By Marilyn May
Milford History
A loaded truck pulls out of the Milford Concrete Products yard on Honek Street. Stacks of concrete blocks can be seen in the background. Photo courtesy of Irene Nolan.
If you are a person of a certain age (let’s say 70), you may remember seeing a black and white film about Milford when you were in grammar school in the early 1950s. There is a scene in it about a brick factory. Over the years lots of people have said that it did not look like it was in Milford. And they were right. Just about everything said about a brick manufacturing site, supposedly in Milford, is wrong. No bricks were manufactured here.
To see the film made in 1948, go to avgeeks.com/u-s-community-and-its-citizens-earth-and-its-people. The misleading part on Milford bricks is about 10 minutes 50 seconds into the 20-minute film.
There was, however, a Milford Concrete Products on Honek Street. The company never made bricks and never used clay. There was no clay pit near Jonathan Law High School, according to Jacquie Honek, whose father, Charles, and his brother, William, founded the concrete block manufacturing operation in the early 1940s. It was one of Milford’s most successful industries and was sold in 1979.
In the 1973 Jonathan Law High School yearbook there is an ad for Milford Concrete Products listing their products: “LAVA-LITE, ROK-LITE and Concrete Building Block.”
LAVA-LITE is a trade name for light-weight masonry material the company introduced in 1958. It was made from pumice imported from Greece and was resistant to moisture and fire.
“A freighter would come into Bridgeport harbor, my father would hire 50 independent truckers, and it took them three days to empty the ship,” said Jacquie Honek. There were 35 million pounds of pumice that had to be moved.
Charles Honek with some of the 35 million pounds of pumice being delivered to his company, Milford Concrete Products. It came from a barren island in the Aegean. Blocks of this material were used to build the Coliseum, Pantheon and the Mosque of St. Sophia in Istanbul. Photo courtesy of Irene Nolan.
Her family became friends with the captain and enjoyed meals of Greek food with him on board his ship, the Taka. “He would even bring my father gifts from Greece” she said, pointing to an exquisite plate and vase.
Pumice, the basic ingredient of LAVA-LITE, was granite turned molten and frothy by volcanic action in ancient times. When it cooled, small pellets encapsulating inert air were formed, making the material very light. LAVA-LITE blocks were used in many buildings in Connecticut.
Another product was ROK-LITE, a medium-weight block made from an ash aggregate. The concrete blocks were the heaviest.
“Milford Concrete Products was very progressive and a leader in the building industry in its day,” the younger Honek said. “Dad worked six-plus days a week, employed many and helped others to get started in business. He also believed in ‘giving back’ and donated to a lot to local non-profit service agencies.”
So, what about the 1948 film? Where was that footage shot? Joe Honek, Jacquie’s cousin, said that it was likely filmed in North Haven at Stiles Brickyard.
Marilyn May is a lifelong resident of Milford and is on the board of the Milford Historical Society.