
The first bricks made in California were adobe bricks for homes
and buildings by the early Spanish and Mexican settlers. These
bricks were made of mud and straw, shaped into large blocks by
wooden molds, and sun dried. Many adobe buildings are still standing
today, such as those found in many of the California missions and
adobe homes. The adobe bricks shown below were made in 1817
by Indian labor for Don Domingo Carrillo's home in Santa Barbara.

During the Spanish period and up to 1832, burned bricks were used
at Mission Dolores and the Presidio in San Francisco. Red-burning
clays suitable for brick were found in surficial deposits in valley
fill and flood plains of rivers and streams. The bricks were hand
molded and fired in field kilns using wood as fuel.
The first common brick was made in 1847 by George Zins at Sutterville,
Sacramento County, and by Mr. Tyler at San Diego, San Diego County. These
were shaped in wooden molds holding six bricks at a time. Zins fired over
40,000 brick that year and 100,000 the following year. 30,000 of these red
bricks went into the first brick house in California at Sutterville in 1847.
The remaining 10,000 was used by John Sutter in the construction of a large
oven at Sutters Fort. Sutter kept two of the bricks as mementoes in his
window. That made him the first brick collector in California!
Another brick house was built in 1847 by Gallant Duncan Dickenson and Amos Lawrie in Monterey. The bricks were fired in a kiln where the high school stands today. The amazing thing about this brick house is that it is still standing on Decatur St., and thus has been honored as being the "first brick house in California."
In the fall of 1848, Zins built his two-story brick house on a block
of land given to him by Sutter, bounded by M, N, Front, and Second streets,
Sacramento. Bricks were hauled from his kiln at Sutterville by ox
teams. Completed in early 1849, at a cost of $40,000, this was the
first brick house in Sacramento.
Up to 1854, bricks were made and fired right on or near the property of the
building project provided there was enough suitable clay. By 1854, Sacramento
had 500 brick buildings. Just within the city limits,
there were 30 brickyards containing 40 brick machines and capable of
producing more than 250,000 bricks per day. Some of the early brick
makers were Mr. Harnett, Samuel Carlisle, P.B. Cornwall, F. Burke,
Polk and Todd, Pettit and Queen, Fountain Brothers, and Callahan and Ryan.
In 1854, John Ryan produced brick for the Sacramento and San Francisco
markets from his brickyard at 13th and Y streets in Sacramento. This
was believed to be the first commercial brickyard in California. He employed
20 and produced 2,000,000 bricks per year.
In 1852 Capt. Jesse Hunter made the first bricks from his kiln
located at Broadway and 2nd streets in Los Angeles. These bricks
were used in the first brick building in Los Angeles at Main and
3rd streets.
Soon afterwards, individuals opened brickyards wherever there was a
local clay deposit and demand for buildings. Clay pits were dug by
shovels and scrapers. Throughout the 1850s and 1860s nearly every
California town boasted of building their first brick building.
Brick also became in greater demand after fires reduced wooden
buildings of whole towns to ashes.
In 1870, the Patent Brick Company began manufacturing pressed,
Roman, and fancy bricks near San Rafael, Marin County. This company
claimed to have the first Hoffman kiln built in the United States.
Most California brick manufacturers were using the Hoffman continuous
kilns and could make bricks within two days by baking in furnaces.
In 1878, even the convicts at San Quentin Prison were employed in
making bricks in their own brickyard, producing 6,500,000 that year.
In 1880, there were 50 brick manufacturers in the state, employing
850 men, and producing 63,400,000 common brick and 1,140,000 pressed
and fire brick. Because a large number of fire brick were imported as ballast
from countries such as England and Australia, there was little incentive
for the local manufacture of fire brick. The market for common brick was
far more lucrative for local brickmakers. In 1881, brick production
increased to over 120 million.
In the 1890s, the Gladding, McBean and Company, known for their
ornamental terra cotta, sewer pipe, and tile, began producing bricks
from their fire clay pits at Lincoln, Placer County. For over the next
60 years, they purchased and operated a number of major brick plants
around the state. One of the largest refractory brick plants in the
West was located at Pittsburg, Contra Costa County.
From 1902 to 1911, the Carnegie Brick and Pottery Company utilized
the fire clay from the Tesla coal mines to produce fire brick and
other types of brick and terra cotta products. The Tesla deposit
contained 42 varieties of clay, some of which were among the highest
grade clays in the state. But the underground workings proved too
expensive to sustain mining operations and the mine and plants closed
in 1911.
Other major brick manufacturers were the Los Angeles Pressed Brick
Company, Dickey Clay Manufacturing Company, Pacific Clay Products
Company, Los Angeles Brick Company, Port Costa Brick Company, Simons
Brick Company, Western Brick Company, Craycroft Brick Company,
Richmond Pressed Brick Company, Remillard Brick Company, McNear Brick
Company, and many others. From 1920 to 1980, many of the smaller brick
companies merged with the larger companies. From Los Angeles came the
Pacific Clay Products, Inc., which acquired the Pacific Sewer Pipe Company.
The Gladding, McBean & Company from Lincoln, California, acquired one
the largest brick companies in the west, the Los Angeles Pressed Brick
Company, and its Northern California affiliate, the Richmond Pressed
Brick Company. During this period we saw the closing of the Remillard,
Dickey, Simons, and many other brick plants when building bricks were
beginning to decline in the market place. This period also
saw increased use of reinforced concrete which had displaced bricks
in the building market.
From 1980 to 2000, the declining number of brick manufacturers included
Gladding, McBean Company, Pacific Clay Products, Western Brick Co. (Harbison-Walker),
Port Costa, Craycroft, Muddox, Higgins, and others as refractory
and ornamental bricks continued to be in demand. Among them is the oldest
brick plant in California, the McNear Brick Company on the shores of Marin County
which has been in operation since 1868.
References:
Bancroft, H.H. "History of California, vol. VII, 1860-1890." The History Company, San Francisco, CA, 1890.
California Department of Parks and Recreation. "Historic Monterey Path of History Walking Tour." Sequoia Communications, Santa Barbara, CA, 1989.
Dietrich, Waldemar Fenn. "The Clay Resources and the Ceramic Industry of California." California Division of Mines and Geology Bulletin 99, 1928.
Gurcke, Karl. "Bricks and Brickmaking." University of Idaho Press, Moscow, ID, 1987.
Mosier, Dan L. and Williams, Earle E. "History of Tesla, A California Coal Mining Town." Mines Road Books, Fremont, CA, 1998.
Turner, Mort D. "Clay and the Ceramic Industry of the San Francisco Bay Counties." California Division of Mines and Geology Bulletin 154, "Geologic Guidebook of the San Francisco Bay Counties," 1951.
Wright, George F., editor. "History of Sacramento County, California." Oakland, CA: Thompson and West, 1880.
Copyright © 2003 Dan L. Mosier
Comments or questions are welcomed.
Please send email to Dan Mosier at danmosier@earthlink.net.