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CALIFORNIA BRICKS
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California Brick Company
W. S. Dickey Clay Manufacturing Company
History
In 1913, the California Brick Company reopened the defunct plant of the Oakland Paving Brick Company, which
along with its associated clay pit, straddled the Niles (Fremont) and Decoto (Union City) city-limit line.
The California Brick Company was incorporated in June 1913 at Oakland with a capital
stock of $400,000, by M. M. Birmingham, H. A. Kunz, and J. F. Locke. C. E. Fuller was manager of the plant
and was previously manager of the Buffalo Paving Brick Company in Buffalo, Kansas. A sales office was set up
in the Phelan Building in San Francisco, with L. R. McKenzie as the sales manager.
This company specialized in paving brick, but also made common brick, face brick, and partition hollow tile. Over
the next year, the plant underwent a major remodeling effort to place it on a profitable basis. New
machinery were installed including an improved auger machine for paving brick, new dry pans, a large
continuous kiln with 16-foot chambers and a flue to take waste heat from the kilns to the drying tunnels,
new handling machinery, a 10-ton traveling crane for both the plant interior and the yard, and a well
equipped laboratory with a complete set of recording instruments. By May 1914, the California yard employed
100 workers. Shipments of 90,000 fire brick were made to Vancouver, British Columbia, sewer brick to
Berkeley, paving brick to Oakland and Modesto, and common building brick supplied the Masonic Home
in Decoto and some of the buildings in the San Francisco Presidio.
By 1920, this operation became a California branch of the W. S. Dickey Clay
Manufacturing Company, based in Kansas City, Missouri, which began in 1885 by Walter S.
Dickey. 
N. A. Dickey was
the president and manager of the California Brick Company, and A. C. Meyers was the plant
superintendent, G. C. Thomas was the terra cotta engineer. E. B. Stoddard was the sales
manager. The San Francisco office was at 604 Mission St. and the Oakland office was at 351
12th St. and later at 2053 Webster. They also had a warehouse at 105 Jackson St., Oakland.
The plant was called Dickey's plant no. 18. It contained three dry pans, two
stiff mud machines, one dry press, and four repress machines. The bricks were dried in the
dryers supplied with waste heat from the kilns. The bricks were fired in two Haigh continuous
kilns, each 600 feet long and containing 42 chambers, connected by a large tunnel. A large
overhead traveling electric crane was used for loading. Crude oil fueled the kilns. The plant
had a 40,000 brick per day capacity. Between 75 and 150 men were employed.
View of the California Brick Company Plant no. 18 near Decoto and Niles. (From Oakland Tribune Year Book 1922)
This plant produced dark red paving brick, sewer brick, common brick, face brick, red ruffled
face brick, flue linings, drain tile, pressed brick, paving blox, roofing tile, bungalow building
blox, architectural terra cotta, and a hollow partition tile known as "Dickey Mastertile". The
Dickey Mastertile was used in all Class A buildings in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and
other cities in Northern California, including for example the Livermore and Palo Alto veteran
hospitals, U. C. Berkeley student union building, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Mills
Tower, and the Alexander Building in San Francisco.
Advertisement from Architect and Engineer 1924.
The "California" red paving brick, which is the logo for this website, was used in the Alden and
Golden Gate branch libraries in Oakland. Face brick was used in the Niles State Bank in Niles
(Fremont). The Dickey 12-inch red ruffled face brick was used in the Santa Clara Union High
School. Roofing tile was used in the San Francisco Hospital.
View of the Haigh continuous kiln (From Oakland Tribune Year Book 1922).
In 1920, a service yard was opened at 7th and Hooper streets in San Francisco, where they carried a full
line of products from the California brick plant as well as from the affiliated
Livermore Fire Brick Works. The Livermore plant (Dickey no. 19) supplemented the products with mainly
fire brick, enamel and ornamental brick, and mantel and tile.
In 1926, the California Brick Company name was changed to W. S. Dickey Clay Manufacturing
Company. When Walter S. Dickey died on January 22, 1931, there were fears of plant closures.
