Roosevelt Scott: A forty-year career in the art of brick masonry
Roosevelt Scott inspects the placement of bricks leading the City of Darlington’s rose garden on Pearl Street.
Photo by Jana E. Pye
By Jana E. Pye, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Craftsman become artisans through long hours of practice and a discerning eye for detail.
Darlington native Roosevelt Scott has been a brick mason for 40 years, and is certainly one of the finest artisans. He recently completed a new walkway from the City of Darlington Administration building on Pearl Street to the lovely rose garden and fountain area between that building and the Council of Aging location, directly across from Piggly Wiggly.
Scott’s interest in the craft came from Earl Johnson, a former bricklayer and mayor in Darlington.
“He was my inspiration for going into masonry,” said Scott. “I had a football scholarship to the Trade School in Denmark, at Vorhees College.”
The school is now the Denmark Technical College.
“It’s a dying art,” he said. “We don’t have any young people to take it over now. And the schools dropped it from their curriculum. Not everyone can be doctors and lawyers… someone has to build houses. It’s an excellent trade, but there is no one doing that.”
A program with the Darlington County School District to teach bricklaying is no longer operating. The closest place now is at the Sumter County School District’s Career and Technology Center.
“It’s a shame,” says Scott. “We don’t have any of the craftsmen, none of those arts in school anymore.”
He admits it is not easy work, and as with all construction work, depends on the weather and workers must work in uncomfortable temperatures.
Attempts to entice his son, Cheveron Scott, into the family business didn’t pan out.
“He told me he wanted to take a year off from school, and find out what he wanted to do with is life. After he worked for me over the summer, I told him, ‘Well, son, this is what you will be doing the rest of your life’ and he said, ‘No, sir, I believe I’ll go on to school’” Scott laughs. “He went on to law school. He practices in Darlington, teaches paralegals at FDTC and is a judge at the beach.”
Both Scotts are members of the Order of Elks of the World.
For the project for the walkway on Pearl Street, Scott said the process took about four weeks with a team of four workers. He prefers to train his employees, “they have on the job training with me” and most of his crew has been with him between 10 – 15 years.
The walkway surface is leveled first, shooting a grade to determine where the water will flow. A cement foundation is poured, and leveled. Bricks are laid out; this specific brick walkway is a herringbone pattern. They are then allowed to settle, and the crew returns to grout them in place, working with a section about 8 feet at a time.
Brick walkway in progress by Roosevelt Scott’s crew in Darlington, S.C.
Photo by Jana E. Pye
Scott uses bricks purchased by Palmetto Brick in Florence, a company that is over a century years old started by J.L. Anderson on the shores of the Great Pee Dee River valley, the largest family-owned brick maker in South Carolina, producing more than 150 million brick per year. According to the company, they remain one of only a handful of American-owned and operated brick manufacturers in the U.S.
In addition projects like this, Scott Construction does commercial contracting and repairs, and goes gutter and curbing contracts for the State of South Carolina “like catch basins, and so forth” keeping him very busy.
“I’m getting older,” said Scott. “My son said it’s time to set to the table, but I’m not ready to slow down yet.”
Scott surveys the work, and instructs his crew to clean up to check on another project.
“We as Americans are losing out in our trades,” said Scott. “Hate to say it, but we are losing out by not teaching the arts like landscaping, roofing, masonry. Young people are losing out. They need it back in the schools. We are losing a lot skills, and there won’t be guys like me to teach them.”
Roosevelt Scott, brick mason in Darlington, S.C. for over forty years.
Jana E. Pye
Completed brick walkway by Scott Construction located at the City of Darlington rose garden on Pearl Street in Darlington, S.C.
Photo by Jana E. Pye