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 William “Smitty” Smith - Mentors (clip)

William Smith: The secret is developing an eye you know. One guy can see a rock and find a place to put it. Another guy would have something and have a problem placing the rock. It all determines in how you see that rock and how it fits in your design. Danielle: It definitely seems like a talent as…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Class Description (clip)

William Smith: Well, it was a room that had a pile of bricks, a pile of sand, and bags of lye. Just an open space. Then we had a project, and the projects began with a 6-brick lead. 6-brick lead being you lay out 6 bricks and the next course is 5, the next course is 4, the next one is 3 and that’s…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Learning the Basics (clip)

William Smith: Well, when you do projects, you do a project over and over and over, and then progress it. You start out with a six-break lead, then you’ll do a pier, then you’ll do something else, then you’ll do a fireplace. But then once, these are just basics that you learn. You don’t really learn…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Good Masonry (clip)

William Smith: That’s the very difficult question because masons, I’ll give you an example, we had a mason one time come to work with a pair of white shoes. He worked all day and when he left his shoes were still white. No mortar on them at all and the quality of his work was superb. Okay now you…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Owning a Business (clip)

William Smith: But the thing about being in business is you have to be very careful. If you’re working outside of your capacity, you’re in trouble. So, to be successful you have to stay in your capacity. Danielle Dulken: Because you’ll over promise if you’re outside of it? William Smith: Well when I…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Builders Gateway (clip)

William Smith: What I would suggest at least when they decide to do it and have a design, that they specify to use some of the old masons. They could specify that and see how it works. And even now being retired, I could put something together and put something together. But they would have to have…

 Louise Felix - Buildings Constructed by John Wesley Campbell (clip)

Louise Felix: My grandfather built the Hargraves Center and in 1924 he built Northside School and in Carrboro on Graham Street, he built those two rock houses over there. His son lived in one, he and his son, they did all the rock work themselves. So, we lived on Graham Street, 215. We lived on…

 Louise Felix - The Campbell boys (clip)

Louise Felix: Out of the boys, four. Kathryn Wall: All four boys. Do you know the names of all four boys? I know you said your Uncle Handy. Louise Felix: Uncle Leo, Uncle George, and Uncle Bill Kathryn Wall: Okay. And did any of their sons go into building with them? Louise Felix: No, after they…

 Louise Felix - Praise for work (clip)

Louise Felix: I know when the man came from State to do the job and I went over there across the street and I was talking to him and he said, I was telling him about how my grandaddy built the school. And he said, “What?” And I said, “Yeah he and all of his sons.” And he told me to come around there…

 Louise Felix - Quality of work (clip)

Louise Felix: I think my grandaddy what they were saying, you would need to ask Peter. I think he built every rock house when he was coming up there, except the one on Merritt Mill Road Road with his sons and things. Down there in front of Lincoln Center that house across the street, the rock house.…

 Albert "Bruce" Washington - Getting started (clip)

Albert “Bruce” Washington (ABW): Actually, I took it in high school, in Chatham County, Horton High School. And they used to interview us and say, “Who’s going to college?” If you weren’t going to college, they would teach you a trade – carpentry, brick masonry, all that, and it just went on from…

 Albert "Bruce" Washington - Changes (clip)

Albert “Bruce” Washington (ABW): Well, it is now, but a lot of things now is that, when I first started, it was all Black [people] doing it because it was hard, hard work, and then when the white [people] found out how much money was in it, they kind of took it over. I remember when I started, if I…

 Albert "Bruce" Washington - Family history (clip)

Yvonne Cleveland (YC): How far back does your family go in this brickmasonry? Albert “Bruce” Washington (ABW): I think it was just my uncle. YC: Just your uncle? ABW: Yeah, uh huh. And I forget who he worked for around here in Chapel Hill, but I can just remember him being around the house, filling…

 Albert "Bruce" Washington - Advice (clip)

Albert “Bruce” Washington (ABW): Well they need to make sure that they get their money for their labor. That’s what they need to do. Because the government has got it set up where you have to pay so many taxes and general liability and insurance and stuff like that, you know. So they just need to…

 Albert "Bruce" Washington - Gateway (clip)

Albert “Bruce” Washington (ABW): I would like to see something like that, you know, I would like to see the picture of George Tate and Donny Brooks, and Charles Brooks, and people like that. And David Rankins, I’d like to see, because they were the ones who started us and taught us what to…

 Dolores Clark - On the history of Black builders in her family

"They were devout Christians...and so, we survived. We survived by faith. They had a lot of faith." - Dolores Clark This interview is part of a series on Black builders in Orange County. Dolores Clark, a long-term resident of Chapel Hill, explains how her family has a history of building several…

 Eugene Farrar - Uncle James Blacknell (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): Yes, the family member in the photo is my uncle, who is my grandfather’s son, and what I know from growing up, he was a rock layer – he laid rocks – which was a really tough job. You had to break rocks and small rocks and things like that to fit – like a puzzle really. It was a…

 Eugene Farrar - Family helping family (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): I used to help when I was 12 or 13 years old, but I couldn’t handle big rocks like grown men could, but I would go out and give my hand every once and a while, and of course, I didn’t get paid, but it was a thing of family helping family. And of course, if I didn’t get paid,…

 Eugene Farrar - Early work (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): But those were days where they would start working in the morning before the sun came up and work till the sun went down in a lot of cases because they wanted to put in long hours – they were getting paid by the hour, not by the job. So – George Barrett (GB): And Mr. Farrar, you…

 Eugene Farrar - Cement (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): My daddy was a self-made cement finisher who did it for over 50 years. George Barrett (GB): What was your dad’s name? EF: Toy Farrar, Sr. And he worked in Virginia because there wasn’t any work in Chapel Hill, and he worked for the university when they were building the hospital.…

 Eugene Farrar - UNC rock work (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): You know, like I say, doing this rock work was something to behold. My grandfather did – my family and I’m sure probably some other people did it – but I do know my family laid most of the rock down on the University. And they’re still there. George Barrett (GB): And by your…

 Eugene Farrar - What makes you the best (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): Because you could trust him to do it. What makes you the best is knowing your craft. He didn’t go to school to learn how to pour cement – he taught himself how to do it. So that made him one of the “go-to” people in Chapel Hill. There were other people finishing cement – Mr. Earl…

 Eugene Farrar - Sources of rock (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): They would buy some rocks. I’m sure that they had places where they were buying them. I never knew where they bought rock and things like that. I don’t think we had a rock yard. There may have been a rock yard around here somewhere, but I don’t know where it was. They built…

 Eugene Farrar - Hard working (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): I think hard work, but struggle of course, hard work and struggle back then. Perseverance – we had to make it, so we made the best out of what we had, and that wasn’t very much. Very few cars were in Chapel Hill.