“Their work opened doors for other African Americans, so that they were able to get contracts and do some of the work for the city and other areas.”

That’s how retired educator and Black historian Ollye Conley describes the work of Henderson and Daniel Brandon, who operated Huntsville’s most successful Black-owned business – Henderson Brandon & Son – during Reconstruction and decades afterward, beating the odds during the Jim Crow era.

The work of their masonry business can still be found around downtown Huntsville and Madison from the historic Harrison Brothers Hardware Store on Southside Square to the Baker-Helms Building at 101 Washington St. and the Humphrey Brothers Building at 112 Main Street in Madison.

The impact the father and son had on Huntsville and Madison County is being honored through the Historic Huntsville Foundation’s “Brick by Brick: The Legacy of Henderson and Daniel Brandon” as part of its “Rooted in History” exhibition series.

The exhibition opened Friday at Harrison Brothers Hardware and will run through September. It is free to the public.