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 Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Differences between Contractors and Subcontractors (clip)

Charles Brooks: Subcontractors usually they are not licensed, especially for like my grandfather and my father, they were carpenters. So, like when I say they subbed that means they would go in once the foundation was put in on a house, they would go in and do all of the framing, do all of the…

 Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Working with Homeowners (clip)

Charles Brooks: I mean they would come to my father and grandfather with a set of plans, they would go from there. Sometimes you had to deviate from the plans to save money. But they definitely had to work hand in hand with the owners to find what they had and couldn’t have. They definitely dealt…

 Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Giving Back (clip)

Charles Brooks: My father and grandfather, their pricing would always be a lot lower than if they had gone to a larger contractor. So, a lot of people we did work for, we, my grandfather and my father, saved them a lot of money. Vernelle Brooks Jones: So, I will just add to that, that unfortunately…

 Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Family Legacy (clip)

Vernelle Brooks Jones: I would say that you know they were very persistent in their trade. In spite of the lack of funds and lack of opportunities and all the other things that go around that, they ended up being successful builders. And to this day, the legacy of what they did years ago is still…

 Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Subdivision (clip)

Charles Brooks: For me, I would say a lot of hard work. Back then if you had your own business you had to put a lot of hard work into it and there was a lot to overcome as far as finances if you wanted to go out and do stuff on your own, it was kind of hard to get the financing to do things, so I…

 Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Young People Going into Construction Today (clip)

Charles Brooks: As far as young people getting into this right now. You don’t really see a lot of people going into the trades, like becoming plumbers, carpenters. For one thing the pay scale, I mean everything, it’s like everyone wants to do IT work, sit at home, got your computer, making a lot of…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Pride in His Work (clip)

William Smith: I was not an academic person so building was something that I could do and I could look at it after it was finished and brag about it because it was hands on and I enjoyed doing things with my hands. Danielle Dulken: And when you say brag about it, you must have been very good at…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Learning Brick and Stone Masonry (clip)

William Smith: I had a masonry class in high school for one year and that was being a brick mason. Actually, I was trained as a brick mason, and I became a stone mason in the later years. Enjoyed doing stonework because it was very creative and that was the part that really interested me.

 William “Smitty” Smith - Developing an Eye (clip)

William Smith: With brick and blocks everything is straight, it is dimensional. With stone it is not dimensional. You have to develop an eye and when we say eye, that means you can pick up a rock and find a place in the wall for it. You know? So, that is an ongoing thing. So, if you were, we’d never…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Differences between Rock Masonry and Stone Masonry (clip)

William Smith: The term, “stone mason” is misunderstood. Sometimes, basically what we did in the local area is we were rock masons. Stone masons are different. Being a stone mason, you have to cut, shape, and make the stones fit. Rock mason is not that way. You just take a rock as it is and lay it…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Arts and Science (clip)

William Smith: The art form is designing a project and having a finished project. The science is whether you are going to use S type model or pouring the cement. In some cases, you can do a rock wall that has neither mortar mix or concrete. It has no mortar at all, so there is a difference. So, if…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Self Taught (clip)

William Smith: After I married, I decided to go into business for myself, and we did that and then we began to try to do that. I only did bricks. After then, I was approached on a job at the Carolina Inn by my boss and he asked if you could lay rocks, and I only had one answer and that was “yes.”…

 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…