brick aficionado, Will Quam.
 
In Fire and Clay, Quam takes us on journeys to experience the beauty and mystery of Chicago’s buildings. He also explores how developers, architects, and masons followed changing fashions as they designed and built the city, creating connections across disparate neighborhoods. The red bricks that make up Lincoln Park mansions, for example, are the same as those found on Pullman row homes and Pilsen workers’ cottages, just as Rogers Park’s colorful bricks can also be found far across the city in South Shore. Known for his popular walking tours, Quam has built his life around the appreciation, study, and evangelizing of this most humble building block’s many wonders. Here, he pours all his knowledge into the first book of its kind, beautifully illustrated with more than one hundred of his own full-color photographs.
 
More than just an investigation into brick, Fire and Clay gives readers a fresh lens through which to explore the city anew and find clear connections across its different neighborhoods. By the end of this lively tour through Chicago’s history, readers will never look at a brick building the same way again.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Architecture

320 pages, Hardcover

Published April 23, 2026

Reviews

[Tony]

Why did I buy a book about bricks? I have no idea, but I’m so glad I did. Why does the author have an obsessive interest in bricks? I have no idea but I’m so glad he did.

The painstaking research put into this book isn’t surprising, but that it’s so accessible, interesting, and funny is what sets it apart.

Many buildings are featured that I had walked past countless times, but never really saw until reading this book. It also will provide a seemingly endless amount of rabbit holes. For example, the Independence Bank building led to my own deep dive into its one-time designation as the largest black-owned bank in the county.

It also humanizes the creation of bricks by taking you into the lives of those who made them by hand (until their finger tips burned off). So often I have an interest in subject matter like this, but it’s written in a scholarly manner than drains the life and entertainment out of it. Not here. This books rocks (pun possibly intended).

I also need to mention the fantastic binding and construction of the book. It easily opens and lays flat, which is important (and routinely skimped on) for books that are presenting visual imagery.

[Bob]

I may never walk around my old Chicago neighborhood again without seeing those familiar houses and apartments in a whole new way.
For that matter, I'll be looking with new eyes and a broadened scope of history everywhere I see the walls of Chicago's bungalows, banks, beer joints, bookstores, bakeries, bistros — you name it — scanning the facades for types of brick and bricklaying pattern and so much more that Will Quam's research imparts.
Who knew there was so much diversity in bricks?
Who knew you could mark eras in history by the type and style of brick and how they were used?
Quam's text is nicely illustrated with large photos of the structures he describes, and the only complaint one might make is that the book could use even more photos. His writing whets your appetite, and you'll to want to see more perfectly what his words depict.
There's great, interesting information here. I wouldn't be surprised if "Fire and Clay" showed up on the must-read list for those studying to become architects.

[Viral]

This book was a beautiful look at the importance of brick in the making of modern Chicago. From the early houses and buildings it built in the mid to late 1800s, to its dominance in the early 1900s, to its steady fading over time but still use in some modern construction, the story of Chicago can be told through its brick. Quam did an excellent job researching so much about how brickmaking and bricklaying works, how changes in technologies and opportunities made the Chicago common brick the staple of Chicago construction, and how and why it faded and what that means for the maintenance of her older buildings. The book is full of many beautiful images of brick buildings across the city that are directly shouted out at various times. An excellent, approachable, interesting piece of history. Highly recommend!

[Roberta]

Building with bricks equals the history of Chicago. As a history nerd, very interesting book! And as participant in the author’s tours, he successfully brings the passion in his subject into print form.

[Jesse]

Great book, super interesting history *of Chicago via brick architecture* but also just of brick buildings and some of what goes into building and maintaining them.

[Mary Miller]

Chicago and bricks - interesting study.

[Larry Perez]

Informative and educational. Who knew bricks can be fascinating!