Fun Fact Friday #1 - Another Brick in the Wall

      Before we get started on this new weekly blog I'd like to introduce myself! My name is Beth and I am a Historical Interpreter at the Backus-Page House Museum in Wallacetown, Ontario. I'm a student at Fanshawe College and love to spend my time learning new things (hence why I applied for this job haha) I'm so excited to share all these fun facts with you every Friday! I find them all interesting and fun. Don't mind my bad humour every once in a while too. I hope you enjoy and let's juts jump right into it!

      Did you know that the Backus-Page House was built with over 72,000 bricks? To put that into perspective, to build an average house today you would need an estimated amount of a little over 8,000 bricks. This is most likely due to the fact that the outer walls are very thick. The walls are approximately 2-4 bricks thick. This is to keep the house warm in the winter and cool in the summer. There was no air conditioning or heating in 1850 so people needed to find a suitable alternative.

      The bricks are, also, red in colour. This was a very desirable colour due to the rarity of red clay in this part of Canada. Most houses can be seen with yellowish colour bricks and that is because white/yellow clay is much easier found than red.

      To check out these incredible brick walls in person you can visit the Backus-Page House at:
29424 Lakeview Line, Wallacetown, ON
(519) 762-3072