This article was corrected June 29, 2012

‘Brick by brick’, the Gabriola museum’s latest exhibit featuring the Gabriola brickyard that once operated on False Narrows near Brickyard Beach,  was launched Saturday along with the museum’s return to summer visiting hours.

MP Jean Crowder, freshly returned from Ottawa, was there to officiate at the exhibit’s ribbon cutting ceremony, as were Regional Director Howard Houle, and Trustees Sheila Malcolmson and Gisele Rudischer.

Standing in front of the door of the museum to introduce the exhibit, Gabriola Historical and Museum Society (GHMS) board member Carolyn Wilkinson  said the yard “officially produced bricks from 1911 to 1952”. She said In 1920 workers in the Gabriola brickyard produced 80,000 bricks per day, for a total of 3,578,000 during the year. She said from May to November in 1942, 29 workers produced 1.9 million bricks.

A building on Stewart Avenue in Nanaimo was constructed with Gabriola brick, she added, “and still stands”.

Wilkinson thanked a number of people for making the exhibit possible including: Frank and Melanie Mamoser, Cec Ashley, Tina Turonczyn, Sheila Bradley, Warren Campbell, Ron Ewing, Anne Graves, Peter Stone, John Poirier, and David Andrews. She also thanked Gabriolan Jenni Gehlbach, and Houle for researching and writing an article on the brickyard that formed the basis of the exhibit.

GMHS Vice-president Diane Cornish also noted that an annual grant allotted by the Regional District of Nanaimo has made it possible for the society to focus on “telling the story of Gabriola”.