Then N. A. Dickey, the president, announced his retirement in June 1931. He was replaced by
E. C. Moore. In 1932, Lester Duffy was the plant manager with 45 employees. The Dickey plant
continued to operate until it closed in 1937. The brick property was purchased by the Pacific
States Steel Company, which replaced the old brick works with their own plant. Pacific States
Steel operated their plant until 1978, when it was abandoned. In 2004, after razing the old
plant and cleanup of the toxic ground, a new housing development was built over the site.
Advertisements from Architect and Engineer 1920.
California Brick
Paving Brick
View of the California red paving brick at Golden Gate Library, Oakland.
View of the California red paving brick at Golden Gate Library, Oakland.
View of the California red paving brick at Golden Gate Library, Oakland.
View of the California red paving brick top face.
California paving brick came in a wide range of colors: dark red, red, orange-red, orange, and
yellow-orange. The surface is smooth and flat and displays transverse grooves on the sides and ends
and curved wire cut marks on the faces. Some are flashed with white or light yellow, and some
of the overburned brick display a black, blistered surface. Stack indentations are evident on
some sides. A few rounded white feldspar and subrounded gray quartz up to 1/4 inch across are visible on
the surface. Minor pitting and cracking may be present on some. The top and bottom edges around the
faces are camphored with repressed marks. The short edges around the sides are rounded. The bottom face
may display numerous, equally spaced, longitudinal discontinous grooves, which may be impressions
from the off-bearing conveyor belt. The top face contains the centered impressed name "CALIFORNIA"
in block letters that span 7 inches and is 1 inch high. Raised lugs 1 inch in diameter are at each
of the four corners on the same top face. Not all of the paving bricks were branded with the name.
This brick is heavy, weighing 7 lbs. Extruded, stiff-mud process.
Length 8 3/8 - 8 1/2, width 4 1/4 - 4 3/8, height 3 1/8 - 3 1/4.
Pressed Face Brick
View of the Dickey pressed face brick at the Niles State Bank, Fremont.
Dickey pressed face brick is buff to golden in color. The surface is smooth with minor crazing and
faint transverse striations on the sides and ends. Flat with straight edges. The edges around the top and
bottom faces are camphored with repressed marks. The short edges around the sides are rounded. The top
and bottom faces could not be observed for description.
Hollow Partition Tile
View of the hollow partition tiles, California Brick Co. (left) and Dickey MasterTile (right).
View of the hollow partition tile with "CALIFORNIA BRICK CO. S.F." brand mark.
View of the hollow partition tiles with "DICKEY MASTERTILE" brand mark.
The hollow partition tile is orange red to red containing white specks of feldspar up to 1/16 inch across.
One large face is smooth with longitudinal grains and striations. The other face and two sides contain
several 1/2 inch wide longitudinal grooves spaced 1/2 inch apart. One of the sides is impressed in thin
1/2 inch high lettering either "CALIFORNIA BRICK CO. S.F." or "DICKEY MASTERTILE" in a repetitive string. The
hollow tile is 3/4 inch thick. California Brick Co. hollow partition tile measurements are length 11 3/8,
width 3 5/8, height 5 5/8. Dickey Mastertile measurements are length 11 5/8, width, 3 3/4, height 5 5/8.
Source
American Ceramics Society Bulletin, v. 39, no. 5, 1960, p. 275.
Architect and Engineer, Feb. 1920, p. 135.
Architect and Engineer, July 1924, p. 22.
Architect and Engineer, June 1931, p. 79.
Architect and Engineer, Nov. 1924, p. 22.
Architect and Engineer, Oct. 1924, p. 22.
Architect and Engineer, Sept. 1924, p. 22.
Brick and Clay Record, Sept. 15, 1913, p. 603.
Brick and Clay Record, Oct. 21, 1913, p. 823.
Brick and Clay Record, Feb. 3, 1914, p. 383.
Brick and Clay Record, March 7, 1914, p. 609.
Brick and Clay Record, Sept. 1, 1914, p. 511.
California State Mining Bureau Report 17, 1920, p. 18-19.
Livermore Herald, Nov. 8, 1913, p. 7.
Niles Register, Aug. 25, 1932, p. 1
Oakland City Directories, 1923-1927.
Oakland Tribune Annual Year Book, 1922.
Oakland Tribune Annual Year Book, 1923.
San Francisco City Directories, 1914-1929.
Copyright © 2006 Dan Mosier
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Please send email to Dan Mosier at danmosier@earthlink.net.