CALIFORNIA BRICKS

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.