METHOD
Originally, the bricks were to be measured digitally using 3D-scan data in order to access as much of the building as possible. However, the level of precision afforded by digital measurement was decided to be inappropriate for bricks that were crafted by hand. Therefore, only measurements documented by hand were included in this analysis. Bricks manufactured today use nominal imperial units, as they would have done in the 18th and 19th-century building campaigns of Monroe Hill. The field measurements also use imperial units for this reason. A tolerance of 1/4” was chosen to account for physical variables such as erosion or paint build-up over time. Rounding to the nearest 1/4” was performed in the field as measurements were taken.
Thirty-two patches of bricks were measured across the site, with a focus on broad patches associated with building campaigns rather than the infill patches of blocked-in openings. In each patch, twenty bricks were measured with an attempt to evenly spread the sample across several courses of brick; for example, four bricks per course across five courses of brick.
The majority of exterior bricks are painted, so painted bricks were preferred in all sample patches to reduce variables. Although due to paint coverage, measurements largely depended on touch in addition to sight to determine the outline of a single brick exclusive of mortar.
For each sample, the process involved:
-
Photographing the patch;
-
Noting the bonding pattern;
-
Noting any interesting adjacencies;
-
Sketching the patch and labeling bricks;
-
Recording measurements to the nearest 1/4”.
After each field measurement was completed, the brick dimensions were recorded in a spreadsheet and statistical analyses such as Average, Standard Deviation, and Mode were calculated.
