Man Gets Record For World’s Largest Collection Of Bricks

 An Oklahoma man’s family surprised him with a Guin­ness World Record for his collection of 8,882 unique bricks.

Clem Reinkemeyer, 87, was out of town when his daughter, Celia, and son-in-law, Dan Bisett, organised a group of friends to count and docu­ment every item in his Tulsa brick barn.

When Reinkemeyer returned home, he was surprised to find an of­ficial certificate for the world’s largest brick collection.

“When I got back in town, it was a huge surprise, and I am overjoyed to have this certificate,” he told Guinness World Records.

Reinkemeyer’s collection, which he has been building for 40 years, includes a Roman brick from A.D. 100, but the majority dates from the last few hun­dred years.

“The break tide for making the bricks was around 1870 to 1910,” he said. “A special type of brick like this has a heat-resistant clay, and everyone needed a fireplace.”

He stated that some of his most valuable bricks have misspellings, such as “Tulsa” with a backward “s.”

“I believe Oklahoma has a history of the most misspelt bricks,” he stated. “I do not know why.”

The collector said one of his favou­rites is a pavement brick made at a Washington facility near where the Pentagon now stands.

“There could be some of these un­derneath the Pentagon,” he said. “But I believe this is one of a kind.”

He said bricks interest him because of the history they contain.

“What appealed to me about bricks was that they have names and can be traced back historically to specific lo­cations, which has always piqued my interest.” It is unusual, but I enjoy it,” he said.