CALIFORNIA BRICKS
Brand name: C. B. T. Co.
Company: Owens Brick Co. (1922), California Brick and Tile Co. (1927), Consolidated Brick and Tile Co., Ltd. (1930), Valley Brick and Supply Co. (1943)
Location: 6159 Kester St., Van Nuys, Los Angeles County, CA
Years: 1922-1960s
Type: Common brick
Description: Brand name with raised letters within a shallow rectangular frog.
Equipment: 2 gasoline shovel, dragline, 3-ton cars, haulage trucks, 2 hoppers, 2 parallel conveyor belts, 2 dry pans, 2 bucket elevators, 2 wire screens, pug mill, auger stiff-mud extruding machine, wire cutter, drier cars, 16-track tunnel drier, 2 Hatfield-Penfield blowers, 50 hp motor, oil-fired furnace, 6 natural gas-fired field kilns, 160 hp Western gas engine.
Capacity: 750,000 to 1,000,000 brick per kiln
Production: 100,000 brick per day
Deposit: 20 acres of red and yellow clay, 20-30 ft. thick, worked by open pit.
Comments: The brick shown above is cemented into the sidewalk in front of Morts, Pacific Palisades, CA.
Source: California State Mining Bureau Bulletin 99, 1928; California Division of Mines and Geology v. 50,
no. 3-4, 1954; California Division of Mines Directory of Producers 1927-1962.
Comments or questions are welcomed.
Please send email to Dan Mosier at danmosier@earthlink.net.