As Told to Jerry Neely by Rick Rechter

 In 1946, right after the war, RGI ventured into the concrete Block business in Bloomington. 

The business was the brainchild of Ralph Rogers’ son-in-law, Mr. Ben Rechter. 

Mr. Rechter viewed the business as another way to sell aggregates while strategically recognizing the advantage of having a production plant in Bloomington. Prior to that date, block was being shipped from Indianapolis and was mainly being used for basement walls. 

Mr. Rechter traveled throughout the United States – especially to Arizona – to find the best block plant equipment and plant design. He finally settled on a Besser block machine. Although that early piece of equipment was much better than a total manual production operation, it still required considerable manual labor to move the blocks through the production process. 

A considerable effort was put into training personnel on how to lay block. Bloomington was blessed with many brick and cut limestone installers but few block installers. Rogers brought in people from the Block Producers Association to train people on how to be more productive in laying block.   

Also, Rogers worked with local architects and developers to show them the advantages of block over brick and cut limestone. In a sense, they had to be convinced to get “out of the basement” and above ground.  

 At one time, Rogers even build a 1,800 square foot house on east Wiley Street to demonstrate how block could be used in building construction. Additionally, Rogers would also showcase their own block when every they built any new buildings.

Of course, Rogers also used the old water bottle on a block to show how little water a block would absorb over a 24-hour period. This enhanced everyone’s understanding of the insulation and fireproof characteristics of concrete block. 

Some years later, Rogers introduced a lightweight block product that reduced the cost of material and labor installation. 

Rogers eventually (early 1950’s) opened a second block plant in Louisville (which it sold to IMI in the 1980’s) and another plant (through an acquisition in the 1970’s) in Terre Haute, which was also sold in the 1980’s. 

The Bloomington plant was modernized in the early 1960’s. New robotic automation equipment (Builders Equipment Company of Arizona) that further reduced the labor component cost and increased productivity per hour.  

The Bloomington plant was eventually closed and operations were moved to Martinsville in the year 1998 principally because Rogers did not have enough space to expand at the old site on Adams Street. Personnel involved in the management of the Bloomington Block operation were: Ben Rechter, Gus Sieboldt, Jay Abbott, Dave EuDaly and others. Rogers Block and Wall was formed and continued to be successful.   

In 2005, Rogers Block and Wall merged with Irvins Interstate Brick and Block, a 58 year old company forming Irvin-Rogers Brick and Block, LLC. In 2006 the Irvin partners sold to Rogers Group. Rogers Group renamed the company Rogers Block with 4 block machines and 3 plants.  

The tower at the Rogers Block Headquarters at the Indianapolis location was built in 1956. Owned by Linabarry Block, Elbert Bradshaw at the time. The tower still works and stands today, viewed by thousands from the interstate that circles Indianapolis. 

As of 2008, throughout its 62 year existence, our Block business has gone from 1-plant to 3- plants to 1-plant and back to 3-plants.