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Port Costa Brick Company

History


In 1905, the Port Costa Brick Company established a brick yard about three-quarters mile east of the town of Port Costa on Carquinez Straits. The brick company was incorporated that year with $300,000 in capital stock. The directors were C.G. Berg, R.W. Spence, and Jacob Beck of Los Angeles, and E.E. Bowles and H.G. Clark of San Francisco. A bank of blue shale weathered to reddish clay was mined about 1000 feet south of the plant. This clay was mixed with clay shipped from Lincoln, California. They built a 22-compartment Hoffman continuous kiln of 40,000 brick per day capacity and 11 field kilns. In 1957, they installed a 265-foot tunnel kiln with supporting dryers and product storage area. Other equipment included two No. 3 Williams pulverizers, three 9 ft. American dry pans, revolving screens, bins, Giant auger brick machine, American No. 290 tile auger, Chambers No. 5C rotary tile cutter, Freese brick cutter, and drying sheds with a 22-tunnel oil-fired drier.

In 1920, C.G. Berg was president, W.S. Hoyt was secretary, and B.F. Ferrario was superintendent. In 1928, Port Costa produced 1 million to 1.25 million bricks per month. In 1958, production was 90,000 to 120,000 brick per day. The company employed 50-60.

A diesel-powered shovel loaded trucks with the clay shale at the quarry. The truck took the clay to the plant where it was fed into a dry grinding pan, mixed with a grog of broken brick, then sent over an 8-mesh screen. Coarse material that didn't fall through the screen was returned to the circuit. The material that passed through the screen was blended with Lincoln clay, then sent to the pugmill where it was mixed with water to make a stiff mud. The mix was de-aired, then extruded through a rectangular die onto a conveyor belt. The long ribbon of brown clay on the conveyor was fed into an automatic wire cutting machine that sliced the ribbon into blocks of eight brick. The cut blocks were then placed on kiln cars, which were sent through a series of tunnels. First the green brick went to a conditioning tunnel, where it was kept at a temperature of 70 to 90 degrees F. Then to the waste air drying tunnel, which was 95 to 150 degrees F. The final tunnel was the continuous gas-fired kiln, 265 feet long, that held 26 cars. Here the temperature reached 1840 degrees F, as measured by recording optical pyrometers. The bricks were in the dryer two days and in the firing kiln two and a half days. The kiln car would emerge with a load of fired red brick, ready for cooling. The brick was shipped to market by trucks. Port Costa bricks were shipped throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley.

Port Costa had an office at first in the Balboa Building and later at 808 Sharon Building in San Francisco. They also had a showroom and sales yard at 6th and Berry streets, San Francisco, where customers could view examples of all of their products, and an assortment of colors, textures, and patterns. The building itself was a brick English bungalow made of the various products from the Port Costa works, such as common, select reds, klinker, velour, and bronze face brick, promenade tile, and hollow wall tile. Jumbo and norman bricks were manufactured later.

Port Costa brick was used in many buildings around the San Francisco Bay area. Some of the buildings made of this brick included Frick School in Oakland, University of California Life Sciences building in Berkeley, Glidden factory in Berkeley, and the firehouse (now library) in Redwood City. Port Costa brick was commonly used on store fronts recognized by the distinctive norman brick. Good example of their norman brick can be seen in the brick gate at the entrance to their property east of Port Costa. About 1962, the Port Costa Brick Company ceased manufacturing bricks. The plant has since been refitted for the production of light-weight aggregate.


Views of the former property of the Port Costa Brick Company (left) and clay quarry (right). The brick plant was replaced by a light-weight aggregate plant when this was taken in 2002.


Port Costa Brick


Swett High School in Crockett is made of Port Costa brick.


Port Costa brick, showing typical flash pattern, on the wall of Swett High School in Crockett.



Port Costa brick, showing darker shades of color on the wall of Swett High School in Crockett.


Early common brick is orange, orange red, and dark red with visible dark gray clasts on the surface. Color is mottled, but probably due to the pinkish white flashing so commonly seen on these bricks. Overburns are brown to black. Smooth surface texture, often with crazing or deep cracks. No lip present. Straight edges and rounded corners. Hand-molded, water-struck, soft-mud process. Length 7 7/8 - 8 1/2, width 3 3/4 - 4, height 2 1/2 - 2 3/4.


Port Costa modern common brick showing typical wire-cut extruded form with short grooves and pits.


Modern common brick is orange-red to red, with visible dark gray clasts on the surface. Smooth to rough surface texture, often showing short transverse grooves or pits on the sides. No lip present. Straight edges and sharp corners. Extruded, stiff-mud process. Curved wire cut marks on short edges. Top and bottom faces have abundant pits. Length 7 7/8 - 8 1/2, width 3 3/4 - 4, height 2 1/2 - 2 3/4.


Port Costa norman brick, showing typical extruded wire-cut form with abundant short grooves and pits.


Norman brick is orange-red to red, with visible dark gray clasts on the surface. Smooth to rough surface texture, often showing short transverse or longitudinal grooves on the sides. No lip present. Straight edges and sharp corners. Extruded, stiff-mud process. Curved wire cut marks on short edges. Top and bottom faces have abundant pits. Length 11 3/8, width 3 1/2, height 2 1/8.

Source


Brick and Clay Record, July 31, 1905, p. 37.

California Division of Mines Report 17, 1920, p. 50-51.

California Division of Mines Report 54, No. 4, 1958, p. 513-514.

California Division of Mines Bulletin 99, 1928.

New Home of Port Costa Brick Works. Architect and Engineer, August 1929.

San Francisco City Directories, 1907-1962.

Copyright © 2004 Dan Mosier

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