Europe began to form, the art of making brick spread all 
over the continent, but was carried to a very high state of 
development in Northern Italy, Southern France, Northern 
Germany, and the Netherlands, where good building stone 
was scarce, but clay was abundant. 
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries brick en- 
joyed a wide vogue in the erection of the great Gothic 
structures of that period, and was freely used in the 
erection of cathedrals, municipal buildings, palaces of 
the nobles, and residences of the wealthy classes. The 
brick making industry in England dates from the time of 
Henry VIII, and was highly developed under Flemish in- 
fluences. The brick vogue in England continued to expand 
until the days of Queen Anne and the Georges, when it 
reached wonderful proportions, and many fine English 
country houses of that period still remain to testify to the 
taste of the architects and the durable and satisfying 
nature of the workmanship. 
Much adobe construction was found on the American 
continent, especially in Mexico and Peru, when the Europ- 
eans first began to penetrate into those interiors, but aside 
from these early uses of clay, the first brick used on this 
side of the Atlantic Ocean came from England or Holland, 
and was brought over with other articles needed in the 
American wilderness by the pioneers. But in the seven- 
teenth century the native American brick industry was 
started, and the Colonial times saw many fine specimens 
of brick building, from New England in the North, to 
Virginia in the South. Up to about the year 1880, however, 
there was no general attempt to use brick to the best ad- 
vantage. Previous to that time, the brick building was 
confined to the use of common brick for ordinary construc- 
tion, or for backing stone-faced walls. From the date 
mentioned, to the present time, a growing taste has de- 
manded and secured artistic effects in the brick wall, by 
the use of especially manufactured face brick, which, in a 
bewildering variety of beautiful color tones and textures, 
have been sympathetically and artistically treated by 
leading architects, all over the United States. as well as in 
other countries.