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City Brick Company
History
The City Brick Company probably began operations around 1922, based on one of their bricks
that was stamped with the year 1922, which was found recently by David Garcia in a building being
demolished in San Pedro. The earliest listing of this company in the Los Angeles city
directories was 1924, which shows that the company office was at 4354 West Third St. The
plant stood at 1900 West Manchester Avenue (86th St.) and Western St., Los Angeles. Another
company by the name of the City Brick Company was started earlier in 1886 in Chavez Ravine
by Hubbard, Simons, and Goss, but it is doubtful that the two companies are related because
the former company was purchased by a brick trust in 1900 and closed, and their plant locations
are different.
The clay is a surface deposit of loose sandy loam. It was mined in a shallow pit by horse
scrapers, which delivered the material to an incline tram. The clay was dumped into a hopper,
which fed a disintegrator and pug mill. A six-brick press was used to mold the bricks using
the soft-mud process. The brick was then carried to the drying sheds by rope conveyors. After
drying, the brick was fired in gas-fired open kilns. Because of the low strength of the brick,
handling loss at this plant was high.
Apparently this company had its problems and had long periods inactivity. The plant was
permanently closed in 1928.
City Brick
View of the brand name raised in a frog on the bottom face of the brick. Donated by David Garcia.
View of the top face of the City brick, showing a longitudinal strike and pitted surface.
View of one of the sides of the City brick with its prominent lip around the top edge.
Note also the abundant white quartz in the broken interior on the upper right corner.
Common brick is dark red, uniform color, sanded with flashy mica on surfaces. Edges are sharp, but
slightly undulating, corners are slightly rounded. Sides display a prominent 1/4 inch thick lip along
the top edge, stack indentions and transverse cracks. No visible clasts on sides or ends, but interior
on broken surfaces and top face shows the presence of rounded to subrounded iron-stained white quartz,
up to 1/4 inch across. Top face displays a longitudinal strike and is highly pitted. Bottom face is flat
and centered with a 1/8 inch deep rectangular frog with beveled sides, 6 3/4 inches long and 2 3/4 inches
high. The name "CITY BRICK Co." is centered in the bottom of the frog as raised block letters except
the "o". The name spans 6 1/8 inches and the letters are 1 1/8 inches high, except for the "o", which is
7/8 inch high. Sand-struck, soft-mud process. Length 8 5/8, width 3 3/4, height 2 3/8.
Source
Crawford, J.J. "Los Angeles County". California State Mining Bureau
Twelfth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, 1894, p. 381.
Dietrich, Waldemar F. "Los Angeles County". California State Mining Bureau
Bulletin 99, 1928, p. 100.
Garcia, David. Written communications, 2006.
Los Angeles City Directories, 1884-1928.
Symons, Henry H. "California Mineral Production for 1928." California State Division of Mines
Bulletin 102, 1929, p. 169.
Copyright © 2006 Dan Mosier
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Comments or questions are welcomed.
Please send email to Dan Mosier at danmosier@earthlink.net.