Arizona Contractor & Community Fall 2015 V4 I3

ACC: Who were your competitors over the years? DC: The biggest competitor was Western Clay Products, which was based in Tempe and closed long ago. There was also Wallapi Brick Company located on West McDowell Road. Wallapi Brick had the contract for supplying brick for original construction of the Reynolds Aluminum plant on 35th Avenue and Van Buren Street. The demand was so large that PBY was asked to help fill the order. ACC: What were the peak years for brick production? DC: During the mid-to-late 1950s, Hallcraft Homes was the only builder using our red brick for their housing developments. Wallapi Brick supplied Hallcraft's West Plaza housing development, while PBY supplied the East Valley at Hallcraft's Park Scottsdale Subdivision off Hayden Rd. Hallcraft's production at that time was three-to-four house brick shells constructed per day using PBY's Ideal Bond five-by-eight inch red brick. ACC: When did other types of building materials overtake bricks? DC: After World War II, Superlite Block became a massive supplier of building materials for commercial and residential projects. During the mid-to-late 1970s, the masons went on strike and builders converted to constructing homes with stick framing and stucco. ACC: What was PBY’s distribution area? DC: Wherever there was a need for brick we delivered. The majority was in Arizona, a little in California, and in the 1970s and 1980s a lot was furnished to Las Vegas. ACC: What was PBY’s largest order? CK: The Chateau on Central used a modular brick equivalency totaling over two million bricks. ACC: What was the most unusual structure you’ve seen built with brick? CC: I recall going to my grandfather Archibald's house on East Roanoke Street in Phoenix where there was an aboveground pool built out of solid brick. ACC: Who was PBY’s most unusual customer? DC: A man came into the sales office asking about clay roofing tiles with a PBY stamp for a vintage Phoenix house he was restoring. We only made clay roofing tiles for a few years in the early 1940s. ACC: Any other intriguing memories about PBY? DC: In the 1950s, the federal

Arizona Contractor & Community Fall 2015 V4 I3 | Page 52