Hi - I wanted to follow up on my hollow tile requests i placed a few
months past.  After tons o' research I have found the story of my
tiles.  For those interested here is an abbreviated version, for those
really interested I can e-mail you my full paper when it is done (20
some pages - some graphics).

When the tiles were first introduced back in 1900-1910 they were called
"terra cotta hollow tiles".[Though they are large blocks, I believe they
were called tiles to differentiate them from concrete blocks]  A main
promoter of using the hollow tiles for homes was the National Fire
Proofing Company who did a lot of fireproofing of skyscrapers after the
Chicago Fire using terra cotta to encase the steel.  The first articles
and ads appear around 1909 for hollow tiles for the home. They are most
often promoted with the idea that one would cover them over with
stucco.  Indeed there are probably many teens and 1920s homes made of
them and stuccoed over, there are in DC. The drama picks up in 1913 when
an architect named Frederick Squires writes an entire book with great
passion and dramatic prose called "The Hollow Tile House."[the book has
photos of a tile factory in Perth Amboy NJ and shows all the steps in
the hollow tile making process.] IN this book he claims to have invented
the "Texture-Tile" which is the type I've been looking at - (and he adds
he built the first house of it - a bungalow in New Jersey).  The texture
tile is a terra cotta block measuring approx. 12" long 5" wide. They
come with two textures, one is like a rough brick face, done using a
wire to cut the clay with.  The other I call a crumb-cake finish is
created by placing grog on the face of the pre-fired clay.  The blocks
are then laid like bricks - giving the house a surreal look, like
monster bricks.... The houses I tried to research are in Arlington
County VA - all but one were bungalows.  They are really charming
however I could not determine who built them and where the blocks came
from - they might be local to VA. The articles on hollow tiles stop
after the 20s.  I am not sure what became of them and unfortunately do
not have the time to pursue their demise.  :) LARA DAY KOZAK
[log in to unmask]