Dyer Limestone Kiln

Bellevue and the surrounding area became well known for the production of high-quality lime beginning in the mid-1800s. In May 1875 some 3,500 bushels of Bellevue lime ash were delivered to Lansing for construction of the state’s capitol building. Around 1867, Thomas Roberts and Charles Dyer arrived in the area and took up work as lime burners. Roberts boarded at the home of Philinda Sturdivant, from whom they purchased this plot of land in 1877. The two men constructed the Dyer Limestone Kiln on this site, and it began operations in 1880. This “perpetual” kiln kept the fuel and materials burning while the finished lime was drawn out of the bottom of the structure. This process created a superior product compared to the more common “mixed feed system” kilns.

[Back]: Charles Dyer and Thomas Roberts operated the Dyer Limestone Kiln full time for eight months out of the year with the work of five employees until Roberts’s death in 1888. Dyer formed a new partnership with John Hall and founded Bellevue Lime Works in the early 1890s. The kiln ceased operations in 1899, when the Michigan Alkali Company bought the area’s quarry lands. Alkali sent crushed limestone via rail to larger, more efficient kilns in Wyandotte. This site was later owned by the Portland Cement Company and then the Alpha Portland Cement Company. While most of the structure’s wood elements weathered away, much of the granite, limestone, and firestone remain in place. The roof above the chimney was installed in 1994 to prevent further deterioration.