Bricks have a long and storied history at Belmont Abbey College. We are famous for our “Carolina clay,” and from that clay came bricks for our church (1892-193), the monastery (1880’s-90’s), and our college buildings (1900-on) (Baumstein). In 1900, the college had one building – aptly named the College Building. That year, “two-thirds of the College Building is destroyed by fire” (Baumstein). The students took an active role not only in firefighting, but in the reconstruction and restoration of the ravaged building. Their work was so swift that classes in the fall started on schedule.

As a continuation of this tradition, each year the new Abbey students are invited to make bricks of their own. The bricks, each imprinted with the year the student enters the College, are being stored for future building projects on campus. While our students leave their marks on the Abbey by making bricks, our alumni participate in another way. The Lowry Alumni House at Belmont Abbey College has a brick patio, with bricks inscribed by and for alumni and their friends and families.

In the fall of 2017, Bridgette Conboy, the Alumni Director and an Abbey alumna herself, set a goal: to create a digital version of the patio. By having this “virtual patio,” the College could better preserve the information on these bricks, and our alumni and their friends and family could see “their” bricks. A few months later, and with help from Abbey librarian Sharon Bolger (a ’13 alumna), she was ready to present The Brick Directory of the Lowry Alumni House of Belmont Abbey College!

Please keep in mind that the patio is cleaned once a year in the spring. If your brick appears to need a cleaning, please rest assured that all the bricks will be cleaned in the spring and photos will be updated at that time. Photos of new bricks will be added after they have been purchased and installed.

The Brick Directory is in three parts: the database, the slideshow, and the diagrams.

Use the database to find your brick number, and to read brick inscriptions. The database is a spreadsheet that tells you each brick number, its inscription, and contains a link to the photo of the brick. (Bonus: Press CTRL + F to search the database!)

Use the slideshow to view all the photos of the bricks. (Bonus: The photos are also accessible individually in the database,  and can be shared across social media!)

Use the diagrams to see where your brick is, in relation to the patio as a whole. The diagrams are visualizations of the entire patio, and of each section of the patio. All bricks are numbered, and bricks with inscriptions are colored in. (Bonus: See whose bricks are next to yours!)

You are welcome to search the database for your name, year, or names of your friends, to share the photos online, to page through the diagrams to see where your brick is on the patio, or simply to play the slideshow to see all of the bricks.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email Bridgette at bridgetteconboy@bac.edu or call the Alumni Office at 704-461-6663.