CALIFORNIA BRICKS


Home Page | Brickmakers

Remillard Brick Company, Pleasanton Yard

History

In 1861, three brothers from Montreal, Canada, came to Oakland, Alameda County, California, to establish a brick yard. They were Peter N., Philip Hilaire, and Edward Remillard. Their firm was named Remillard and Brothers, and they opened an office at Clay and 2nd streets, Oakland, and a brick plant in nearby Brooklyn. In 1879, the firm incorporated to become the Remillard Brick Company. Peter N. Remillard was President, Phillip Hilaire Remillard was Vice President, and P.H. Lamoreaux was Secretary.

After establishing brick plants at Greenbrae, San Pablo, and Hayward, the Remillard Brick Company purchased the Black and Cory brick works, Pleasanton, in 1881. This property was located south of Stanley Blvd. at California Avenue, 1.5 miles east of Pleasanton. It contained 30 acres of clay deposit and field kilns. The clay was sand loam, 25 feet thick, located a quarter mile from the plant on the bank of Arroyo del Valle. Dragline scraper was used in the clay pit. Common brick made here was shipped to Oakland by the Southern Pacific Railroad, which built a spur line to the brick plant at Remillard. Three new kilns were built in 1882, and 65 men were employed. In 1890, the company purchased an additional 41 acres of land adjacent to their works, and added two 16-compartment Hoffman kilns and a large smokestack, similar to the structures seen today at their Greenbrae yard. They increased the employees to 130 for six months per year. This plant became Remillard's largest manufacturer of bricks, producing 17 million per year by 1898.

Most of the red common brick used in buildings in Alameda County from 1881 to 1935 came from the Pleasanton plant. Local examples of this brick can be seen in downtown Pleasanton at the Johnston Bldg. on Main St. and the Pleasanton Firehouse No. 1 on Railroad Avenue. In June 1935, a fire destroyed the brick plant and it was permanently closed. Remillard transfered the Pleasanton operation to San Jose, where they had another brick yard.


Remillard brick plant on Stanley Blvd., Pleasanton, as it looked
in 1906. Plant was razed in 1936. Oakland Tribune, 1906.



Remillard Brick


Johnston Building at 465 Main St., Pleasanton, was built in 1896
of Remillard brick from their Pleasanton yard.


Remillard bricks on the wall of the Johnston Building
Note the crude style of Remillard bricks made in 1896.


Common brick is dark red to red-brown, with visible white and gray clasts on the surface, which can get up to an inch or more, and abundant holes and pits. White clasts are angular rhyolite fragments and feldspar, gray clasts are quartz and metamorphic rock fragments. Yellow-brown flashing is visible on some surfaces. Some overburns are present. Rough, gritty surface texture, coated with sand grains. Irregular edges and rounded or broken corners. Lip present on the top edge of some bricks. Hand-molded, sand-struck, soft-mud process. Occasional transverse grooves on sides. Bottom face has a flat surface which looks similar in texture to the sides. Top face shows flat surface with holes and pit. Length 8 1/4 - 8 1/2, width 4 1/8, height 2 1/2.


Firehouse No. 1 in Pleasanton made of Remillard bricks.


Remillard bricks on the wall of Pleasanton Firehouse No. 1,
displaying yellow flashing. Improved quality of Remillard brick
made in 1928.


Source


Alameda County Gazette, 1881-1882.

California Division of Mines Report 11, 1893.

California Division of Mines Report 12, 1893-1894, p. 381.

California Division of Mines Report 13, 1896, p. 613.

California Division of Mines Bulletin 38, 1906, p. 242

Doss, Ann. Pleasanton. Amador-Livermore Valley Historical Society, no date.

Livemore Echo, 1890-1910.

Livermore Herald, 1934-1936.

Oakland Tribune, 1881-1906

Oakland Tribune. Alameda County. The Oakland Tribune, Oakland, 1898.

Mosier, Dan L. History of Brickmaking in the Livermore Valley. Livermore Heritage Guild Newsletter, v. 10, no. 5, February 1983.

Thompson and West. Historical Atlas of Alameda County, California. Oakland, CA, 1878.

Township Register, 1928.

Wood, M.W. History of Alameda County, California. Oakland, 1883.

Copyright © 2004 Dan Mosier

Home Page | Brickmakers

Comments or questions are welcomed.
Please send email to Dan Mosier at danmosier@earthlink.net.