All in the family: 3 generations of bricklayers build Trinity stage
Karen Mansfield
From left, Frank McAdams Jr., his son, Nicholas, and his father, Frank McAdams Sr., three generations of bricklayers, stand near a 10-unit apartment unit they bricked in the 2010s.
Karen Mansfield
From left, Casey Rogers, Frank McAdams Sr., Nicholas McAdams, and Frank McAdams Jr. stand atop a wall they are building for the Trinity High School graduation stage on the high school grounds. Frank Sr., Frank Jr., and Nicholas represent three generations of bricklayers.
When Nicholas McAdams accepts his high school diploma at Trinity High School in the spring of 2024, he will walk across an outdoor stage that he helped build with his father and grandfather.
McAdams Masonry Inc. boasts three generations of bricklayers: Frank Sr., who has worked in the masonry field for 44 years and founded his eponymous company in 1989; his son, Frank Jr., and Nicholas, who has worked part time with Frank Sr. and Frank Jr. for the past two summers.
Most recently, the three were among the contractors who worked to construct a permanent 12-by-36-foot “T”-shaped graduation stage area on the high school grounds.
The eldest McAdams also has a Trinity connection: He is a 1976 graduate of Trinity High School.
Meanwhile, Frank Jr. was born into the bricklaying craft and helped his father while he was growing up.
The younger McAdams planned to pursue a career in drafting, but after taking some classes following graduating from McGuffey High School, he realized he found more satisfaction in working with trowels and mortar than he did with T-square rulers and mechanical pencils.
“I realized I didn’t want to work in an office. I think it was just born in me, being outside, working outside,” said Frank Jr. “Growing up with my dad, I got on-the-job training.”
The McAdams’ masonry work can be seen at residential homes and commercial buildings throughout Washington, including a 10-unit apartment building – where they laid 60,000 bricks – across from Trinity High School.
Over the past two years, Nicholas has learned the fundamentals: He’s getting more fluid as he pulls bricks off a pile, “butters” them with a coat of mortar, places it on a wall, and scrapes a trowel across bricks to remove extra mortar.
Butter, place, scrape, repeat.
“I like working with them,” said Nicholas, who plans to pursue a career in the trades but probably won’t follow their footsteps into the age-old craft. “(Bricklaying) has taught me how to work hard, because it’s not easy doing all this stuff.”
Frank Sr., whose dust-caked fingers were wrapped with band-aids and tape, laughed in agreement.
“Lifting these concrete blocks lifts the skin off your fingertips. I don’t have any fingerprints anymore,” he said.
For Frank Sr., the art of bricklaying is rewarding, and he doesn’t have plans to retire anytime soon.
“What’s satisfying for me is driving by jobs that I did and saying, ‘I did that,'” he said. “That’s my trophy.”